Chapter 432 - Changeling

Theodore was still going through the papers and was trying to devise a training schedule. He was thinking of ways how he could help the soldiers – humans as well as the werewolves.

"I hope father won't mind me using my powers to help them train. All I will be doing is guiding them, not anything more," He thought to himself and rummaged through the drawer to find new sheets of paper to jot something down.

Out of the blue, he felt an excruciating pain in his heart. He banged his hands on the table, almost breaking it, and grimaced in anguish. It was the kind of pain that he hadn't felt in a while.

He tried to get up from his chair but stumbled down to the floor.

His eyes turned red and his breathing got heavier.

"Adeline!" he guessed that it had something to do with Adeline because he only felt this kind of pain when he was linked with her.

"Adeline… I have to… get to her…" He grunted in agony and pushed himself up from the floor.

He was barely managing to stand when he decided to look for her in her workroom. He instantly teleported to her workroom and his eyes widened in horror.

Adeline was indeed in a lot of pain. She was wriggling on the floor, crying and screaming.

And the guards were trying to pick her up from the ground but they were having a really hard time doing so without hurting her. The guards and Bennett were so focused on Adeline that they failed to notice Theodore's presence in the room.

"Leave!" Theodore's threatening voice echoed throughout the room.

And it managed to scare everyone in the room, except Adeline. Adeline was too much in pain that she was completely unaware of what was happening in her surroundings.

Bennett glanced at Theodore with a bit of a relieved look on his face. However, when he looked at the Prince who also looked like he was struggling to even stand up, he was unsure if he would be able to help Adeline. "Your Highness, she needs immediate treatment."

"I'll take her," Theodore managed to keep a neutral expression and voice. And he staggered towards Adeline.

He then crouched down and glanced at the magic circle that had a huge crack on it. He knew that it was the culprit behind both of their pain.

Theodore gently placed his palm below Adeline's head. He wanted to carry her in his arms but he didn't trust himself that he could do so. His pain was a thousand times worse than what Adeline was going through at the moment.

But he still tried to suppress that pain and focused himself so that he could teleport.

The couple vanished right before everyone's eyes. Thankfully, everyone was already aware of who Theodore really was.

Theodore teleported to Azriel's place because he was the one who could repair the magic circle that had somehow broken.

Azriel was lounging in his own room when the two of them appeared on the floor right in front of him.

"Theodore?" Azriel was now crouching beside them in the blink of an eye.

Theodore breathlessly asked Azriel, "Az, I don't know what happened. I found her like this. The magic circle…"

Azriel already knew that there was a problem with the magic circle. Looking at how Theodore was also reacting to Adeline's pain, he knew that somehow Adeline's demonic powers were able to break through the seal and were already starting to spread through her body.

Azriel swiftly carried Adeline in his arm and took her to his bed. He gently laid Adeline down and found Theodore sitting at the edge of the bed. Both of them already looked worn out from the amount of pain that they had already endured. His heart ached to see his brother and sister-in-law in that state.

He glanced at Theodore and stated what he was going to do, "I will repair the seal right away. Please hold on for a while."

Theodore nodded and spoke through his clenched teeth, "Do it fast."

Azriel focused his attention back on Adeline. He held out his palm over the broken magic circle and his fingertips began to emit azure light.

Just when he was about to start chanting the spell, he heard his mother's voice, "Stop! I don't think you should be sealing her powers."

Theodore looked at their mother and wanted to explain Adeline's condition to her. But he was unable to even mince out his words as the pain had already crossed his bearable limit.

Azriel looked at their mother's face who was already standing beside him. And he said what Theodore couldn't, "But mother… her fragile body can't handle such great powers. She's only a human."

However, the Goddess thought otherwise. "Is she?"

"Mother?" Azriel asked in a confused voice. He was unable to understand what she meant by that because last he checked, Adeline was a human.

She held out her hand over Adeline's forehead and gave an elegant flick. A round but matterless object levitated in the air from Adeline's forehead. It was glowing – half blue and half red.

Both Azriel and Theodore were left utterly stunned. They couldn't believe what they were witnessing. They didn't know how or when Adeline's soul had changed.

The Goddess then glanced at her sons and asked with slightly raised brows, "Do you still think she is just a human?"

"She is a changeling!" Azriel exclaimed, still in disbelief.

The Goddess returned Adeline's soul back to her body and asked Azriel, "So, you know what to do, right?"

Azriel firmly nodded his head and instantly began to chant a counterspell to the inscription spell that he had cast on Adeline.

The azure glow that was coming off from the tip of his fingers began to spread throughout the orange magic circle. The orange glow of that circle gradually began to decrease. And the 8 runes that were on that circle started to disappear one by one.

With every rune that disappeared from the circle, Adeline's pain was gradually decreasing, and so was Theodore's.

By the time, four of the runes had disappeared, Adeline's pain stopped altogether. She could finally breathe the air without screaming and open her eyes to properly look around her.

She saw the Goddess looking at her and smiling at her with a serene look on her face like always. She returned a feeble smile to her.

She then noticed that Azriel was performing incantations on her magic circle. As the pain had disappeared, she thought that he was slowly sealing back her demonic powers.

Adeline felt someone holding her hand. It was Theodore.

He was now sitting on the bed, on the opposite side of Azriel. He gently massaged Adeline's palm with his thumb and he whispered to Adeline, "Don't worry. Everything is going to be okay."

Adeline could feel that her body was already far better off than just 'okay'. She was feeling unusually well so she gave a smile to her worried husband.

She heard Azriel clearing his throat and she turned to look at him.

Azriel was going to remove the last rune from the magic circle after which Adeline's demonic powers would all be released at once. So he warned her, "Brace yourself for the pain that is about to come. It is going to give more than just a sting."

He looked at his brother and warned him as well, "Theodore, same goes for you. Trust me, the pain is going to be a lot worse than before."

Both Adeline and Theodore glanced at each other and tightened their hold on each other's hands.

Adeline hastily took a deep breath fearing that she would die because of lack of oxygen if a pain worse than before was about to hit her.

Azriel also took a deep breath in and warned again, "Okay, here it comes."