More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Prince Cardan will be your last born child,” the Royal Astrologer said. “He will be the destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.”
“Only out of his spilled blood can a great ruler rise, but not before what I have told you comes to pass.”
“Locke is dead,” she blurts out. I wheel around. Above us, the sky is bright and blue and clear. Birds call to one another from nearby trees.
REAL
“You come from nothing, and it is to nothing you will return,”
“Jude, you can’t really think I don’t know it’s you. I knew you from the moment you walked into the brugh.”
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.
“This is Lady Nore and Lord Jarel and their daughter, Queen Suren,” Oriana says to me quietly. So the little girl is the ruler?
When his blood falls, things grow. Grima Mog goes to one knee. “My queen,” she says. “Command me.” I can’t believe she is speaking those words to me. I can’t believe the land chose 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.”
LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK
“Yeah, and the next thing we know, the High King is on our doorstep looking ready to tear down the whole apartment complex to find you.
“It was terrifying,” he says, “watching you fall. I mean, you’re generally terrifying, but I am unused to fearing for you. And then I was furious. I am not sure I have ever been that angry before.” “Mortals are fragile,” I say. “Not you,” he says in a way that sounds a little like a lament. “You never break.”
“This is my room,” he points out, affronted. “And that’s my wife.” “So you keep telling everyone,” the Bomb says. “But I am going to take out her stitches, and I don’t think you want to watch that.” “Oh, I don’t know,” I say. “Maybe he’d like to hear me scream.” “I would,” Cardan says, standing. “And perhaps one day I will.” On the way out, his hand goes to my hair. A light touch, barely there, and then gone.
Cardan’s voice goes low enough for me to not make out the words, but the silky menace of his tone is unmistakable.
“Mock me all you like. Whatever I imagined then, now it is I who would beg and grovel for a kind word from your lips.” His eyes are black with desire. “By you, I am forever undone.”
STOP IT RIGHT NOW
“We have lived in our armor for so long, you and I. And now I am not sure if either of us knows how to remove it.”
“In the mortal world, when I thought you were my enemy, I still missed you.”
“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.” He walks to the door to the royal chambers, as though to end the conversation. “You probably guessed as much,” he says. “But just in case you didn’t.”
I can’t believe he said that and then just walked out, leaving me reeling. I am going to strangle him.
You love him, too, I think. You’ve loved him since before you were a prisoner of the Undersea. You loved him when you agreed to marry him. Once this is over, I will find the bravery to tell him.
“You’re not dying,” she says. “There’s something I could never tell you while I lived,” he says, pulling her closer to him. “I love you, Liliver. I’ve loved you from the first hour of our meeting. I loved you and despaired. Before I die, I want you to know that.”
i wasn't expecting the roach to make me cry
In my dreams, Cardan the snake looms over me, his black scales gleaming. “I love you,” I say, and then he devours me.
“The curse is broken. The king is returned.” He’s every bit as terrifying as any serpent. I don’t care. I run into his arms.
To family and Faerieland and pizza and stories and new beginnings and scheming great schemes.
