"Well, I refuse to marry anybody that you choose for me!" She got up, overturning both her chair and her orange juice goblet. The sticky orange mess spilled down the table, and then she was halfway out the door.
"Where do you suppose she's going?" Zeus Grace snapped.
Jason replied, soothingly, "She'll be fine. She probably only needs some time to process this news, Father."
"You mustn't go!" Zeus yelled. "I forbid you from leaving! Guards, stop her!"
Unfortunately for him, she was already out the door and into the woods.
Thalia ran.
Her father's words had hit her like a blow, though she wasn't sure why. All her life, she'd known this fact, accepted it - or perhaps had been in denial of it - but she'd always known she'd be married off. She was a girl, a pawn, a tool to be used for alliances and money and land. She's not a person - just an asset.
But hearing this fact, the cold, hard truth of it, made her terrified and angry and hurt. Was that all she was? A tool to be married off to somebody who would use her and then set her aside when she could no longer bear children? Wasn't she a person, didn't she deserve to marry someone she loved who loved her in return?
Perhaps she didn't love anyone now, maybe she hadn't loved anyone before, but didn't she deserve the chance to try? Or maybe it was fear that motivated her, fear of becoming her parents, who had married for money and power, rather than affection or even friendship.
However, she didn't know what motivated her to run through the forest, lose a shoe, be attacked by branches, and trip over several tree roots before being smacked in the face by a low-hanging willow branch. She didn't know what pushed her to end up at the doorstep of one Nico di Angelo.
Well, she hadn't known it was Nico's house. All she had seen was a small, picturesque cottage with smoke billowing out of the stone chimney, and surrounded by a ring of hedges, as if in a book of fairy tales. Thalia snorted at her thoughts. Fairy Tales? Then she supposed whomever inside was the prince.
Suddenly, the door flew open. She hadn't realized she'd knocked. "Thalia?"
"Nico?" She rubbed her arms. Why hadn't she thought to bring a coat? Oh, he,s because she was entirely too impulsive. "Can I come in?"