Jasmijn > Recent Status Updates

He takes a deep breath. "Let me tell you a story."

"You?" she says. "A story?"

"Once upon a time," he says, looking up. His shoulder is throbbing. He feels like a child again, like the boy in the stables. "There was a boy with a clever tongue."

DEZE TEKENINGG💕

"Stop telling me who I am," he snarled, teeth bared. "I am tired of your stories."

Jude, Cardan thought, hating even the shape of her name. Jude.

Not a heart of stone, but a heart of fire.

Not a heart of stone, but a heart of fire.

I raise a plastic glass. “To family.”

"And Faerieland," says Taryn, raising hers.

"And pizza," says Oak.

"And stories," says Heather.

"And new beginnings," says Vivi.

Cardan smiles, his gaze on me. “And scheming great schemes."

To family and Faerieland and pizza and stories and new beginnings and scheming great schemes. I can toast to that.

Vivi blows a noisemaker. “Here,” she says, passing out paper crowns for us to wear.

"This is ridiculous," I complain, but put mine on.

Cardan looks at his reflection in the door of the microwave and adjusts his crown so it's at an angle.

"You don't know how long I've waited to hear those words," he says. "You don't want me dead."

"If you joke about this, I am going to-"

"Kill me?" he asks, raising both black brows.

I think I might hate him after all.

NIET WITHOUT ME VAN EMINEM DAT SPEELT ZODRA CARDAN TERUG IS AHAHAH

He's every bit as terrifying as any serpent.

I don't care. I run into his arms.

“Well, even if the serpent bites off your head," says Tatterfell, "the rest of you will still look good."

"That's the spirit," I tell her.

wrm krijg ik het gevoel dat ik 25 diamonds moet betalen voor die armour..

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

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."

my sweet nemesis

💍💍💍

“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."


🥹🥹🥹💕💕💕💕

Naked, I return to the bedroom.

Cardan is standing by the bed. When he turns, he looks so astonished that I almost laugh. I have seldom seen him unsure of himself, even when drunk, even when wounded; it is rare to see him overset. A expression not unlike fear. I feel a rush wild heat leaps into his eyes, an of power, heady as wine.

JAAAAA FEAR WANT FEAR = FALLING IN LOVEE

Naked, I return to the bedroom.

Cardan is standing by the bed. When he turns, he looks so aston- ished that I almost laugh. I have seldom seen him unsure of himself, even when drunk, even when wounded; it is rare to see him overset. A expression not unlike fear. I feel a rush wild heat leaps into his eyes, an of power, heady as wine.

JAAAAA FEAR OMDAT FEAR = FALLING IN LOVE

Across the room, Cardan raises a goblet. "Be welcome on the Isle of Insmire," he says. "Seelie and Unseelie, Wild Folk and Shy Folk, I am glad to have you march under my banner, glad of your loyalty, grateful for your honor." His gaze goes to me. "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."

“How did you get away?" I ask.

"I slew a shark pursuing me and hid within its corpse until the danger passed. Then I swam to shore."

“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.

"She is my wife," Cardan says, his voice carrying over the crowd.

"The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile."

"You're scheming," the Ghost says, noticing my gaze. "Grimsen made my restraints to resist all but the most magical of blades."

"I'm always scheming," I return. "How much of Madoc's plan do you know?"

He peers down at me, black brows drawn together. "Well, what do you think? Did your sister do it? And don't tell me what I already know, Yes, I sent Jude into exile. That may or may not have deterred her."

I wish I could punch him in his smug face and show him how undeterred I am by his exile. "She had no reason to hate Locke," I lie. "I don't think she wished him ill."

I fix myself with a look in the mirror, trying to summon the correct expression of deference, trying not to scowl. "Greetings, Your Majesty, you betraying toad."

No, that wouldn't work, no matter how good it felt.

"Greetings, Your Majesty," I try again. "I didn't kill my husband, even though he richly deserved it."

"I don't know, but don't worry about it yet," Vivi says, getting up. "Revenge is sweet, but ice cream is sweeter." She goes to the freezer and removes a tub of mint chocolate chip. She brings that and two spoons back to the sofa. "For now, accept this delight, unworthy though it is for the Queen of Faerie in exile."

YESSSSS ZEG HET HAAR

"I, Jude Duarte, take Cardan, High King of Elfhame, to be my husband. Let us be wed until we don't want to be and the crown has passed from our hands."

He kisses the scar of my palm.

I still have his brother's blood under my fingernails.

I don't have a ring for him.

Above us, the buds are blooming. The whole room smells of flowers.