She Belongs To The Devil

"There's no such thing as constant in life. You taught that to me."

Theodore gave a mirthless smile to his daughter and nodded. "Yes, I did say that to you once."

"I can't forever get hung up on the friend who gave up on the friendship. Hopefully, in the future, I will earn some friends who won't get scared because of one lousy fight and run away," Ariel grinned at her parents.

Though she was smiling and grinning a lot, it was evident that she was not happy with what she said. She was literally on fire.

Adeline calmly approached her daughter and placed her palm on Ariel's shoulder. The moment she did that, she absorbed the high flames from Ariel's body and turned them into embers. And finally, it died down.

"Oh," Ariel gave a nervous chuckle and apologized, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I was on fire." She gave a guilty smile and added, "I need to learn how to control it better."

"And on that note," Ariel clapped her hands and said, "I don't have time to stay heartbroken over a lost friend. I have so many things to learn."

She looked at Adeline and asked, "Mom, why don't we head towards the training ground? Teach me this fire element."

Even though Adeline was the one to suggest it first that it was better to give up on Damien, she could tell how Ariel might be feeling. So she tried to give a small string of hope to her daughter, "Ary, I don't want to get your hopes high but… eternity is a long time."

She was implying that Damien would come around for sure in the future.

Ariel suddenly lost her fake smile and looked down. And she replied, "If it hurts this much then I don't want to keep my hopes alive. It is better to extinguish this flame of hope completely than to keep it burning. The flame will only engulf me as it did just now."

Adeline gave a mirthless smile and said, "Alright, let's go and learn to control those flames of yours."

Theodore watched the two of them leave the room.

He lay down on the bed and mumbled, "Friends…"

---

As time passed by, Ariel wholeheartedly began focusing on her studies as well as elemental magic spells.

She was equally interested to learn sword fighting after seeing that memory where her mother had valiantly defeated so many vampires in that war.

The vacant space in her heart that was created from the absence of Damien was filled by her cousins. She grew even closer with them.

Ariel was the one to cry for two days straight when Joyce was married off to the Crown Prince of Romania. Joyce was 23 years old when she got married to Crown Prince Vlad.

"Am I never going to see you again?" Ariel had cried while clinging to Joyce.

Joyce had hugged her back and had said, "I am just going to a Kingdom across the sea, you idiot. I am not going to die! Just learn how to teleport already so that you can sneak into the Palace. I will save you delicious dishes every night."

Ariel had laughed and promised her, "Alright. I promise that I will learn everything there is to learn for me. And when I do, I will ask grandma to undo the sealing spell. And I will come to disturb you and the Crown Prince."

"Ary, take me with you when you secretly go to visit Joyce," Niylah had also cried while hugging Joyce.

After Joyce's wedding, several suitors started to come for Niylah and Ariel.

At Joyce's wedding, the guests who had seen them and who were smitten by them were mostly the ones to come to Wyverndale with marriage proposals.

However, only the brave-hearted ones or the fools came with the proposals.

By now, the rumor about Theodore being the Devil had spread far and wide. And Theodore and Adeline's forever young appearance further supported the case. Though most of those who had seen the monarchs believed that they were a pair of Deities and not some Devil as the rumors said.

Niylah would outright deny the suitors saying she wasn't interested to get married. Or to be more precise, she would have Ramon say it in her stead since her voice wouldn't come out in front of the others.

Ariel, on the other hand, would enjoy pulling pranks on the suitors and making them run away on their own.

However, there was this one fool who wouldn't get intimidated by her no matter how hard she tried.

"Kenneth! I thought you went back home!" Ariel flipped out her claws and narrowed her eyes at him.

Kenneth also manifested his claws and gave a playful smirk to Ariel. "Prince Consort was kind enough to let me extend my stay here in the capital. I thought you would like it."

Ariel gave a mocking smile and slowly inched closer to him. "Yes, I like your decision to keep on poking me so much that I feel like poking your heart out with these cute nails of mine." Ariel playfully displayed her claws and kept on smiling.

Kenneth spread his arms and smiled. "Have at it then." His crystal red eyes shined further as he teased her, "Although I have to warn you, I won't let you throw away my heart once you so much as touch it."

"Don't worry," Ariel narrowed her eyes at Kenneth. And she said in a hateful tone, "I'm not planning to play with that dark little heart of yours."

Ariel was standing in front of Kenneth in the blink of an eye. She dug her claws right in his gut and screamed in his ears, "Why do you have to go to such lengths to destroy my peace? Just go back to your Kingdom already, Mr. Crown Prince."

Kenneth swiftly pushed Ariel's silver and dark hair away from her shoulder and dug his fangs into her neck. And he mumbled, "I'm afraid I am addicted to your blood, although it doesn't taste very good."

"Don't…" Ariel closed her eyes and gritted her teeth.

"Don't poison me, you damned hybrid!" She grabbed Kenneth by his blonde hair. She pulled his head away from her and glared at his proud smiling face.

He winked at her and whispered, "Don't worry. The poison will wear off, Miss Angel."

Ariel slammed him down to the ground and broke some of his bones.

And she shouted while walking away, "Go home before I pack your dead body in a little suitcase and ship you to your Kingdom."

Kenneth spit some blood and glanced at Ariel. And he shouted back while chuckling, "But you don't even know what the ship looks like. Nor do you know what the ocean looks like."

Ariel frowned and shouted again, "Keep talking and I will dry out your bloody ocean and flood your Kingdom."

Kenneth got up on his feet and dragged his legs after the Princess, "Come on! Don't be angry now, Ary. We can roam around the world in my ship, you know. Just you and me. And the crews."

Ariel flicked her palm and made a puddle under Kenneth's feet.

Kenneth's lower body was now inside the icy puddle.

"Argh! It's cold!" he screamed.

Ariel turned around and mocked him while waving her hand, "Tell me if you want me to boil that water."

Kenneth pressed his lips together and finally kept quiet.

"Thought so." Ariel smiled at him and left for her quarter.