Hades' Cursed Luna

Hades

Kael still didn't eat, I thought as I took off into the sky, my wings capturing wind and propelling us higher with each flap. Not even a bite, he refused. Half a year ago, I would have force-fed him. But he would report me to Eve.

That was what he threatened me with.

So I let him be.

Thea held her brother to herself, and Kael held her to himself. I curved my lengthened spine to ensure they were secure against my back, feeling the familiar weight of passengers who depended on me to get them safely across enemy territory.

The wind cut sharp against my face as we climbed higher, the ground falling away beneath us.

In he vast emptiness of the night sky, we were ghosts.

I had to keep it that way for our safety as we would cut diagonally through the capital itself. Where the Lunar Heights were--it was the last place on the planet that we wanted to get caught. We might as well deliver ourselves with a pink bow and a card.

We needed to be higher to get through the city if were to stay unseen.

"Buckle up," that was all the warning I gave, Kael instantly gripping my torso with his legs, and holding on tighter to the rest of our passengers.

I pushed us higher, my wings beating harder against the thinning air. The temperature plummeted as we climbed, each wingbeat requiring more effort as the atmosphere grew sparse. My core temperature began to drop, and a wave of lightheadedness washed over me. I shook my head sharply, forcing myself to stay alert—one moment of weakness at this altitude could kill us all.

The air became so thin that my wings struggled to find purchase, each stroke feeling less effective than the last. My muscles burned with the extra effort required to keep us aloft, and I found myself suddenly grateful that Kael had refused to eat. Every ounce of weight mattered up here where the air barely existed.

Behind me, Thea let out a sharp yelp as the bitter cold hit her, but she caught herself quickly. Her teeth chattered violently as she tried to speak through the freezing air.

"T-there," she managed, her voice barely audible over the wind. "See the c-clearing ahead? The city should be j-just beyond that ridge."

I squinted through the darkness, following her trembling finger. The landscape below us looked exactly as she'd described—endless forest stretching in all directions, unmarked and seemingly uninhabited. I remembered the way the hidden city had been drawn on her father's map, sketched outside the margins like it was uncharted, unrecorded, existing in the spaces between reality.

My vision wavered slightly from the altitude and cold, but I forced myself to focus. One wrong move, one moment of weakness, and we'd plummet straight into the heart of enemy territory.

The thin air made each breath a struggle, but I kept my wings steady, carrying us through the frozen darkness toward home.

The descent should have been easier, but as we dropped toward the warmer air below, the sudden change hit me like a physical blow. My lungs, starved for oxygen at the higher altitude, suddenly flooded with the dense, warm air. The shock of it made my head spin violently.

My vision went white at the edges.

For a terrifying moment, my wings faltered completely. We began to plummet, the wind rushing past us as gravity claimed what little control I had left. Thea's scream cut through the air, sharp and panicked, while Kael's grip on my torso tightened to the point of pain.

*Focus.*

I forced my wings to spread wide, catching the air in a desperate glide just as my vision began to clear. My chest heaved as I fought to stabilize us, each breath feeling like I was drowning in the thick atmosphere after the thin air above. My heart hammered against my ribs so hard I was sure Kael could feel it through my back.

We leveled out, but barely. I was panting now, my chest expanding and contracting like a bellows about to give out. Every muscle in my body felt like it was on the verge of collapse.

"Hades," Kael's voice was tight with concern, his breath warm against my ear. "Do you want to land? Rest for a moment?"

"No." The word came out sharper than I intended, between ragged breaths. We couldn't afford to stop. Not here. Not when we were this close.

Kael's voice took on an urgent edge. "Thea, do you have any idea when we'll get there?"

Her response carried a bite of frustration, but I could hear the fear underneath. "I've never actually been there myself, Kael. I'm going off my father's maps and what little he told me."

"You have got to be kidding me," he growled even his hand on her waist, still securing her to me.

I was making things harder than they needed to be.

I blinked hard, trying to clear the lingering dizziness from my vision as I scanned the endless canopy below. Nothing but trees stretched in every direction, dark and impenetrable.

