The Cruel Prince

Jude arrives at the coronation with the rest of Madoc’s household. She sees the human girl who drowned (in Chapter 17), resurrected by the undersea creatures and transformed into one of them. Jude dances with Locke, who asks her cryptic questions about what she would do for him and whether she would be hurt if he betrayed her. She answers uncertainly, knowing that if he hurt her, she would try to retaliate. Cardan comes up and demands to dance with Jude, and the two banter as they dance. Jude realizes, uneasily, that it was a relief to be separated from Locke and that her animosity with Cardan invigorates her.

As the faeries gather for the coronation, Jude sees Locke and Taryn together, acting intimate and flirtatious. The ceremony begins, and just as Dain is about to receive the kingdom’s crown, Balekin comes forward and challenges his brother for it. To show that he is serious, and to remove another rival to the throne, Balekin stabs his own sister, killing her in front of everyone. Jude notices that the rest of her own family has been whisked away by Madoc’s knights, suggesting that Madoc had anticipated the coup. Dain’s knights betray him by allowing Balekin’s challenge, and Madoc reveals his partnership with Balekin by approaching Dain and killing him. Balekin demands that his father, the outgoing King, declare him the new King, but his father replies that he’s not worthy of ruling. Balekin then has his men kill both his father and his father’s consort. Because the crown must be placed on the ruler’s head by a family member, Balekin turns to his sisters to crown him, but the Ghost—hidden in the rafters—kills one sister, and the other dies by suicide rather than crown Balekin. The only sibling left to bequeath the crown is Cardan, who has disappeared. Balekin tries to have the court poet crown him, then tries to crown himself after the faeries refuse to pledge allegiance to him. But the crown burns him when he puts it on his own head. Rulers of other courts refuse loyalty to Balekin and tell him he has three days to become legitimately crowned.

The book enters its second section in this chapter. Shortly after the thwarted coronation, Jude is crouched under a table at the palace while the faeries feast around her. A drunken Cardan, disguised from the crowds with a mask, finds her. Jude makes him join her as they crawl under the table toward an exit. The two disguise themselves and lie to the guards standing at the exit. When the two reach a deserted part of the palace, Jude corners Cardan with the sword Madoc gave her, wanting to harm her enemy now that she has the ability. She ultimately relents, however, because she knows she will be able to use him as a bargaining incentive.

Jude tells Cardan she killed Valerian, which shocks him. She takes him to the Court of Shadows and ties him up while she decides her next move. Cardan is further shocked upon learning Jude was one of Dain’s spies. Jude takes his signet ring and writes a letter, sealing it with the ring. She takes the ring afterwards. The Ghost (freed from Balekin’s dungeon) and the Roach show up and interrogate Cardan, trying to decide whether to kill him to prevent Balekin from taking the throne or use him as a bargaining asset.

Cardan tells them that Dain was a killer and accuses the Ghost of poisoning one of Dain’s lovers and their unborn child (Locke’s mother and his unborn sibling). The discussion implies that Oak could be the unborn child. Jude decides to go back to Madoc’s house and see what Cardan is worth to Madoc, making her fellow spies promise not to harm Cardan until she returns in a day. 

Jude goes back to Madoc’s estate. There, she finds out that Locke is Taryn’s intended. [She learned previously that some of Cardan’s anger toward Jude and her sister is over Taryn’s betrayal of Jude.] Jude challenges Taryn to a duel, and the sisters fight. Taryn says to Jude that she, Taryn, is a mirror to Jude, and that Jude’s hostility toward her is based on projections. Alarmed at the fight, Vivi tries to stop them with magic. The spell works on Taryn, but not on Jude, revealing that Dain’s spell has outlasted his death and she is still immune to others’ magic. Madoc breaks up the sisters’ fight, and later meets with them. He tells Taryn that he thinks Locke is unworthy of either sister, but that he won’t stand in the way of the match if it’s what Taryn wants. Taryn is relieved, and Madoc dismisses her. He asks Jude where Cardan is, telling her that Balekin will pay a hefty reward for his brother, but she steers the conversation away from the topic and Madoc lets her go. Vivi comes to Jude’s room and offers to escape with her into the mortal world. Jude, trying to buy herself time, asks for another day to think about it.

The next morning, Jude goes to Taryn’s room and discovers that her sister is gone. She asks Oriana where her sister is, and finds a golden acorn on Oriana’s vanity that is identical to Liriope’s mechanized golden acorn. Jude realizes that Oak is the child of Locke’s mother (who was a consort to Dain’s father) and Dain himself. The message inside the golden acorns, referring to a child, refers not to Locke but to Oak. Locke’s mother gave Oak to Madoc and Oriana, a former consort herself, to raise. However, Liriope died before Oak was born, forcing Oriana to cut her corpse open to retrieve the infant Oak. These events explain Madoc’s motives for siding with Balekin to overthrow the murderous Dain. Jude begins to suspect that Madoc ultimately wants to place Oak on the throne, not Balekin, and that Madoc is plotting against Balekin as well.