Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 303

Eve

It was as though the whole room held its breath. So did I...

I waited as the colour drained from their faces, as they seemed to freeze in time, their gazes slowly falling on Cain beside me.

Surprisingly, it was Kael who spoke up first. He sounded like the air had been pushed out of his lungs.

"What did you fucking do?"

The aggression was there but diluted by astonishment.

"What did you fucking tell her?"

"Kael..." I stood, trying to shut down the confrontation, but he didn't even glance in my direction.

"What the hell is your game?" he growled.

"You're trying to manipulate her? Because she's vulnerable..." His voice rose, but I'd had enough.

"Enough," I snapped, my voice echoing.

Kael finally looked in my direction.

"But Eve... you don't know what you're saying," he said.

"I'm touched by your concern, but it's unwarranted. I know what I want. I know what I have to do if I want to see this fiasco through."

His mouth opened, then closed, like he wasn't sure what he wanted to say. His face fell, and my heart ached. He was still sweet. But telling him what had happened would destroy whatever loyalty he had left in Hades.

Hades' actions had wrecked me—but they weren't his alone. He would need someone by his side, and that could only be Kael. I doubted anyone else was as loyal as the green-eyed, witty Beta.

"I doubt you know what you're invoking," Silas finally found his tongue, his groomed brows disappearing into his hairline.

"This is no political stunt," he finished, his voice sharp but laced with disbelief.

"This is ancient blood magic, Lady Eve. Not some bargaining chip you toss on the table to look formidable."

I tilted my head slightly. "Is that what you think I'm doing?"

His eyes narrowed. "That Rite was buried for a reason. It doesn't bind wolves—it chains them."

Cain chuckled lowly beside me—dry, humorless.

"And yet, it's the only thing that ever worked."

Gallinti stood now, arms stiff at his sides.

"This is insanity. You want to curse us all into a pact of fear? Tie our fate to traitors? To each other? We barely trust our own shadows, and you want us to swear our bloodlines into damnation? You forget that only one Alpha of the four who partook in the ritual survived. Only Theron Stravos survived. Or have you not caught up on our history as you claim?"

I swallowed. Only one out of four Alphas survived.

"Lycans still won against the Valmonts back then only because of that same Rite. Instead of tearing each other apart, they tore through the enemy," Cain finished coolly, eyes like chips of winter steel.

"Theron Stravos didn't survive because he was lucky. He survived because he understood one truth: loyalty enforced by consequence is still loyalty. And of course, because Valen Gravemont was enough of a greedy dick to try and get rid of his only competition—only to wind up a mass of bloody pulp on Obsidian stone and curse three of his generations in the process. Whose bloody fault was that?"

Silence engulfed the room.

I glanced around the table. The tension only thickened with the stillness.

Kael was as pale as paper, tugging at his tie, trying to get a gulp of air.

Silas and Gallinti looked about ready to rip out their own hair.

Montegue had his hands steepled in front of him, deep in thought.

Finally, my gaze fell on Hades.

My chest constricted as my eyes met his from across the round table. His intense stare turned my insides to mush. His arched, dark brows were slashed upward in a furious line.

One eye—the stormy grey—didn't instill fear in me. But the other, blackened and corrupted just the night before, twitched wildly now, the iris dilating and constricting within its confines.

A gasp tore from me at the sight, and instantly, the rogue eye stilled—as if something within had realized it was being watched.