She Belongs To The Devil

"It's better if we hold hands. You might get lost in this crowd."

Ariel glanced at Kenneth's hand and thought to herself, "I don't even know how to get back to the guest house if I lose the others. And seeing how crowded the street is, I think I might get separated from them."

Ariel quickly took Kenneth's hand so that she wouldn't get lost.

She then began looking around at the shops and the people. And she was analyzing this new environment in her mind.

"This town has so much flow of the people even at night. I bet this is all because of the port. Sadly, Wyverndale doesn't have direct access to the port. And if it wasn't for the trade treaties, goods from Kenneth's Kingdom would have been double the price for people of Wyverndale."

She glanced at the expensive-looking foreign clothes being hung outside one of the shops on the other side of the narrow street. And she wondered, "I wonder how much tax King Conall charges for those imported–"

Ariel suddenly felt as if her heart stopped for a brief second.

As she was glancing at those clothes through the gaps between the passersby, her eyes fell on very familiar pieces of jewelry on a man's wrist – a pair of golden-colored solid bangles.

And a name instantly popped up in her mind, "Damien!"

She tried to take a look at that man's face. However, the crowd didn't let her. But she saw that man walking in the opposite direction as them.

And without thinking for a second, Ariel pulled her hand away from Kenneth. She turned on her heels and ran to catch that man.

"I'm sure that was Damien. There's no way anyone else would wear those exact same jewelry," she thought to herself as she tried not to run too fast and unintentionally hurt the people around her.

But she wished that she could run faster. She was already losing sight of those shining bangles.

"No! Please wait!" Ariel picked up her speed a little. She tried her best to keep her eyes on those bangles.

However, it vanished from her sight after a while. She looked around the street in search of those bangles. When she didn't see them anymore, she looked for a man with reddish-brown hair. But she didn't find anyone who could potentially be her friend.

"Damien… was that not you?" she mumbled to herself.

She even took a turn in a relatively dark alley. However, all she found there were some street dogs and a few men who looked like goons.

"Oi, missy. You lost?" one of the men asked when he saw her standing at the entrance of that alley.

But Ariel was too distraught to hear them.

She faced towards the street and darted her eyes around to see if she could catch another glimpse of those bangles.

The goon walked towards Ariel with a huge smirk on his face. And he spoke in a derogatory way, "I can take you to my home if you're lost, missy. What do you–"

He suddenly backed off when he saw a pair of crystal red eyes glaring down at him.

Ariel hadn't heard anything that goon said to her. She was too occupied looking at all the faces that passed in front of her. She hadn't even realized that Kenneth was standing right beside her at the moment.

Kenneth lightly tapped on Ariel's shoulder and asked, "Ariel, what's wrong?"

Ariel flinched a little but she sighed in relief when she saw Kenneth's face.

"Why did you run off like that?" Kenneth asked again.

Ariel looked down and said in a sad voice, "I thought I saw someone I knew…"

Kenneth glanced at Ariel's face. He could see the disappointment lingering on that beautiful face. And he correctly guessed, "Damien?"

Ariel was taken by surprise when he asked that. But not that much; he always did find her easy to read.

Ariel took a deep breath in and put on a smile. And she consoled herself by saying, "Yes, but I don't think it was him. He would have sensed me if he was really here."

Ariel happened to take a glance at Kenneth's face and caught his sad smile.

But when he realized that she was looking at him, he put on a bright smile and said, "I'm sure he would have greeted you if he was really here. Shall we go back? The others are waiting for us."

It hurt Ariel to see him smiling like that because, though very subtle, he was emitting the aura of sadness.

Ariel held his hand and sincerely apologized to him, "Kenneth, I'm so sorry that I ran away like that."

"Hey…" Kenneth lightly caressed her hand with his thumb and said, "You don't have to be sorry when you were only searching for your friend. I totally understand."

Ariel gave a soft smile and asked, "You know I can see your aura, right?"

"Ah!" Kenneth laughed and said, "I forgot that I can't even hide my emotions from you." Experience more on empire

He looked into her honey-like eyes and truthfully said, "To be honest, I would have liked it if you hadn't run away looking for him. But that would be too selfish of me. I am aware that I can never take his place in your life, but I do wish to take a comfortable place in your heart and a new place in your life."

Ariel gazed at him and thought to herself, "How can this man be so sweet? Even after everything I did to him to chase him away?"

Ariel broadly smiled at that blond hybrid and thought, "Will he forever stay like this? I sure hope so."

She entangled her fingers with his and led the way, "Let's go. We can't leave my cousins unattended."

Kenneth felt his heart skipping a beat when Ariel held his hand and dragged him.

He smiled and caught up with her so that he could walk by her side.

"Hey, you love birds!" Zach had apparently come looking for them.

He narrowed his eyes at Kenneth and Ariel and shouted at them, "If you two were going to abandon us in the middle of the street like that then we would have gone our separate ways from the beginning. Don't leave us like that!"