Even when I loved Nicasia, I never considered anything past a strategic marriage. I am not sure I am even capable of … loving that way. Unconditionally. There was never much of that in my family, either.
cw: unhealthy coping mechanisms (alcohol, sex); physical abuse; nsfw
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When Jude is pardoned by Crown Prince Oak, she is allowed to return to Elfhame after a formal confession. Forced to take a truth potion, Jude’s history with the Fae is divulged to the High King and Living Council, and her time with both of Cardan’s brothers are revealed to him.
Grimsen makes Cardan a ring with Jude’s tear, enchanted to allow him to see her memories; a kind of twin to the earring that gives him the ability to detect her lies. Every night, the High King of Elfhame abandons his rooms for those of his Seneschal, lays himself upon the bed that still holds onto traces of her scent, and let’s himself become lost in the memory of her.
Jude has been in the mortal world for a month before she pulls herself from the couch and out of the apartment. Two months before she decides to get a job at the coffee bar around the corner, and four before she allows herself to speak to the dark haired boy who works the same late shifts. It’s six months from her exile, two weeks from beginning to believe she might be able to move on, when her husband comes to summon her home.
Cardan has never felt rage, or loss as he did when his Seneschal was taken beneath the waves. He hated Locke and Nicasia for using her to play their games with him. He hated Madoc and Taryn for betraying and turning their backs on her. He hated Jude, for all her secrets and for shutting him out. And himself. He hated himself as he never had before.
When Elfhame is cursed and a blight hits the land, Cardan is forced to return Jude to Insmire and declare her Queen of Faerie. Locke insists on a revel celebrating her return and a familiar song leaves Taryn in the arms of the High King and Jude in those of a clever fox.
bomb: *reading a book* you look very beautiful today, jude
jude: how do you know? you didn’t even look at me
bomb: no but i can hear cardan’s heartbeat and it’s going twice as fast since you entered the room
cardan: *gasps*
cardan greenbriar is a little spoon, prove me wrong
“I can be charming. I charmed you, didn’t I?” He rolls his eyes. “Do not expect others to share my depraved tastes.”
─ protagonists headers + icons⁴
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Jude Duarte
“If i cannot become better than them i will become much worse”
/Includes dialogue from The Cruel Prince, Chapter 11
I should be enjoying this. A mortal affected by the most banal fruit, a proof of her inferiority. The usually defiant mortal girl, the girl who haunts me day and night, completely at our mercy.
Yet, I am not.
cw: unhealthy coping mechanisms (alcohol, sex); physical abuse; nsfw
An Insider’s Guide to the Folk of the Air: How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories Art…
Chapter VIII. The Prince of Elfhame Learns to Hate Stories
1. Kaz Brekker
2. Inej Ghafa
3. Zoya Nazyalensky
4. Nikolai Lantsov
5. Alex Stern
6. Jude Duarte
7. Cardan Greenbriar
8. Lila Bard
9. Ronan Lynch
ok i found this in my drafts from months ago and
why is this literally the cruel prince
↳ @literatureladies mission 07 : archetypes — Jude Duarte as ‘The Outlaw’