Chapter Text
Jude
It is perhaps just my luck that Cardan promised Vivi we would go on a weekend trip with her and Heather this Summer. But I could not prevent him from promising her.
“I am sorry,” Cardan says as I finish packing my own bag. “Had I known you would be so against it, I would not have promised Heather and Vivi we would join them in the Kingdom of Magic.”
I roll my eyes even while an endearing smile makes it’s way into my face. “It’s not a real kingdom,” I tell him, zipping the duffle bag closed. “They’re taking us to Disneyworld,” I say. “It’s an amusement park.” I try to think up something he might relate it to. “Like…Mandrake Market, but with lots of kids and rides.” That probably didn’t help him out much.
He nods, but I can still see the confusion in his body language. “Lots of children…servants?”
I shake my head. “No, no. Kids with their parents, families and friends. There are princesses and—”
“Princesses?” He comes around to the side of the low couch where I am kneeling in front of a thrifted backpack. “What sort of Low Court is this place? Are they to have us grant them a boon?”
I laugh a little. “No, Cardan. It’s just a pleasure trip. No Courts or real magic involved.”
He flops down on another sofa, picking up a half-empty goblet of wine from earlier. He dips a finger into the green drink. “I am not shocked Vivienne would invite us on such an excursion.” He licks his finger and grins at me seductively. “She never did care much for us high and mighty royals and all our dealings, did she? Well, very well then. We must fulfill our promise, must we not?”
“Your promise,” I remind him, zipping up our shared travel backpack and tossing it next to my duffle.
He waves the goblet from one side to the other. “Are we not both the crown of Elfhame? My darling Queen, my promise must be met, yes?”
I flop myself down on the sofa opposite him. “No, I know,” I agree. “It just seems so silly to go on some trip when there are more pressing things to do here, you know?”
He shrugs nonchalantly. “Perhaps. But a promise is a promise, is it not? And we could use a bit of pleasure for a change. Something other than all the debauchery and revelry happening here at the palace, I mean.”
I scoff at his words. If I know anything about High King Cardan, it’s that he thrives on all the debouch and silliness here in Elfhame. Isn’t that what made me hate him so much in the first place—his lack of seriousness and overindulgence in pleasure?
I eventually get him to pack himself some clothes for the long weekend. He hates mortal clothes, but owns quite a bit now that he comes with me to the human world to visit my family. I’m really not sure what the weather will be like in Florida this time of year, but I’m sure he can get other clothes while we’re there if his dark jeans and black sweater are too much.
I’ve never been to Florida before, let alone a place like Disneyworld. That’s not the kind of trip one goes on after their parents are slaughtered and they are taken to live with the man who killed them. Girls like me don’t dress up like a princess; because girls like me don’t care about that, and end up becoming queen anyway.
“Jude,” Cardan emerges from the wardrobe in nothing but a dressing gown, wine goblet still in his hand. “I’ve arranged for things to be taken general care of by the council while we are away. Is there anything you require of me before we leave otherwise?”
Regardless of the fact that we are married and have been for a while, and the fact that nudity is nothing in faerie, I still blush when I see him. I hope he doesn’t catch it. “No, that is well,” I say in reply, turning back to the letter I am writing to Nicasia concerning a meeting we have planned in a few months time.
He uses one of his long, beringed fingers to turn my chin up toward him. He smells of wine and evergreen and faeriefruit. I supposed when I kiss him, I am a little addicted to his taste, because I have made myself addicted to the poison of faeriefruit. I suppose I am always tempted to kiss him, because I am always thirsting after another taste of the magical fruit.
“I am busy,” I tell Cardan. “Go back down to the revel, or something. I heard Taryn is there tonight. The Ghost is teaching Leander how to climb into the rafters of the throne room, so I’ve heard.” I dip my feather quill into the midnight ink again, hesitating as a drip falls onto the desk with a miniature splash.
Cardan grabs my jaw more firmly. “Are you, perchance, lying to me, wife? Because, as much as I would love to see my nephew try and climb the branches of the throne room while his mother gasps from the floor, I am starting to think you want me gone.”
I lift an eyebrow up at him. “Now, why would I want you gone?” I ask.
He nods slowly, brushing soft knuckles down the length of my neck. “I will not go down to the revel, Jude. I would much rather stay up here and watch you scowl down at your letter to the Undersea.”
I pull away from him with a roll of my eyes, going back to my letter. As I write to our merpeople allies, I recall a cartoon I watched not so long ago in the mortal world. A movie about a mermaid girl who fell in love with a human prince and ended up turning into a human so they could live happily ever after. I laugh to myself thinking about the strange similarities between me and that mermaid girl. How stupid she was to fall in love with a boy who was not ever her species, a boy whose world hunted her and killed her mother.
“What do you find so amusing in your letter to Nicasia?” Cardan wonders. “Are you and she gossiping about me, or something of that sort?”
I throw him a smirk as I re-dip my dried quill again. “Oh, I’m sure you would like to know what we are discussing.” I scribble my title as High Queen on the bottom of the letter before sealing it with the royal signet ring.
“I quite would, yes,” he says.
I place the letter on the silver platter already stacked with other letters set to be sent to others for while we are away. I tuck my knees to my chest. “Well, it definitely involves you. I’ll say that,” I tell him. “I have half a mind to tell you, and half a mind never to bring it up, and then another part of me entirely that is thinking of a whole other situation.”
His head tilts as one of his brows lift. “And I am beginning to think you are becoming more and more like the folk each day, what with these dreadfully deceitful non-answers.”
I touch his pointed ear, the earring dripping from his lobe. He runs his deft fingers over my waist and hip and down my thigh, wrapping his hand around the inside of my leg to pull me closer.