Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 427

Chapter 427: Two More

Hades

It was so out of left field that I froze, and so did Kael—but still he shrugged, turned. "Feeding us gossip. How original."

She grew desperate, perhaps believing we didn’t care—that was because she wasn’t aware of our identity. "You want to get to Obsidian Pack?" she asked. "I doubt you crossed border on your way in."

Kael crossed his arms, raising a brow. "Reason?"

"You simply can’t," she said flatly. "If it’s not the war side, every other part is guarded heavier than you can imagine. And that was before they started hunting for Lycans inside the border. Now? Triple the surveillance. Flying won’t help you. They’ll shoot you out of the sky."

Kael’s jaw tightened. "We can manage. And even if we couldn’t—I don’t trust you."

Her grip on the boy shifted, but her stare didn’t waver. "I’ve seen it. That was where my parents were killed."

Both Kael and I raised a brow.

"You said your parents died because they were conscripted," Kael pressed.

Her lips thinned. "That was the simplified story. They survived conscription. But after they left the front, they knew what was coming. Survivors like them didn’t last long. The ones who showed promise were forced into Darius’s main army. If they refused, they—and their families—vanished. Taken to Cauterium." Her voice caught, but she forced it steady. "So we ran. And they were gunned down for it."

I believed her. Maera had told me the same—Gammas who lived long enough to prove their strength rarely walked free. Darius consumed them or erased them.

"Then how are you still alive?" I asked. "I doubt Darius had mercy."

She scoffed. "Mercy? Darius has no such sentiment. He spared us because of my older sister."

My chest tightened. "Why?"

Her eyes darkened, something fractured lingering there. "Because she resembled Eve Valmont. He executed her in Eve’s place... and let us walk."

The world rocked beneath us, her words sucking the air from our lungs. Still, we somehow managed not to react outwardly.

Her expression fell, realizing she was losing us. "I have proof," she blurted, reaching into her blouse and retrieving a picture. "Lily looked like Eve." She offered it to Kael, who accepted it. I angled my neck so I could see.

It was the image of a family: father, mother, a little boy, and two girls.

My eyes widened as they zeroed in on the taller daughter. Blonde hair, but her face... the same slightly angled features tempered with softness. Her eyes were blue, but other than the hair and eyes she was Eve’s doppelgänger. A little dye, a pair of contacts—and she could have passed for a third Valmont daughter.

Her hand trembled as she held the photo out. "Do you believe me now?"

Kael studied it, jaw set. I could tell by the furrow in his brow that he believed enough to be unsettled.

It clicked. The distance between the school and where we’d found her wasn’t a coincidence. She’d chased him across half the district, risking curfew and patrols, because she knew what would happen if he was caught.

And for the first time, I understood the fear that had driven her every step.

I would have done the same. Worse.

Kael’s eyes met mine, a silent conversation. The inclination to help was there—but the stakes were high enough with just the two of us, let alone adding another and a child.

"We’ll have to leave this place before the patrol rotation," she urged. "Even if you don’t take us. You have to keep going now. But please—pass the—"

"You can come," I cut her off.

She was so stunned all she did was stand there as Kael grabbed the kid and tossed him easily on top of me before climbing up behind them.

"To the skies," Kael prompted, like I was some flying mule.

"I hope your Alpha will be lenient for bringing werewolves over—"

But she yelped as I launched myself into the air and straight into the clouds. We had to pass over Halem before morning.