Chapter Text
“Come!”
Cardan tugged her along towards the stables, a frighteningly eager expression on his face. His coal eyes were alight with a sentiment Jude didn’t care delve too deep into and his face was twisted in a smug expression. Jude tried to struggle against the grip of his hand on her wrist, but for all the lack of proper training and despite how sorry a fighter he was, he was sure surprisingly strong.
“Tell me, where you are taking me, and I might consider coming with you,” she snarled, ramming her heels into the ground.
Cardan shot her a mocking glare over his shoulder and tugged harder, so she was careened forward and crushed into him. With heated cheeks, she glared up into his grinning face.
“Don’t you trust me, Jude?” he asked tauntingly. She simply raised her eyebrows at him.
Of course she didn’t trust him. She didn’t trust anyone, not after all the betrayal and backstabbing she had witnessed during the last couple of months. Well, she trusted Vivi to keep Oak safe. And she trusted the Court of Shadows and their services, as long as she met their demands and was able to pay them. But that was about it. She certainly didn’t trust the spoiled, cruel, lazy and entirely untrustworthy puppet king she had heaved onto the throne in her brother’s stead, not when she couldn’t even trust her own twin sister. So no, Jude didn’t trust Cardan. Not. One. Single. Bit!
Cardan’s grin faded the longer she kept silent, his face taking on a sullen look. He wordlessly turned around again and resumed walking, pulling her into the dim, cool interior of the royal stables. Faerie steeds nickered and neighed in greeting as they passed, a few curious heads appearing over the elaborately carved half doors of the boxes on either side of the aisle.
They stopped when they reached the box with Cardan’s dappled steed. It was already waiting outside its box for them, curried and saddled, ever-fresh flowers braided into its mane. The horse snorted and bowed his head, as if it was greeting them, and then nudged Cardan on the shoulder with his muzzle, nibbling the collar of his doublet with its velvety lips. Cardan let out a soft laugh and patted the steed affectionately. Jude stared at him with wide eyes and then hastily looked away, when a peculiar feeling bubbled in her stomach at the sight. Seeing Cardan laughing was entirely too strange for her to stomach.
“Where are you taking me, Cardan,” she repeated in an authoritative voice, crossing her arms in front of his chest. She could easily command him to tell her, but she hated doing so; forcing his will always left her feeling tainted, like an oily tang was coating her tongue and soul when she made him to do as she liked.
Cardan’s brows knitted together and he turned to her. “Riding.”
Jude glared at him. “And where would we be riding, pray tell?”
He let out an exasperated breath. “The hills, the forest - wherever else strikes your fancy.” He untied his horse and held out a hand to her. “Come.”
He wanted the two of them to ride on the same horse, Jude realized. She shook her head. “I’d prefer to ride by myself,” she declared. She would sooner take a knife to her heart before she spent the evening pressed against Cardan’s body, his arms wrapped around her or her arms around him. The thought alone had unease churn hotly in her gut.
Cardan’s coal eyes were bright with what she assumed was hate, glittering even in the dim interior of the stables. “If you don’t ride with me, I can’t make sure, you won’t escape!”
“I don’t like riding with other people. Especially not, when I’m a better rider than the other person,” Jude claimed with a challenging grin.
Cardan opened his mouth to snap back an answer, but no words came out and he closed his mouth again, growing red with anger. Jude’s grin widened. He couldn’t say anything against that, because it was the truth. She was the better rider between the two of them.
“I will follow you on my own horse, if you tell me, where we’re going.” Cardan shot her a pained look. Jude took a step closer. “Why won’t you tell me, where you want to take me. Is it an ambush? You plan to get rid of me in the woods, so you will be free of our bargain?”
Cardan huffed a breath and played with his steed’s reigns. “No, I do not plan to get rid of you in the woods,” he grumbled moodily.
“Do you plan to get rid of me anywhere else?” Jude implored. This damn faerie was way too clever with the way he phrased things. She better be thorough, or she’d end up dead in a ditch. She had no doubt that Cardan would love to be rid of her. The second she’d take her eyes off him, he’d probably flee the country and leave Elfhame to chaos and anarchy.
“I don’t plan to get rid of you – ever!” Cardan’s gaze was so intense, Jude had to look away, because the way he looked at her made her feel weird. The churning in her gut intensified.
“Why do I need to come with you?” she asked.
Cardan sighed. “It’s something, I can’t do without you. You must come with me, or there is no purpose to it.”
“Will it pose any danger to you or myself?” Jude couldn’t let it go. Cardan was reckless, uncaring, with no regard for his own safety. If anything happened to him – or her, for that matter – trouble ensued.
