Unedited.

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It was hard to label what I had just witnessed.

Was it the Marquis' first encounter with his sacrifice or was it the first time the Marquis himself became the sacrifice?

I had questioned myself in the past; I had questioned their uncanny resemblance but I always ended up thinking that it was Erebus' body, Erebus' face that I was looking at and Marchosias being a demon was hiding his true form from me.

That's when I remembered. I couldn't find any picture of Erebus in the books and albums I went through in the first three months after his awakening inside me.

"You never allowed them to capture your pictures."

My lips said on their own accord. He didn't answer. I couldn't see him, but I knew he was listening.

"Because demons don't leave their traces behind."

As I recalled that time, another fragment of my own memory knocked on the windows of my minds.

Big hands gripping the end of a cloth, trying to wrap it around a slim waistline. As they finished this task, his slender fingers lifted up to pass a hand through his wet raven locks. He soon made eye contact with the mirror, passing what I had presumed to be a smile but now that I looked closely, I realized it wasn't actually a smile. He was smirking just before the cloth wrapped around his waist came loose.

That time, Marchosias hadn't shown me an image of Erebus. It was his image, probably from his days in hell. It was him.

I had been looking at him all along.

On one side, Marchosias was trapped on earth, his existence forgotten for years. People called him Erebus. It was Erebus that was our king not Marchosias. No one even knew that a demon was residing inside our ruler. On the other hand, Erebus didn't even have his own identity. He had Marchosias' face and was dependent on him for his survival.

It was a coexistence doomed from the start.

Before I could dwell on this any longer, the colors filling my surroundings mixed into each other to create a new scene.

"No! I asked Marco to save Erebus not stay with him! He has to stay with me!"

A high pitched voice was screaming.

"No... no..."

I blinked as I saw little Amaya and Erebus back inside her apartment. She was covering her ears while tears continued streaming down her face. She shook her head from side to side in a weak attempt to deny her reality.

"Calm down, Amaya."

It was Erebus speaking but the composed tone and mannerism made it clear that it wasn't a child talking. It was the marquis of hell.

"You said yesterday that Marco would come back. You said he had gone to take care of the bad guys. Where's Marco? I want Marco."

The little kid could barely part her heavily swollen lids.

"I am Marchosias."

"No! You're not! You're Erebus!"

I watched as Marchosias, trapped in Erebus' body, walked swiftly to reach Amaya, gripped her shoulders and made her face him as he said,

"Look at me! Do you see Erebus? Did Erebus look like this before?"

Hearing this, Amaya's eyes turned wide as she stopped struggling in Marchosias' arms,

"It's me. I'm Marchosias."

I couldn't see Marchosias' expressions as I was standing behind him but his tone was enough to portray that he had a very frustrated look on his face at that moment.

Amaya, on the other hand, clenched her eyes shut for a few seconds while she absorbed Erebus' words before lifting her lashes again. A pained look crossed her eyes as she took a good look at Erebus' new face. The longer she stared at him, the more her eyes become watery. Soon her eyebrows scrunched, her lips quivering as she jumped into Marchosias' arms. The moment her lips made contact with his shoulder, a tiny sob escaped from the back of her throat making Marchosias tighten his hold on her.

"I'm sorry, Marco. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Marchosias didn't say anything for a long time. He just stroked the top of Amaya's head with his small bony hands trying to comfort her silently.

"If I ask you to come out, will you?"

Marchosias' hands stopped their movement as he contemplated his reply for a second,

"Yes, but then your friend will die just like nana did."

My eyebrows furrowed as I realized what Marchosias had done.

He had let go of the perfect chance to fool the little girl. He could've said yes. He could've made Amaya command him to leave Erebus' body. That way he would be free and his side of contract would've been fulfilled as well.

But he didn't.

He told her the complete truth. He didn't hide anything from her because he didn't want to leave her alone with another dead body.

He had started caring about her.

As I circled around to take a clearer look at Erebus' face, I saw a torn expression settled on his face. He was worried; He was angry and above everything, he was holding her close to him, exactly like a mother would hold her newborn to her chest.

"Because the demon makes a pact with the summoner. He has to follow the summoner's commands. If he breaks his pact, he'll end up suffering dire consequences. This is exactly why the elite demons never make such deals. They refuse to obey the commands of the ones beneath them, unless..."

I raised my eyebrows, "Unless?"

"Unless the demon is in love with his summoner."

Felix was right. Marchosias had come to care for Amaya like his family. The demon was indeed in love with his summoner.

