Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 423

Chapter 423: From The Skies

Hades

The sky was starless.

Not dim. Not clouded. Just blank. A hollow lid over a world on edge.

I flew due east, wings slicing the wind clean. Kael clung to me, silent, his gloved hands firm at the base of my neck out of habit.

If that was what he was going to my neck, I could not dare image how he would handle my horn.

Below us, the cities had gone dark, streetlights blinking in strange patterns, rooftops dimmed, intersections deserted.

Obsidian was locking down.

But it wasn’t a curfew.

It was a hunt.

We dipped lower. The wind sharpened against my ears like it was being pulled too tight.

Kael suddenly tapped on my hide. I twisted my elongated neck to him and he gestured with his chin to look below.

My head tilted downward.

In the woods we’d just left behind, movement surged—too uniform to be wildlife. Too many to be hikers.

My eyes narrowed, tuning in every detail as I slowed even more. My sharpened sighed caught the movement, magnified as I thought I were on their level.

Dozens of shadows moved like liquid through the trees. Black-suited Gammas, sweeping east as we glided west in brutal, disciplined lines.

Kael didn’t say it, but I felt the tension in his grip.

"They’re combing the forest," he finally muttered, over the wind that we rode, yet my rewired earing caught every word.

"Great thing we took off while we did. I can imagine they would have heart me shifting a mile away," I returned.

"Not to talk of those leather batty wings. We might as well turn on a siren." He chuckled, though his grip tightened.

We broke through a cloudbank, mist curling in my wake. Below, the city stretched like a grid of ash and concrete. Empty streets. No music. No civilians. Just stillness that felt too careful.

"Lockdown protocol," Kael murmured, tapping something into his wrist communicator. "Grade theta, it full on.

"They’re preparing for war," I said. "Just not the kind they’re willing to admit to the civilains."

We passed over the western quarters. Even from this height, I could see them—rooftop patrols, uniformed shadows with weapons drawn. But theyr were all looking down, waiting for the sneaking wolves that would never appear. A watch Tower glared up from the center like an eye. Its floodlights swept the streets in pale, circular motions.

We were too high for them to catch and if not for my keen sight, they would have been harder to detect.

Then I saw movement.

Kael followed the shift of my neck to it.

Small. Uneven. Not military. This was too small and uncoordinated. Desperate.

A woman.

She stumbled from between two boarded buildings, no coat, just a tattered robe and broken sandals. My eyes zeroed in on her limp, to find one foot was metal. She was an amputee.

Her steps were frantic but slow, like she was too cold to run. She looked over her shoulder twice before stepping out. A patrol caught her instantly.

My stomach churned, skin prickling.

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