He fixed her with a hard, angry stare. “I am taking you for a ride in the woods. I want to show you something. Nothing more than that. I cannot promise there won’t be any danger, because I cannot promise things that lie outside my capabilities. You could fall off the horse. I could fall off the horse. The horse could stumble and we both fall off. Rebel bands might attack us during the ride. You might choke on a fly. You might die, because you’re having too much fun for once.” He grinned at her scowl. “But I promise, that I do not seek to harm you intentionally during this ride. Neither do I seek to harm myself.”
Jude stared at him for a good long while. And then she dropped her shoulders with a
sigh. “Okay.”
Cardan blinked at her in surprise. “Okay, what?”
“Okay, I will ride with you.” She really didn’t know why she had given in. Maybe just because stealing a few hours for herself, albeit while suffering Cardan’s presence, sounded simply too good.
A slow smile started blooming on Cardan’s lips, flashing all his perfect, white teeth, before he managed to get his face under control again. The peculiar feeling in her stomach got stronger: a distinct fluttering against her diaphragm, like worms crawling. With a fake cough, Cardan hastily covered his mouth and turned to his steed, climbing into the saddle. And then he offered Jude a hand.
With a nasty glare, she took his hand and put one foot in the stirrups. But when she tried to move behind him, he intercepted her and pulled her into the saddle on front of him, her legs dangling off the horse on one side, instead of sitting astride. He had her sitting on the horse like an imbecile who didn’t know how to ride. Or a spoiled lady of the gentry on a jolly ride with her lover. Jude flushed with indignation.
But before she had the chance to protest, Cardan’s arms wrapped around her, holding her tight with one hand against her stomach, and he kicked the horse into movement. Jude had no chance but to lean back into Cardan’s chest and let him hold her, while she tried to maintain her balance while she grumbled under her breath.
“If I let you sit astride, you’d wrench the reigns from me the first chance you get,” he whispered amused, his lips brushing over the round shell of her human ear. Jude stayed silent, because even Cardan would’ve been able to tell she was lying, had she tried to deny his claim, and instead wretched his hand from her stomach, placing her own against her churning gut for a second.
By the feeling of it, the worms would be through her diaphragm soon.
Once Jude had managed to overcome her frustration over not being the one riding and leaving Cardan in charge, the ride was actually pretty nice. The night was warm and the moon cast their surrounding in a soft, gentle light. Fat moths fluttered lazily around and owl hooted while they rode through the dark forest.
Jude loved riding horses as much as she loved flying on ragwort steeds and during the last couple of months, she had gotten to do neither of both. Her days were filled with trying to get the country running, trying to get Cardan to play along, and eliminating potential threats to him and Oak.
Madoc was eerily quiet lately, but Jude knew him. He was biding his time, waiting for an opportunity to open up for him. Balekin was still safely locked away, which didn’t mean, they didn’t have to observe him closely. There had already be attempts to break him out and there would be again as long as he lived, or as long as Cardan – and maybe later Oak – produced enough offspring for Balekin to dwindle into insignificance.
Jude hastily dismissed the thought of Cardan siring little horned or tailed faerie children and focused instead on their surroundings, scanning for potential threats. What did she care if Cardan made babies? Children were so rare amongst the faerie, he probably wouldn’t sire any in her lifetime, even if he tried. Except for when he took a mortal wife. Which of course he wouldn’t. Not when he hated mortals and thought them dispensable. But then again, he liked her to some capacity? Maybe he was considering -
An owl suddenly shooting across the path and under the hooves of their mount had the horse panic and rise, causing Jude to cry out and grab the first thing that she could get hold of - with unfortunately happened to be Cardan. With more grace than she thought he possessed, he quickly reigned in the dappled stallion.
“See? This I couldn’t have foreseen. Faerie is a dangerous place, Jude. Even on a joyride.” Cardan laughed, his eyes alight with wicked delight.
In that moment, Jude was again reminded of how different he was. He looked completely and utterly inhumane, a creature that reveled in mischief and scare and impish jolly. And how different she herself was from the humans that lived in the mortal world. Jude wanted to scowl at him, but instead, her face split into a broad grin. The rush of adrenaline in her system was a powerful drug, one, she had missed. She was sick of escaping danger - she wanted to thrive in it.
“Let me sit astride!” she demanded. “Let me sit astride, so we can ride properly. And then I want to see how fast your horse can go!”
Cardan’s answering smile was nothing short of wicked, a thing of villainous, cruel beauty. He let go of her and slipped out of the stirrups, so Jude could use them to maneuver herself into a different position in the saddle. Balancing with one leg in the stirrup, she hiked her dress up around her waist, not caring if Cardan saw her naked legs or her zebra print Target panties, and swung one leg over the horses back, settling into the saddle in front of Cardan.
