The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3)

by Holly Black

I suppose I am a skilled enough murderer of Folk, but what I really excel at is getting under their skin.

By not screaming and running for the door, I have annoyed her. I can tell.

I guess I hit a nerve. My best skill.

I hate to admit it, but I’ve missed risking my neck.

I wish I could punch him in his smug face and show him how undeterred I am by his exile.

“Jude, you can’t really think I don’t know it’s you. I knew you from the moment you walked into the brugh.”

🥺❤️

“Wisdom is for the meek,” he returns. “And it seldom helps them as much as they believe it will.

this is a dumbass take lol

I am the Queen of Elfhame. Even though I am the queen in exile, I am still the queen. And that means Madoc isn’t just trying to take Cardan’s throne. He’s trying to take mine.

I kick a rock, sending it skittering deeper into the woods. Then I kick another. It takes a lot of rocks before I feel even a little bit better.

“Really, I miss the days when you were in charge. High Kings shouldn’t be gallivanting around like common ruffians.”

My sisters, who, despite everything, came for me.

“She is my wife,” Cardan says, his voice carrying over the crowd. “The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile.”

It is perhaps too plain for a queen, but Cardan is extravagant enough for both of us.

“You’ve got to stop acting as though Court politics is some kind of extreme sport and stop chasing the adrenaline high.”

I feel like a constellation of wounds, held together with string and stubbornness.

The other is that I want you here by my side, as my queen.”

“Would you like me to inform the Council that you will see them another time? It will be a novelty to have me make your excuses.”

“This is my room,” he points out, affronted. “And that’s my wife.”

I hear the John Mulaney bit every time I read this lol

“To you, I offer honey wine and the hospitality of my table. But to traitors and oath breakers, I offer my queen’s hospitality instead. The hospitality of knives.”

I can’t believe he said that and then just walked out, leaving me reeling. I am going to strangle him.

He’s thinking through his options. They’re not good, but he does still have a very big sword.

“I have been explaining skateboarding to Oriana, and she doesn’t think I should do it.”

Oak goes back to sulking, lying facedown on a pillow instead of sitting. I want to give him a shove with my foot for rudeness, but maybe it’s a good moment for him to be rude.

I have resolved to try to emulate his example where I can, including with annoying seating.

What I want is him back, him standing beside me, him laughing at all this. I would settle for even his worst self, his cruelest trickster self, if only he could be here.

I think about the flowers blooming up out of the snow. In that moment, I was magic.

Whatever I am, I have been nurtured here. This is my home and my land.

“He was willing to break the Blood Crown and trust in the loyalty of his subjects instead of compel it. He’s the true High King of Faerie.”

“Every part of me is a delight.”

At least one is in my honor, however: Our queen sheathed her sword and closed her eyes, And said, “I thought the snake would be of larger size.”

Some faerie ways will never not horrify me.

“It is uncommon for any Court to have two rulers. Yet you, Jude Duarte, High Queen, have shown us why it can be a strength instead of a weakness.

I grin irrepressibly at Cardan. He smiles back, with a little surprise. It’s possible I don’t smile like that very often.

“I bet Cardan has never even tried pizza.” Oak looks scandalized by this pronouncement and starts explaining about different toppings, from pineapple to sausage to anchovies.