"Your dad must be coming today to celebrate your birthday. Bal will bring two rogues near our apartment. We'll make it look like I, an orphan wolf, was attacked by them in the nearby woods, precisely because I hold the crest. Tell them that Anne went to save me. She fought off the rogues alone and ushered us to run to safety. Both of us escaped and ran to the apartment and these two rogues followed us. Anne's body will never be found. This way your father won't question your nana's disappearance."

Amaya didn't answer Marchosias. She just continued sobbing without a word in his arms.

In the next few minutes, everything happened exactly as Marchosias had planned. Two rogues, still in their human form, burst open the apartment door, rushing to attack the children but before the werewolves could even pounce on the kids, a bigger man came swiftly from behind, fighting them both to keep them away from the children.

Alpha Adrian.

That night Alpha Adrian took both the children with him.

"He decided on taking Amaya with him to his packhouse. He told his pack that he had found Bastian's daughter. He told them that Amaya filled the gap their daughter's death had left in his wife's heart. He never told them it was Maria's daughter."

I was back in that black room. Marchosias was speaking to me, but I couldn't see him. My eyes were fixated on the multiple reels that were playing before me; Maria staring wordlessly at the little girl standing beside Alpha Adrian before giving her a small nod. Maria opening the door to the little girl's bedroom at night, taking a peek inside to see whether the girl was sleeping soundly or not. Maria placing a plate full of delicious looking pancakes in front of Amaya and then walking out to sit in a place from where she could easily see the little girl eating.

Her actions were more than enough to portray her feelings. She felt guilty towards her daughter.

"But what Amaya longed for wasn't just the warmth of a mother. She longed for the one who had held her in his arms even when her own mother had refused to do so."

He didn't need to tell me that. I could see it from through the scenes hovering over me.

Amaya had stopped smiling.

"These are Maria's locked memories, not yours. What happened during this time? What happened to Erebus?"

I asked out loud noticing that none of the screens contained any memories of Erebus.

"Erebus was taken to the capital and trained there for the next eight years to become The King of the Werewolves."

The bright and shiny scenes soon turned into dark and bleak pictures, painted with the darkness of night and the color of blood.

Every reel looked the same; Erebus lying in a pool of his own blood, Erebus fighting off several werewolves in his human form, Erebus fighting, Erebus killing, blood, more blood.

Utter Darkness.

"I was weak in this form, trapped. They starved the body I possessed and I had no chance of feeding as a demon in a werewolf's body. I couldn't do much without revealing my presence to them so I stayed silent. With time, I lost connection with my slave demons. I was nearing insanity. "

"What the fuck? Were they training a king or creating a killing machine?"

I mumbled watching the horrors unfold in the memories before me.

"Creating a killing machine that can protect them."

Hearing him say this, I sucked in a sharp breath. He was right. This was barbaric.

"Can I let you in on a secret?"

My heart almost jumped out of my throat as I sensed a pair of hands wrap around my shoulders from behind before a head full of silky black hair nestled itself in the crook of my neck.

"Kings can have mates."

"Huh?"

His hold on my shoulders tightened making my breath hitch as he mumbled his next words against the side of my throat,

"They just don't let them live long enough to be with their partners."

To say my heart dropped into my stomach would be an understatement.

"Who's they?"

"Elders."

I turned my head to side to give Marchosias an inquisitive look. I couldn't see his face due to the darkness around us but I was sure he could see my expressions clearly.

"What do you think happens to the previous king as he passes on his crest to a new crest holder or when a new crest holder is born? Every king after passing his throne onto the next king becomes an Elder."

It was becoming increasingly difficult to continue paying attention to his words. He had started kissing my neck along its length, and the sensation was overwhelming my mind. I couldn't act surprised despite being heavily shocked by this new revelation.

"Did..."

I inhaled a long puff of air to calm myself down. Marchosias was sliding his tongue on my neck and it was driving me insane.

"Did... Erebus have a mate... too?"

As soon as I finished saying this, Marchosias tightened his hold on my body even more. He was crushing me in his embrace.

"Yes."

A frown formed on my forehead as I whirled around to stare at Marchosias' face. Due to the darkness, I could only see his ruby eyes staring back at me.

"Who?"

"Amaya."

I didn't need to say it out loud. The look on my face said it all.

This is why Erebus disliked Marchosias. Marchosias had killed his mate.

"Why?"

I asked in a weak voice, raising my hands to grab the fabric of his shirt in my small fists.

"If I hadn't killed her first, she'd have killed Erebus and... you."

How many heart attacks you can get from one chapter?

Me: Yes.