Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 415

Chapter 415: Flight

Hades

The ground fell away beneath me.

The first few beats of my wings were violent, each downstroke a thunderous clap that rattled loose stones, tugged at clothes. Air surged under me like a living thing, fighting and yielding in the same breath. My body strained against gravity, every muscle burning, but then—suddenly, impossibly—it gave.

We rose.

Unsteadily at first, my legs still reaching for the familiarity of the dirt.

I gritted my teeth, pushing back the instinct to stay close to the ground and letting the air beneath my wings carry me. My chest constricted momentarily, the cavity suddenly too tight from my hammering heart.

The village shrank below, a patchwork of pale faces and flickering light. Gasps followed, fading with the ground itself, until there was only the roar of the wind, the whip of my wings, and Kael’s grip tight against my shoulders.

He laughed. Gods, he actually laughed. It burst raw out of him, half-disbelieving, half-elated, the sound scattering into the night like a broken hymn. "Hades—do you feel this?" His voice carried in the rushing air, wide-eyed wonder cracking every word.

I did.

The wind screamed against my ears, sharp and cold as it carved across my skin. The pull of the earth slackened, replaced by the wild, trembling freedom of weightlessness. Each beat of my wings shook the night, and the stars seemed to bend closer, as if they, too, were startled to see me among them.

Kael leaned forward, hair thrashing in the gale. His hand pressed more firmly to the back of my neck as though he could anchor himself in the impossible. "You’re flying," he breathed, reverent, his voice stolen half by the wind.

The horizon unfurled—an endless expanse of black forest broken only by the silver veins of rivers glimmering under moonlight. Every scent rushed sharper, every sound clearer, as if the air itself was showing me secrets it never trusted the earth with.

Beyond it were cities, lights from buildings illuminating the way. I knew to avoid flying directly overhead, since the last thing we needed was attention from civilians who might notice something strange in the skies.

I tilted, testing the pull, and Kael swore behind me, clutching tighter. His laughter pitched into a startled shout. "Warn me before you do that!" But his voice shook with exhilaration, not fear. He was clinging for his life, yet his eyes shone like a boy at a festival.

I banked again, slower this time, and the world rolled beneath us. Mountains rose dark and jagged on the horizon, their crowns kissed with mist. Wolves might run the forests, but this realm—this endless sweep of open air—was mine.

Kael’s breath was warm against my ear. "I thought it would be grotesque," he admitted, softer now, words almost carried away. "Ugly. Wrong. But..." He looked out over the vast night, the moon catching in his wide green eyes. "...it’s beautiful. You’re beautiful like this. Maybe being a hybrid was always meant to be."

The words cleaved through my nonexistent heart sharper than the cold wind.

And as the air cradled me, as the stars swam closer, as Kael held fast to me in awe—I realized this wasn’t only survival. This was power. Novelty. Liberation.

I had become something more than monster.

I had become sky.

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Eve

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