Then I blinked again.

For just an instant, a brilliant city blazed to life beneath us—towers of light piercing the darkness, streets glowing like veins of silver. The hidden city in all their impossible insidious glory.

Another blink, and it was gone.

Nothing but forest again, as if I'd imagined the entire thing. "I think I see something," I muttered, unsure

"Wait—what do you see?" Kael's voice sharpened with surprise at my sudden certainty.

I forced myself to focus, fighting through the exhaustion and dizziness. This time, when I blinked, the vision held longer. The city materialized below us in all its impossible splendor—a sprawling metropolis that seemed to be carved from light itself. Every surface gleamed like it was made of gold and gossamer, catching and reflecting illumination that had no visible source.

The buildings rose in perfect symmetry, their architecture both ancient and impossibly modern. Spires twisted skyward like frozen flames, connected by bridges that looked too delicate to bear any weight yet somehow supported the gentle flow of what might have been traffic or people moving between structures.

At the city's heart stood a tower that made my breath catch. Not as tall as the Lunar Heights, but breathtaking in its own right—a spiraling monument that seemed to pulse with its own inner light, its surface shifting between gold and silver like liquid metal.

"Can you see it?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

"See what?" Thea leaned forward, squinting into the darkness. "I don't see anything but trees."

"Nothing," Kael confirmed, tension creeping into his voice. "Hades, what are you looking at?"

They couldn't see through the illusion. Of course they couldn't—I was the only one among us with the blood that might pierce such ancient magic. Like I had pierced through the Cauterium security with my howl.

He was using the horn to keep up the illusion too, it made sense that I could see through it.

The city seemed to slumber beneath us. I could make out movement within the uniform luxury houses, shadows passing behind gossamer walls, but the streets themselves were eerily empty. As we flew closer to the central tower, my enhanced vision picked out details that made my stomach clench with unease.

Stone statues dotted the plaza before the tower—dozens of them, frozen in different poses. But these weren't monuments to heroes or gods. Each figure was carved with expressions of pure terror, their faces twisted in horror, hands raised as if trying to ward off some unspeakable fate.

"Go diagonal through the city," Thea instructed, her voice steady despite not being able to see our destination. "That should get us to Obsidian territory on the other side."

I locked onto the path she described, angling my flight to cut across the golden metropolis. My eyes remained fixed on those terrible statues as we approached—

One of them moved.

My heart stopped completely. For a moment that stretched into eternity, I forgot to breathe, forgot to fly, forgot everything except the impossible sight of stone coming to life in the plaza below.

My wings locked in position, carrying us forward on momentum alone as I stared down at the impossible sight. What I had taken for stone wasn't stone at all—it was a figure so perfectly still it might as well have been carved from marble. But now it unfolded itself from its frozen pose, revealing a tall, slender form draped in elegant black clothing that seemed to absorb the golden light around it.

The creature moved with fluid grace, each gesture deliberate and predatory. It didn't walk—it glided across the plaza with movements too smooth for anything mortal. And then, as if sensing my gaze from this impossible altitude, it slowly raised its head.

Even from thousands of feet above, its eyes found mine with unerring precision.

My breath caught in my throat. The face that looked up at me was achingly familiar—sharp cheekbones, pale skin that seemed to glow with its own inner light, features that belonged in classical paintings of fallen angels. A face I had seen before, though I couldn't place where or when.

Then its lips parted.

Even at this distance, even through the darkness and the golden haze of the hidden city's illusion, I could see them clearly: fangs. Long, curved, gleaming white as bone in the ethereal light.

Vampire.

The word hit my mind like a physical blow. My wings faltered for just an instant before instinct kicked in and I forced them back into their steady rhythm. But my heart was racing now, not from exhaustion but from pure, primal fear.

The creature below continued to watch us, its head tilted at an unnatural angle, tracking our flight path with the patience of a predator that had all the time in the world.

It knew I could see it.

I could see throught the illusion.