Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 323

Chapter 323: Manipulated Flesh

Eve

The hallways of the Obsidian Tower were dim and quiet, too quiet for what trembled in my arms.

Elliot didn’t move.

He hadn’t spoken, hadn’t even blinked since I pulled him into my arms and told him we were going somewhere safe. His body was stiff, unnaturally still, like he was bracing for impact that hadn’t come yet—or one he knew was coming. _{ƒreewebɳovel.com}

Kael walked ahead of us, silent. Tense.

He didn’t look back, but I could see the flex of his jaw, the way his fingers curled at his sides with every step. He was angry. Not at Elliot. Not at me. At everything.

I understood.

I was angry too.

The elevator hissed open as we reached the lower sectors. Not the cells. Not the armories. But deeper still—beneath the heart of the tower, where the walls breathed softly with warmth and the scent of sterile herbs hung in the air.

The Delta Wing.

Where healing began. And sometimes... where the broken were remade.

Kael stepped aside, finally meeting my eyes. "They’re waiting," he said quietly.

I nodded once and shifted Elliot in my arms.

He didn’t resist.

Didn’t cling.

Just... allowed it. Like he always did.

Like he’d learned resistance meant pain.

My throat burned.

We stepped past the sigiled threshold, and immediately, warmth embraced us. This part of the tower was different—lit by soft, golden light that glowed from within the walls. No harsh stones. No iron bars. No reminders of cruelty.

A few Delta healers lifted their heads as we entered. No one spoke.

They saw him.

They knew.

Kael said something low to a robed woman near the center chamber. She bowed her head and gestured us through a corridor veiled in trailing vines of bioluminescent ivy—grown not for beauty, but for calm. For comfort.

I stepped inside.

The room was quiet. Circular. One wall was carved entirely from translucent quartz that hummed gently with stabilizing energy. A cot rested near its center. Smooth stones circled the base like a protective ward.

"This is where he’ll be examined," Kael said from the doorway. "Gently. No force. No triggers."

I looked down.

Elliot’s hands were curled in his lap now, his fingers twitching faintly.

I crouched and laid him down on the cot, brushing a hand over his cheek.

He didn’t flinch.

But he didn’t look at me either.

His eyes were on the quartz wall—glassy, unreadable.

"I’m here," I whispered, leaning in. "I promise you. Nothing will happen unless you want it to. Do you understand?"

His throat moved. A slow swallow. Then, a nod. Barely there.

Kael stepped in again, voice softer now. "The Deltas will check the scarring around his vocal cords. Just to confirm what we suspect."

I turned to him slowly. "You mean what she did."

Kael’s jaw ticked. His eyes didn’t waver.

"Yes."

A silence stretched between us—thick, hot, bitter.

I looked down at Elliot again, watching the way his chest barely rose with each breath. "Why didn’t anyone check before?" I asked, voice like glass grinding underfoot. "Why didn’t anyone see it?"

Kael exhaled sharply through his nose. "Because we trusted her."

He didn’t hide the disgust in his voice.

"Because the trauma made sense. Because he never screamed, never whimpered. He just... existed in that silence. And we thought he chose it. We thought it was the only thing he could control."

I closed my eyes for a beat.

"And Felicia played into it," I said hollowly.

"She reinforced it," Kael muttered. "She kept records. Brought in speech therapists. Dismissed them all when they suggested it might be psychological mutism. Said she didn’t want to ’pressure him.’"

His voice cracked with something dark—remorse, fury, guilt.

"I should’ve known. I should’ve—"

"Kael," I said quietly, "this wasn’t your fault."

He looked away.

I turned to the Delta healer as she stepped forward—robes soft and gliding, face unreadable beneath her calm professionalism. Her eyes drifted over Elliot with the kind of care that made something in me loosen, then tighten again.

"I need you to look at his throat," I said. "His vocal cords. Felicia admitted she tampered with them."

That got her attention.

She blinked once. "Tampered how?"

"She said she didn’t cut him," I said, my voice thin. "She didn’t sever anything. She moved the muscles. Rewired them. Just enough to silence him."

The Delta’s face shifted, barely.

"I know it sounds insane," I added quickly. "But she said she wanted to make sure he couldn’t expose her. That he couldn’t repeat what he heard. What he remembered."

The Delta stepped closer, scanning Elliot’s face gently before brushing her fingers against his throat. Her touch was light, reverent, like she was asking permission from the body before continuing.