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

by Holly Black

The Royal Astrologer, Baphen, squinted at the star chart and tried not to flinch when it seemed sure the youngest prince of Elfhame was about to be dropped on his royal head.

hard to believe he wasn’t

“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.”

seems about right 😀

Maybe it would be better if she dropped him, Baphen thought unkindly.

well damn okay 😭

“Only out of his spilled blood can a great ruler rise, but not before what I have told you comes to pass.”

🤨🤨

She couldn’t attend balls with an infant in tow, so she found a cat whose kittens were stillborn to act as his wet nurse.

wow she def deserves to be locked up wtf

And so he grew up in the palace, cherished by no one and checked by no one.

omg stop i’m supposed to be mad at him rn 😭😭 don’t make me feel bad

“You’re a prince,” she told him firmly when he would shy away from a conflict or fail to make a demand. “Everything is yours. You have only to take it.” And sometimes: “I want that. Get it for me.”

WHAT IS WRONG W YOU

If he could not get the High King’s attention for something good, then perhaps he could get it for something really, really bad.

NOOOOOOO

Despite Val Moren’s pleas for execution, Cardan was punished for the mortal’s death in the way that princes are punished. The High King had Lady Asha locked away in the Tower of Forgetting in Cardan’s stead—something Eldred was relieved to have a reason to do, since he found her both tiresome and troublesome. Care of Prince Cardan was given over to Balekin, the eldest of the siblings, the cruelest, and the only one willing to take him.

man this whole family is fucked up

Maybe the parts of it I value are the wrong parts.

He stamps a hoofed foot. “So am I! And the only reason I’m in the human world is because Dad wants the stupid crown and you want it and everyone wants it. Well, I don’t. It’s cursed.”

buddy has a point

Knowing that in the great game of princes and queens, I have been swept off the board.

this hurt

“Oh. That.” Vivi glances toward his bedroom. “I thought it was something important.”

girl 💀💀💀

Hopefully he and High King Cardan will ruin each other’s lives.

i hope so too bruh

But Cardan’s name pounds in my ears. Does he have a new seneschal? Does he have a new lover? Is he going to Council meetings himself? Does he talk about me? Do he and Locke mock me together? Does Taryn laugh?

NAH GIRL FORGET THEM ALL they’re all fake

“The Court of Teeth have thrown in their lot with the old Grand General—your father—and a whole host of other traitors. I have it on good authority that your High King is to be dethroned before the next full moon. How do you like those apples?”

how do you like them apples

Her words ring in my ears. Your High King. Dethroned.

is he gonna die or something…

I hope they do. I hope everybody will be sorry, and him, most of all him.

this 🗣️🗣️🗣️

“Anyway, it looks worse than it is.

well that’s reassuring 😀

“Love is stupid. All we do is break one another’s hearts.”

Especially when I consider my feelings for Cardan, since there was no good reason I should have had any feelings for him at all.

he can kick rocks

Nope, not me, not messed up at all.

you sure abt that?

I have given up on being proud. As Bryern reminded me, I am no one special.

NOOOO DONT SAY THAT

My gaze goes to the person beside her, sitting primly in a fanciful Elfhame court dress of gossamer and spun glass. My twin sister, Taryn.

oh what now bet she has marital issues now 😒😒

I’d like to put my hands around Taryn’s neck and squeeze until her head pops off.

i support

“There’s nothing I want to hear out of your lying mouth.” I’m glad to have a target for all the feelings Grima Mog and Heather stirred up. A deserving target. “Get out, or I’ll throw you out.”

fight fight fight

“Also no,” I say. “No, I won’t help you. No, I won’t hear you explain why I should. It really is a magical word: no. You say whatever bullshit you want, and I just say no.”

mhm 🤏🤏🤏

“Locke is dead,” she blurts out.

oh!

Maybe I should be relieved, for all the trouble he caused. But I am surprised by feeling grief instead.

nah i’m shocked too i thought abt him being dead but it seemed too good to be true

Taryn takes a breath, as if steeling herself. “He’s dead because I killed him.”

