She Belongs To The Devil

With him around, Adeline couldn\'t believe how fast the time passed. She felt as though she blinked and the time just flew by. The official working hours were already over. If it was any other day, then Adeline would have stayed back for a bit longer. But today, she wanted to return back to her room as soon as possible.

Theodore and Adeline were now heading towards the stable to check on Arion. Even though she now held the second most important position in Wyverndale, she never stopped feeding Arion herself. And she didn\'t know it yet, but Arion appreciated it very much. He knew that he already held a special place in Adeline\'s heart and he was really delighted about it.

Adeline\'s guards were closely following her so the two of them were walking quietly. But Adeline really wanted to talk with Theodore. When she saw Arion, she remembered how Theodore was acting a bit strangely when she talked about the previous owner of her horse. And she wanted to ask about it.

Adeline turned around to look at the squad of her guards and then ordered them, "All of you can return back to the quarter. I will feed Rion and head straight for my quarter."

But the leader of the squad bowed his head and denied, "We are sorry, Your Highness. But we were ordered by his majesty to never leave your side."

Adeline sighed because she knew that this would happen after she ran away yesterday. But she still tried to keep them a little far away so that they wouldn\'t hear her talking with Theodore or Arion. She didn\'t want them to hear her \'talking to herself\' and think that she had gone mad.

"Okay, at least give me some privacy then." Adeline glared at all of her guards and ordered them, "You all can wait for me outside the stable. I will come back after feeding my horse."

"Yes, Your Highness," the guards agreed to follow that order. They didn\'t want to anger the Princess as she was the one who they had to follow in the end.

Adeline entered the stable and went straight to the stall where Arion was tied. The stableman was waiting for the Princess as usual. And he went and brought the grains for Arion. She instantly took a handful of the grains and began to hand-feed Arion.

After the stableman went away, Adeline finally spoke to Theodore, "So, are you going to tell me more about Rion\'s previous owner?"

Theodore was caught off-guard by that question. He didn\'t think that she was hung up on that question. As he was asked that all of a sudden, he felt a little awkward to give the answer straight away and he looked the other way and mumbled, "Why do you need to know about the previous owner? I didn\'t steal him and give it to you."

Adeline wrinkled her forehead and asked in a monotone, "Did I ever accuse you of being a thief?" She then pulled Theodore closer to her and said, "I just wanted to know what kind of a person his previous owner was. Rion is very… different… I mean in a good way."

Arion was sick and tired of hiding his true identity from the person who loved him so much. So he gently kicked on Theodore\'s leg. And then he chewed Theodore\'s sleeve and kept on pulling at it.

Adeline was looking at Theodore with expectant eyes. He was still not talking. That was when she noticed what Arion was doing. And she exclaimed all of a sudden, "Rion can see you right now? Did you lift your invisibility spell or something?"

Theodore took in a deep breath and finally said, "Uh… He is not your everyday horse. He is a special one."

Adeline looked at Theodore skeptically and then asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Umm… he is my familiar," Theodore replied while nervously playing with his fingernails.

Adeline blinked several times and waited for Theodore to explain that in an understandable way. But he just kept on averting his gaze and looking at his nails. So she turned around and stood in front of Theodore while folding her arms.

And she asked while raising her brows, "Am I supposed to decipher something from what you just said? What do you mean by he is your familiar? What does that even mean?"

Arion rolled his eyes and shook his head seeing Theodore wasting so much time. He could not take it anymore so he neighed very loudly.

Theodore understood what he was trying to say to him. He glared at Arion but it looked like Arion was not going to give this matter a rest. So he said to Arion, "Alright! Alright! Say it yourself then."

Adeline furrowed and asked, "What? Who are you-"

Before she could ask her question completely, Arion shouted from behind, "It means that I am Theodore\'s companion animal."

Adeline\'s eyes widened and her body went stiff when she heard that voice. She was facing the other way but she guessed who said those words. She swiftly turned around and stared at Arion with big eyes. And she stuttered, "Di-did you ju-just speak?"

Arion looked into Adeline\'s beautiful eyes and then agreed, "Yes, I can speak… and also do a lot of other things… for example, fighting and flying." Arion casually said that as though it was normal for humans to hear about a flying horse that could talk and fight.

"You can fly?" Adeline exclaimed in a loud voice. She was not shocked but she was surprised.

"Yes, I can." Arion showed his teeth as though he was smiling and then instantly apologized to Adeline. "Adeline, I am sorry for not being truthful for all this time."

He lowered his head and began tapping his hoof. And fearing that Adeline would hate him or would not want him anymore, Arion pinned all the blame on Theodore, "I had no choice but to follow Theodore\'s order and hide my true self from you. I am bound to him by a sacred oath and I can never disobey him."

Whatever Arion said was a complete truth though.

Rather than fearing him or despising him, Adeline suddenly sprung forward and hugged Arion with excitement. Then she happily said, "I knew it! I guess deep down I always knew you were different. I just… I just didn\'t know how different… But I\'m really happy to know that you are so amazing."

Arion also put his neck around Adeline\'s neck. He was relieved that Adeline accepted him so easily.

And Theodore smiled looking at the two of them. He was pleased that his familiar and his fiancé were so close to each other.

His smile was short-lived though. Adeline turned around and gave a death stare to him.. And he knew that he was in big trouble for hiding such crucial truth about Arion.