Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 485

Chapter 485: The Other Side

Eve

Ellen was sobbing now, her whole body shaking. "I killed people, Evie. So many people. I shot that maid and I didn’t even blink. I tortured prisoners. I hunted down Eclipse members and watched James cut them down. I did all of it with a smile because the Mark made me enjoy it and I—I can’t—I can’t live with what I did—"

She didn’t smile during the execution, when she had killed Thea’s sister. She looked lost. "Then don’t," I said quietly.

She looked up at me, confused and terrified.

"Don’t live with what the Mark made you do," I clarified. "Live with what you choose to do now. With whom you choose to be moving forward." I said despite the bitterness and anger being a ugly knot in my chest.

"You don’t understand," Ellen said, her voice desperate, gaining momentum now like a dam breaking. "It wasn’t just the Mark controlling me. After a while, even the Mark made me go numb. I started to see things clearly. I realized—" She stopped, her remaining hand trembling. "My biggest mistake. The one I made when I was eight."

I waited, my heart pounding.

"The pack," Ellen whispered. "The prophecy said you would bring ruination and darkness to your pack. I always thought it meant Silverpine." She looked at me, her eyes wild with realization. "But it was the pack Darius was going to build from the bones and blood of all the packs. Both Obsidian and Silverpine. Every territory he conquered. Every wolf he subjugated. The pack he’s creating right now—that’s the pack the prophecy warned about. That’s the pack you were always meant to destroy."

My breath caught even Hades had said something of that sort when he first returned. But hearing it from her directly, someone who has been on his side for a time, whether willingly or unwillingly for a time, hit harder than I had anticipated.

"And Darius knew," Ellen continued, her voice rising with urgency, words tumbling faster now. "He knew that your very existence threatened everything he was building. But he couldn’t kill you. He needed you. You’re immune to the Bloodmoon, Evie. That’s why he kept you alive even though he was terrified of you."

"What?" I breathed.

"He harvested you for years," Ellen said, and now she was speaking rapidly, desperately, like if she didn’t get it all out now she never would. "The torture, the wolfsbane, keeping you hollow and broken—it wasn’t just to punish you. He was forcing adrenaline through your system, your body always fighting to keep you alive and whole putting you through hell to create the purest form of the marker that makes you immune to the Bloodmoon. Your blood, your suffering—that’s what he used to make the serum for his gammas."

I felt sick, bile burnt at the back of my throat.

"That’s why he kept you in that cell," Ellen pressed on, her voice cracking. "You weren’t just a prisoner. You were a resource. And when Hades declared war before Father’s plan was ready, when everything started falling apart—Father panicked. He still needed me to wield the Bloodmoon, and you were already used up, wolfless, traumatized. So when Hades asked for you in return for a treaty, he threw you to the wolves. Literally."

She laughed, a broken, horrible sound.

"He married you off to Hades thinking it was your death sentence. The Alpha of Lycans, our mortal enemy. He thought you’d try to kill Hades and he’d kill you. Or you’d kill yourself in Hades’s hands. Either way, problem solved. You’d be dead and he could move forward after giving Hades what he wanted."

My hands were shaking.

"But Father had no idea," Ellen said, and now there was something almost manic in her eyes. "He had no idea that Hades didn’t want you dead. That you two were fated mates. That somehow, against every odd, you’d survive. That you’d get stronger. That after pumping you full of wolfbane, that you would find your wolf."

"And Felicia, what was her role?" I whispered, pieces clicking together.

"Yes!" Ellen’s voice pitched higher. "Felicia told them everything. Told Father and James it was turning into a love story. That you were getting stronger, that Obsidian was protecting you, that you weren’t broken anymore. And Father lost his mind. This wasn’t supposed to happen. You were supposed to die."

She was breathing hard now, her face flushed.

"So when your handmaid died," she continued, words spilling out faster.

"Jules," I whispered, her name still a knife in my chest.

"Yes, Felicia called her Jules. And Jules died, it created an opening when you were vulnerable and grieving. And then he came as a hero to ’rescue’ you—but really to take you back before you were fully out of his control. Before the bond made you too strong to recapture. But you sided fully with Hades. That was never supposed to happen."

I could remember their desperation. How me getting close to the full prophecy had made them panic.

"It was all timed perfectly," Ellen said, and I could see her getting more agitated, her remaining hand gesturing wildly. "And the chip—oh gods, the chip. James led you to it in the restaurant bathroom. It was planted, Evie. Planted to make Hades think you were still working for Silverpine. To create suspicion, friction. Felicia helped James get into Obsidian to fake all the evidence—"

"The kidnapping," I said numbly.

"Yes! They made it look like you orchestrated the little royal’s kidnapping. What was his name again?" She tried to recall.

So I answered for her. "Elliot?"

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify