Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 241

Hades

"Keep an eye on her. I want her every move monitored," I ordered the security personnel watching Eve from the surveillance room. "Every step must be documented. And absolutely no escape." Just in case.

My phone rang again. I answered.

"Hades..." Amelia's voice reached my ears. "I just arrived. I'm on my way to Eve. Are you sure everything is alright? You sound... strange."

It was no surprise that she was suspicious. She was the type to pick up on all these kinds of things.

"I have never asked you for a favour in my life, have I?" My voice sounded grave even to me.

I heard her swallow over the phone before she replied carefully. "Not that I remember, no."

"Today will be the exception."

"Hades... you are worrying me." Her voice did not reflect that of the therapist she was, but I continued.

I let her calm down, waited until she was able to find her tongue again.

"Tell me, Hades, what do you want?"

"In the bathroom, there's a case," I started.

I could literally hear her heart rate go up, but she said nothing and let me continue.

"Inside is a dose of Nerexylin," I informed her. My own words made bile rise in my throat. Just how much power did I let her have over me for it to come to this?

I still hoped and prayed that I was wrong, but if the results said otherwise...

I would need a game plan.

And this was it.

"Continue," she urged.

"When I give the signal, I want you to administer it to her without her knowing."

"You want me to inject your wife with a psychological poison that could cripple her again?"

"She is not my wife," I replied coldly. The knife in my heart twisted so painfully that I almost halted in my tracks. "Any normal sedative or tranquilizer might not be effective enough on her," I told her, recalling how she had single-handedly slaughtered those ferals and the carnage she had left behind—or the scene after my family's massacre. "She is not to be underestimated. But she trusts you, so you can get close enough to her without her shifting."

The silence was deafening.

"What are you doing?" I could feel her brace for my answer.

"What I should have done a long time ago." But I had been busy falling in love with her.

I cut the call before she could speak anymore.

I stepped into the office, the heat that greeted me was an inferno.

All the Montegues were seated, but stood up as I entered.

Lucinda Montegue was the first to speak. "Your Majesty," she greeted. "Long time."

"Good morning, Lucinda." I took in her appearance. She was a vision of calm—or at least she tried to be—but I could smell the anxiety and anticipation from where I stood in front of them.

Kael took his place behind me, saying nothing as more uncomfortable silence reigned.

The family watched me, eyes and stance alert as though they were braced for me to pounce at any moment.

I had always believed that when the time came for the beast to be discovered and incarcerated, a weight would be lifted off my shoulders. I would be able to breathe again. But fate, being the cruel bitch she is, did not make that a reality.

Instead, I was left feeling like I was hanging off a precipice and falling to my death was imminent.

With a single test...

Three months of an unlikely love and everything we thought we knew unraveled like ash in the wind.

"So... the blood test..." Felicia spoke up, her voice slightly high.

Before I could speak, Montegue cut in. "The test will take place at the greenhouse."

My heart sputtered to an almost complete stop as I tried—and failed—to hide my reaction.

Montegue raised a brow. "Is something the matter, Your Highness?" he asked.

I crossed my arms. "No, why would there be?"

I was already coming to realize that I had failed Danielle not only before her death but after.

And now, the test that would determine what the truth was would take place where she was being preserved.

Goosebumps rose on my skin. I crossed my arms tighter to chase away the chill.

"I have the princess' blood sample ready," I announced. Then I turned to Felicia. "But first, I want to hear it all from the horse's mouth—how the princess became a suspect."

"Gladly," she replied. "I was the only survivor. I saw the beast with my own eyes."

"How come it took you three months to realize? You couldn't detect the beast's aura?"

"I couldn't. At least not until she went berserk on me," she replied. "Her eyes, that growl—it just clicked."

I recalled her tangible fright from that evening, and my stomach sank. "So you believe that it was her based on just those things?"