When Stars Collide || On Hold

4.

"I WON'T DO it."

"You don't have a choice, Thistle."

"He can't make me!" she nearly screamed. "H–He's a monster!" She tore her eyes away from his sapphire ones and whirled on her father, anger and disbelief plain as day on her face. "You know what happened that night! You can't be serious!"

Thaddeus Jakob Malachi had not only stolen her first kiss as a ploy to distract her, but he had broke her young fragile heart as well. While Thistle and Thaddeus talked in the garden, while she had talked to him about something she had never talked to anyone about, while he had taken her first kiss from her, his father waged an attack. Thaddeus was sent in as a decoy, something to set everyone at ease. He was to get the princess alone that night, to win her heart and convince her to leave Heaven with him. While he was trying to whisk her away in a timely manner, his father had stormed the palace.

Three guards were killed, Vincent, Kaleb and Fayre. Vincent's throat was slit, his silver blood had been splattered all over the dahlias in the garden before he made it to her; she wasn't told the details of the other two's deaths. A high-ranking Maris and his fifteen year old daughter were taken captive. He was later killed by one of the Daemonium during a rescue attempt performed by a team Guardians, who were also slaughtered. His daughter, Penelope, was nowhere to be found down in Hell. She was presumed to be dead a week after they stopped looking. His wife grieved the loss of her husband and only child for the years to follow. Ephraim, Thistle's third oldest brother, was also killed while attempting to defend the palace that night.

"You should know as well as anyone, my dear, that people can change." He was just saying that to calm her down, to attempt to rationalize with her compassionate side. She always saw the best in people, managed to look past the flaws that others couldn't overlook. She was determined it was only because she could sense the emotions they keep hidden, the ones they don't allow other people to see.

She wasn't entirely convinced that Thaddeus had any secret emotions. "People don't change that much, father."

Sage looked baffled, his eyes bouncing back and forth between the princess and her father before he finally broke the awkward silence. "I know Thaddeus has done some... uh, well, some questionable things, but what exactly warrants you hating him so much?"

Thistle refused to meet any of the three men's eyes.

It had been nearly two years since what had happened. She genuinely believed that she had moved past it all, the nightmares, looking over her shoulder at every turn. She was exhausted for so long, unable to sleep through the night, unable to eat without someone tasting it first. The simple fact that she partook in a practice she didn't believe in, taste testers, drained her as much as the paranoia did.

Nearly two years of being afraid.

"Yes, Princess, what does warrant you to hate me so much?"

Everything came rushing back, the sick feeling in her stomach, the spinning of the room. Her eyelids felt heavy, twitching as she tried to keep them from closing. Her vision blurred, unfocused, she was seeing three of everything. Her chest tightened and she actually thought she couldn't breathe. She was stuck in place, like a full body paralysis had come over her.

Nobody spoke a word, but nobody needed to. She could feel each and every cripplingly heavy and loud emotion in the room. Loud. That was the perfect word to describe the way she picked up on all the emotions.

Anger was like someone shouting in her face so loud she could feel it reverberating through her head. When someone was angry, it surged through her head like a red wave crashing viciously against a beach. It was like being the angriest she had ever been, but amplified tenfold. It was excruciatingly loud.