Cardan’s hands brushed lightly over her naked thighs, when he reached around her to tie up the stirrups and the reigns so they wouldn’t hinder them and the horse, and then he placed his hands on her hips, pulling her more snuggly against him. Her backside connected perfectly with his hips as he leaned forward slightly. Jude told herself that the flutter in her stomach was because of the anticipation she had for the ride and not the feeling of him so close to her.
Leaning forward and consequently pushing her down in the process, his hands on her hips tightened as her own hands wound onto the dappled steed’s pretty mane. “I hope you’re in for a wild ride, my lady,” he huffed against her neck.
And then he kicked the horse from stand into a gallop and they were off, racing over the moonlit stretch of forest before them and the hills beyond. Jude’s eyes watered in the wind and the hairs of the steed’s mane painfully cut into her face like tiny whiplashes, but her heart swelled with excitement and her blood thrummed in her ears. She let out a whooping laugh when they broke out of the forest and were bathed in the light of a staggering, giant, full moon that smiled down on them.
Suddenly, Cardan’s hand pressed on her right leg and she felt him press his own leg against the steed’s body, stirring it to the right. She imitated his command for the animal, until his hand vanished and returned to its place on her hip. During their wild ride, he repeated this way of guiding the horse a few times, until Jude saw a giant oak tree towering on a hill next to a silvery lake in the distance. They were riding straight towards it.
Jude relaxed her legs around the steed’s body and Cardan did the same, so the animal could decide for itself, which pace it wanted to go at. Jude raised herself upright and let go of the mane, only using her years of training and her immaculate sense of balance to stay atop. Closing her eyes, she let the wind caress her face and hair and spread her arms, smiling a mad grin. Behind her, Cardan laughed softly into her ear.
He brought the horse to a stop next to the oak, but they remained seated. Jude still kept her eyes closed, relishing the wild beat of her heart, the warm, sweaty body of the horse beneath her own very sweaty thighs.
She had needed that ride, she realized. She had needed the wildness and the danger that had come with it - the freedom. She ought to thank Cardan. Because without his invitation, she would probably never had gone out to ride.
Thinking of Cardan made her remember his body still pressed to hers. Jude also noticed his hands had slipped from their position on her hips. One hand was on her bare thigh, his fingers digging into the soft flesh on the inside, dangerously high up on her leg. The other was placed at her ribcage, almost molding itself to the shape of her breast, while this thumb was brazenly settled in the valley between. He had secured her, when she had let go of the mane, but he had taken too many liberties with holding her.
Jude twisted her head around to give him a proper piece of mind about his wandering hands, but she froze the moment she laid eyes on him. His hair was windswept and wild, his forehead glistening with sweat, his pale cheeks for once not smeared with silly gold glitter, but reddened by wind and exertion, the look in his coal eyes as burning and feral as her own, she assumed. For once, he looked happy and wild - and devastatingly handsome.
With shattering clarity, Jude realized she wanted to kiss him. She wanted his lips on hers, wanted back that feeling of danger and dare she’d felt that first time they’d kissed, wanting to drag out the high from the ride. Desire washed over her, quick and lethal like a wave breaking over her head in the surf and ripping her away in its rolling current. Jude took a quick, gasping breath.
Cardan’s eyes burned into hers and his eyes flickered down to her parted lips, a knowing smile blooming on his cruel mouth. His hand lazily brushed over her breast as he moved it higher, causing her to shiver with pleasure, and slowly came to settle on her neck, his thumb pressing into her jaw, tilting her face more towards him.
Jude took a shallow breath. With his hand positioned like this Cardan could choke her if he wanted. She was bossing him around all day, ordering him to do as she pleased. She had forced him into a life he didn’t want, exerting control over him at all times. Right now, he could change it all. In this moment, he had control over her. Only he hadn’t. Because she knew, he wanted her. He wouldn’t dare hurt her. And to lure her out on this ride, he had undeliberately promised her that no harm would come to her tonight.
She gave him a mocking, daunting smile, hoping to spur him into… what exactly, she didn’t know. A kiss? A brawl? Anything to keep her adrenaline rush going. “Do you want to strangle me, your Majesty?”
His face twisted into an ugly mask of hurt and then – much to her chagrin – he released her. She had destroyed the moment. Jude couldn’t help but wonder, if, had she stayed silent, he would’ve kissed her.
Cardan gracefully slid out of the saddle and took up the steed’s reigns, leading it under the tree with Jude still sitting atop. Only now, when they were close enough for her human eyes to make do with the silvery light of the full moon, did she saw what was waiting for them under the tree: a big rug covered the mossy floor, dozens of pillows strewn over it. Silver bowls laden with fruit, platters with blue-veined cheese and venison and bread, chased jugs probably filled with wine and water. A dinner laid out for two.
Jude stared open-mouthed at the feast in front of her eyes: Cardan had taken her out for a fucking picnic.