She Belongs To The Devil

Adeline was suddenly woken up from her sleep when she heard a loud clanging sound from outside. It sounded as though someone had dropped a huge metal pot to the ground.

"Is it morning already?" she thought to herself while rubbing her eyes. She could already hear the Palace bustling with noises and excitement.

It was the morning of the much-awaited wedding day, or to be more precise, early morning. Everyone in the Palace was so busy with the preparation for the wedding that those remaining three days passed by like a fleeting second.

"So, it is the day…" Adeline took a deep breath in and slowly exhaled from her mouth.

She opened her eyes to glance outside the window and saw that it was still pitch black outside. "Everyone must have a lot of things to do today. It's going to be a very busy day today," she thought to herself while heaving a sigh.

She caressed the empty side of her bed. It had been three days since she had slept alone. "Waking up to the empty bedside sure does feel weird."

She smiled and whispered to herself, "But from tonight, I will get to wake up with him by my side without any restraints or fear of getting caught." She covered her face with both of her palms and let out a happy squeal, "I'm going to get married today!"

And a sudden wave of emotion hurled inside of her chest and stomach, making her feel really anxious.

Just like every other bride, Adeline was also nervous now that her big day had finally arrived. She began fidgeting her foot and whispered while still laying down on the bed, "I hope everything will go as per the schedule."

She interlaced her fingers together wishing that no surprises would occur on her important day. She was a little afraid thinking that the mad vampire king might pull off some stunts to sabotage her wedding day. "I really hope our wedding will go without any hitch, especially from that vampire."

Though she was nervous and a little afraid, her heart was also filled with great expectations from today's several events. Adeline was beside herself with joy. "Finally… the two of us will be husband and wife from today onwards."

Adeline lightly pressed her bouncing heart and the corner of her lips pulled up in cohesion. "I will finally get to call him my husband."

She turned to her side to stare at Theodore's pillow and she imagined him calling her his wife. She buried her face in her pillow and giggled to herself. "I think I will faint when he addresses me as his wife for the first time."

Before she could further drown herself in her imagination, she heard a knock on the door.

And without waiting to hear her reply, Osanna shouted from behind the door, "Adeline! I'm so sorry! I know it's just three in the morning but we need you to wake up. We have so many preparations to do. We have to give you a beauty bath, do your hair and your makeup, and then..." And she kept on going on and on.

"Okay, I'm coming! I'm coming!" Adeline climbed down her bed and chuckled after listening to that long list of things that Osanna blurted out, "I was already awake. In fact, I couldn't sleep much because of the nervousness."

She opened the door to her room and was instantly greeted by the warm smiles from her maids.

"Adeline! It's your wedding day!" Osanna wrapped Adeline in her embrace and squealed happily.

Hawisa also gleefully hugged both of them and said, "Our little Princess is going to be the most beautiful bride today, we are going to make sure of it."

"I trust the two of you," Adeline pulled away from the hug and gave a wide grin to those excited ladies.

Hawisa then instantly changed her tone into a strict one and calmed down the excited younger ones, "Okay, there is no time left for chit-chat. The wedding starts at 12 which means we will have to get Adeline ready by 11. And we just have 8 hours in our hands to do everything."

"Just 8 hours? Oh, dear lord! We are already late!" Osanna widened her eyes and panicked. "Maybe we should have started preparing her since yesterday."

Adeline was looking at the panicked look on both of her maids and was thinking what could possibly take so much time that the 8 full hours would also be less for them to prepare her. 

And she sarcastically asked, "Are you going to grow some wings on me or something? We have so much time in our hands. Don't panic so much you two!" And she couldn't help but chuckle at the irony that she was the one to console her maids when it should have happened the other way around.

In another quarter, King Dragomir was also already awake. Though he had already delegated each and every task to the others, he still couldn't get much sleep. 

So, he was sitting on his study desk while staring at what looked like a large sheet of paper.

He was looking at the portrait of Auvera that Adeline had gifted him. He caressed the beautiful face on that paper and talked with his late lover, "Auvera, today I am going to hand our daughter to the Devil Prince. He is a very nice man. And he loves our daughter very dearly."

He smiled with his tearful eyes and kept on saying, "He fought for her and does anything and everything for her. After today, I won't have any regret even if I die tonight. I hope I can see you again."

A drop of his tear landed on the painting of Auvera and fell down right on her eyes. It looked as though Auvera was also crying.

"Oh, dear! I made a mess!" Dragomir hastily dabbed the rim of his sleeve to wipe that tear off of the painting.

Dragomir sighed thought that Auvera could indeed see him and hear him. And wondered whether Auvera was also crying alongside him.. If she was then he hoped that she was crying because of happiness and not sadness.