😀

“And I need you to pretend to be me,” she finishes, with no apparent worry that suggesting the very trick that allowed Madoc to march off with half of Cardan’s army, the very trick that doomed me to agreeing to the plan that got me exiled, is in poor taste. “Just for a few hours.”

??! this girl can’t be serious

The very thought of being there, of seeing Cardan, speeds my heart.

oh jude…

“Why didn’t you say something? Why did you let me marry him?” she demands.

ur dumbass would’ve probably not listened 🙄🙄

“I didn’t know,” I admit. “I didn’t know it was Locke who’d led a hunt for me until I saw you wearing the earrings I lost that night. And then I got taken by the Undersea. And soon after I got back, you betrayed me, so I figured it didn’t matter.”

oh yeah that too

“I just did what Dad said! I didn’t think it mattered. You had all that power and you wouldn’t use it. But I never wanted to hurt you.” “I think I prefer Locke and his friends chasing me around the woods to you stabbing me in the back. Again.”

and the worst sister ever award goes to…

“He promised he would love me until he died, but his love didn’t protect me from his unkindness. He warned me that the Folk don’t love as we do. I didn’t understand until he left me alone in his great, awful house for weeks on end. I cultivated hybrid roses in the garden and commissioned new curtains and hosted month-long revels for his friends. It didn’t matter. I was sometimes louche and sometimes chaste. I gave him everything. But he said that all the story had gone out of me.”

WOOOWWW hey everyone act surprised again

The next thing I knew, the point of it was in Locke’s throat. And then he was finally quiet, but when I took it out, there was so much blood.”

eh he had it coming

“There’s going to be an inquest,” Taryn goes on. “They’re going to glamour me and ask questions. I won’t be able to lie. But if you answer in my place, you can say honestly that you didn’t kill him.”

okay kinda smart

May your life be brief and shrouded in sorrow, and when you die, may you go unmourned.”

bro what’s up w everyone hating jude😭💔💔

“That’s not true!” I insist, but I remember Cardan on a blanket with a daffodil-haired faerie girl. She pressed her lips to the edge of his boot, and another girl kissed his throat. His gaze had turned to me when one of them began kissing his mouth. His eyes were coal-bright, as wet as tar.

argh i forgot abt that

“You’re so beautiful.” He begins to trace patterns on my arms, then runs his hands down my sides. “So very beautiful.”

😀😀😀

“But your beauty will fade,” he continues, just as softly, speaking like a lover. His hands linger, making my stomach tighten and warmth pool in my belly. “This smooth skin will wrinkle and spot. It will become as thin as cobwebs. These breasts will droop. Your hair will grow dull and thin. Your teeth will yellow. And all you have and all you are will rot away to nothing. You will be nothing. You are nothing.”

OH HELL NAAHHHHHH

“I’m nothing,” I echo, feeling helpless in the face of his words.

NOOOOOO

“Of course I’m lying,” he returns. “This is your dream. Let me show you.” He presses a warm hand against my cheek. “I love you, Jude. I’ve loved you for a long time. I will never stop loving you.”

oh my god

One of her hands goes to her stomach, fingers spreading over her belly. “No,” she says. “But I didn’t tell you everything.”

no…

“I’m pregnant,” she says, her voice a whisper.

you are WHAT?? you reproduced w THAT??

I knew all that, and yet it never occurred to me that Taryn and Locke would conceive a child.

i was hoping they wouldn’t… but ofc…

“I will,” Oak says solemnly. “Come back soon. I’ll miss you.” I am surprised by his sweetness, especially after our last encounter.

oak😭😭😭🤍

She spoke of hosting month-long revels, but only now do I imagine her spread out on the pillows, drunk and laughing and maybe kissing people. Maybe doing more than kissing people.

well then

While I walked the path of daggers and poison, she walked the no-less-fraught path of desire.

oh well good for you taryn