077 A Dark Memory

"Where's your car?!" Uranus hinted Erebus as she kept on the phone: "When was she there? How long has she been in there? Hold your men by the entrance, I'll send someone right over!"

"You are not coming?" Asked Erebus as she ended the call, starting the car.

"I can't. That place does not welcome magic." Uranus shook her head, "You will be fine. Just take your wolf form ALL the time. You just might find her sooner with a better sense of smell."

"Okay. What's with that place?" Erebus didn't tell her that he also had magic.

There weren’t many people that he could trust with Kitty's safety, and if he told her, Uranus would never let he go.

"Dangerous creatures lurk in there, craving for magic to tear apart." Uranus shook her head, "No witch has ever come out of there alive."

Damn.

Erebus wasn't too concerned about Kitty's safety because she had magic now. So he thought she won't be in too much of a trouble because Phosis was powerful enough to even hurt him!

But not if this forest was designed to devour witches!

Upset at himself, he sped on the direction Uranus without any more word.

"It's not your fault." Uranus tried to comfort him.

She couldn't even begin to imagine what it meant to him, to have the mate he marked facing almost certain death.

"That's where you are wrong." Said Erebus darkly.

"Someone dropped her there. She didn't just wonder off or--"

"It was Allura." Erebus cut her off, "She did that to play a game with me."

"..." Uranus pressed her lips, "I'm sorry. But she only went in for like a couple hours. For a human --"

"She's a witch." Said Erebus with a deep frown.

"Do you think Allura knew that?" Uranus exclaimed.

"Are you seriously asking me that?" Erebus turned to look at Uranus.

Of course she knew! The question was, how?! Did Charles tell her? Did she know all along?

There was no reason that Allura didn't tell her beloved mother Kitty was the daughter once she knew.

So why didn't the queen just come and burnt down his city already?

The red witch that was after Kitty was not the new Queen?! But how?! He was so sure that it was her for so long!

Too many questions were taking up Erebus's mind.

"I know Allura has her eyes on you now, but I didn't think she would just take a life so easily!" Uranus was really surprised at that point, "Maybe she just thought it would be a harmless joke --"

"You didn't?!" Erebus growled, "What do you think she appointing you to this job was?! She TOOK your life!"

"I know she chose me out of jealousy because Persus liked me instead of her," Uranus sighed, "But even if it wasn't me, it would have been someone else."

"Am I hearing this right?! You are defending her?!" Erebus rose his eyebrow, glancing at Uranus.

"I couldn't respond to Persus's feelings properly... I hurt him the most, probably more than she did." Uranus lowered her head, "I guess I'm a sinner after all."

"We all had silly crushes." Erebus glanced at her, "You didn't mark me either. Don't be so hard on yourself."

"But he marked me!" Outburst Uranus with a loud voice. Even Erebus was taken aback.

"I didn't know..." Erebus mumbled in shock.

This changed everything!

Persus marked the second princess, the little sister of Allura. This much Erebus was sure because Persus made sure EVERYONE in the Kingdom knew about his marking.

That idiot.

But it was extremely weird if he had marked Uranus before Uranus left. That meant that he marked twice!

Werewolf only marks once!

"No one knows... I wasn't even supposed to know! Persus was such a moron, he told his stupid 'tree hole' his secret and I overheard it..." Uranus burst into tears, "And... I-I still rejected him... I thought..."

"I know..." Erebus patter her on the head, "What do you think you should have done? Be with him even if you couldn't mark him? You didn't do anything wrong. Don't beat yourself up for this."

"I deserve to be here... but for every second that I AM here, I'm thinking about him. I couldn't get him out of my mind. I kept thinking how miserable he must had been all these years..." Uranus cried.

Erebus couldn't let her know right now that Persus marked again.

This whole thing was too weird, and he wasn't sure what to make of it.

Besides, she was heading to meet Allura. He didn't want Allura to know that he was on to this.

Just driving in silence, he held Uranus's hand as support, listening to her mumble about the dark past she had been regrating for ten years...

Finally, he dropped her off at a school.

By the time they got there, Uranus already cooled down and got a hold of herself.

"A school?" Erebus rose an eyebrow.

"Just go!" Uranus yelled at his mock, "Straight ahead and turn left at the end. You will know when you reach the edge."

Erebus nodded and pulled up the window, only to take it down again the next second: "It will be okay. You can do it."

"Same to you." Uranus turned and headed to the school after those three simple words.

She wanted him to go sooner.

His love was in danger. And she didn't want what she had suffered this past ten years for him -- feeling guilty of hurting a loved one.

Little did she know, she just sent Erebus to a death trap.

Waling on the school path, Uranus found herself reminiscing a past so pretty that she hadn't dare been touching for the dark secret she had all these years.

She didn't mark Persus, true. But she surely loved him!

It was always the three of them. They had been inseparable -- well, until Allura exiled her to the prison, and Claudia, the second princess took Persus for herself.

She was a royal herself, too, but she didn't even fight for herself when she was assigned here.

Erebus never knew why until today --

She exiled herself because she thought she hurt Persus deep. She was aware of his marking her, yet she didn't jump to being his mate, but kept her feeling towards Erebus to herself and left the two boys she loved the most.

It was hard to say who she would mark eventually, if she didn't leave.

If they didn't go on their separate ways.

Persus was furious when he got to know her news. He went to argue on her behalf, but there was never a result came out of that.

Instead, he didn't even come to see her off when she left. And that was the cold, silent end of the childhoods of the three of them.

She felt a void in her heart that wasn't even filled with rage or hatred.

It was pure cold and sorrow because she had hurt something warm and soft that was only so vulnerable for loving her.

"Looking good, cousin."

Uranus looked up in shock, only to find Allura standing in front of her.