Chapter 4-Dealing with the Devil

Star sighed as she walked down the corridors of castle butterfly, "Star you can't be getting all worked up over Marco again, you're trying to get over him remember?" She muttered to herself her hearts still slightly glowing from before. She was still dating Tom after all, but...was it real? Did she really love Tom, or was it...Marco.

As she wandered through the halls pondering this she was startled by a new voice coming from behind her "Hi Star". Star turned, It was Tom a smile on his face he'd clearly summoned himself into the castle as he often did. "Tom!" Shouted Star, startled that he was here, she couldn't allow him to know what she was thinking about, who knows what he'd do to Marco..Tom never was the most stable.

"Hey Star" Tom said approaching her "where's Marco isn't he usually supposed to accompany you as a squire?" He asked looking around with a suspisious look on his face.

"Marco...is asleep at the moment, he's in recovery from training this morning" Star said looking down slightly, a little sadness in her voice as she relayed that morning's events in her head. "Oh?" Said Tom with a inquisitive look on his face, his left eye darting down the hall towards Marco's room "What happened to him?" He questioned seeing how uneasy Star looked.

"Well, he has to learn magic so I was teaching him and...I got a little carried away" Star said, her voice shakey and on the verge of tears once again. "Oh my god Star what'd you do?!" Said Tom, sure he had his differences with Marco but they were still friends and the thought Star actually injured him started to awaken a new anger inside him that he thought he had under controll. Star was looking away from him now an ashamed look on her face, He clenched his fist "Star!" She jumped slightly at his shift in tone unsure of what to say she looked up to him, his look was serious and his eyes weren't quite glowing with anger but the red twinge to them reveled that he was extremely serious about this. "Star what did you do to Marco!" Tom demanded, he was starting to lose control of his pyrokinesis abilities as the carpet under him started to singe.

"Well he was learning a shielding spell and..well he cast it really well so.." Star hesited but knew that if she didn't answer quickly it was likely Tom would freak out and lose control, something that had always scared her as Tom was unpredictable when his anger took over.

"Well, I wanted to test if he could use it properly so, I hit him with a spell.." She said not meeting Tom's gaze.

"You did what?!" Tom yelled his anger becoming more apparent and his eyes now fully glowing with red light "Star you could've killed him what the heck were you thinking?!" His voice flaring more and more with each word as the carpet underneath him finally caught fire and burned in a circle surrounding him. "How could you be so irrisponsible Star?!" Tom began yelling his hands being engulfed by flames, rising up from the floor and the fire rising with him, the nearby guards surrounded him and stood in front of Star attempting to protect their princess from the demon prince.

"Tom stop!" Star yelled desperately trying to get him to calm down "Marco is okay he's resting and healing up now" She shouted, she directed her wand in front of her "Avikele" she said summoning a barrior of green energy around her in case Tom completely lost control. She was right to do, for as soon as she did this Tom blasted away the gurads surrounding him, throwing one of them against her shield which held against the impact. Star looked horrified at the demon "Tom you're losing yourself!" she yelled, once again finding her courage "you need to calm down!" Tom wasn't listening, the anger had taken hold and he blasted the barrior she had summoned, it broke immediately throwing Star back, as she looked up Tom was hovering over her ready to strike anouther blow. Star closed her eyes, when suddenly she heard a yell.

"Avikele!" As Star looked up she saw Marco standing in front of her shielding her from Tom, he had summoned a large dome shaped shield and was facing down Tom with a serious look on his face. "You will not harm her Tom!" He yelled, Tom was no longer really there his anger and demons had seized control and the only words that left his mouth were a strange language that sounded to Marco like latin, unfortunately he didn't understand the words but what followed was a blast that struck Marco's shield hard, Marco started to strain under the pressure of Tom's attack but kept the shield up against the demon.

"Star this is your chance!" Yelled Marco, directing the corner of his vision at the princess "You have to knock him out somehow its our only shot". Star took up her wand and nodded at Marco, aiming at Tom she yelled "Glowworm Blast!" She yelled as the wand lit up and fired a beam of blue glowworms that struck Tom and exploded against the demon's body sending him to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Marco quickly ran over to Tom and struck him on the head, knocking out the demon. He looked at Star "Are you okay?" he asked.

Star was panting and shaken but nodded at Marco and then rushed up to hug him "Thank you Marco.." she said tears once again making their way down her cheeks.

"You know I can't let you get hurt Star" Marco said, embracing her and running his hand through her long golden hair "I'd be a terrible squire if that happened" he chuckled getting a small giggle from Star into his shoulder. "Now come on" He said releasing her "We have to help the guards he attacked".