Jude tilted her head as she watched her reflection in the vanity mirror, mindlessly combing through her hair. She only fought with the brush when she came upon a tangle, which hurt her scalp much more than she'd admit out loud.

The party had just ended, which she was far beyond grateful for. She thought that she would get used to the amount of revels she was forced to attend as the High Queen of Elfhame, but apparently she was wrong. To her, most of them just felt like babysitting assignments where she had to make sure that Cardan wasn't off doing something inherently stupid. Thankfully, he'd managed to remain sober that night.

Jude sent an elbow back when she felt someone wrap their arms around her, hitting them directly in the gut. The High King of Elfhame, Cardan Greenbrier, doubled over behind her. He had released his grip almost immediately in order to wrap his arms protectively around himself. Jude covered her mouth with her hands.

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't know it was you," She insisted as he shook his head, looking up at her and attempting to pretend that he wasn't in immense pain.

"No. That was my bad. You'd think I'd learn to let you know when I'm around you," He responded through gritted teeth. Jude rose to her feet, leading him over towards the couch that sat in their main room.

He sat down, resting his arms over his gut as Jude exhaled a held breath, sitting down beside him and placing one of her hands on his shoulder. He leaned towards her without a second thought, resting his head against her chest and closing his eyes.

"Tell me a story... One that you haven't already told me. One that's real," He requested as she raised one of her eyebrows, but knew that she was going to do so.

She knew that she wanted to change some aspects of the tale, hoping to muddle some details as she prepared herself to tell him a story that he hadn't heard before. A weak smile settled over her lips as he opened his liquid black eyes, which reminded her of peering into an abyss.

"Okay, my story is of a princess and a knight. At this point in the story, the princess was now the queen over all her land. The knight was her personal guard, keeping her safe in any way that he could," She began, setting out the timeline.

Cardan arched one of his eyebrows, watching her as she told the tale. A sly smile appeared on his lips, raising his hand like a child in a class.

"What are the knight and princess's names?" He asked; she shot him a glare for interrupting her.

"Princess Insufferable and Sir Fearless," She deemed; Cardan glared at her with irritation.

"Sir Overconfident," Cardan decided. Jude stared back at him with malice; he ignored the look.

"Fine. Queen Insufferable now had everything she'd ever wanted: parties that extended into the late afternoon, any alcoholic beverage her heart desired, and could seduce any faerie she wished to bed," Jude began as Cardan smirked at this description.

"Well, she sounds like the best kind of person," The High King of Elfhame commented.

"You would think that. Anyways, Sir Fearless—"

"Overconfident."

"Whatever. Sir Overconfident found himself to be in quite the predicament, rushing around and doing everything he could to ensure the safety of the queen and his own family. Some guards found him and informed him of a prison escape. Without a second thought, he rushed to go handle it. When he got there, however, it was far too late," Jude's voice was careful, almost as if the words were dancing over shards of glass.

Cardan found himself remembering Taryn's wedding with Locke. He could distantly hear the laughing of the joyous day in the back of his mind. Another thing he remembered was Jude's other sister, Vivienne, and her mortal girlfriend, Heather. He recalled Jude leaving to deal with business at the Tower of Forgetting.

Suddenly, his heart dropped when he realized where this was going.

"Jude..." He started.

"Shh. Do not interrupt me," She demanded, now refusing to meet his eye.

"There had been an ambush. Sir Overconfident was outnumbered and found himself unable to do anything about it. Unfortunately, he was outmatched. However, he valiantly fought until he lost consciousness. When he woke up, he had no clue where he was. Then, with dread, he understood that he was a prisoner within the enemy's kingdom," She continued.

Cardan grasped onto one of Jude's hands, not quite sure what to do with the knowledge he was about to gain. He knew that he was going to be upset by whatever had happened to her while she was prisoner in the Undersea.

"Being a prisoner wasn't all that bad at first. But suddenly, he wasn't being fed. He wasn't able to sleep. The prince of the opposite kingdom wouldn't let him sleep, keeping him awake asking about Queen Insufferable. Meanwhile, all the knight did to keep himself sane was think about his uncommon relationship with the queen, trying to think of what it meant. Then... That was when one of the worst things happened..." Jude breathed, now to the point that she was staring off into space.

Cardan squeezed her hand, sitting up a bit and drawing her closer to him. She went quiet for a moment, seeming to hesitate. Now, he wouldn't dare speak. As much as he enjoyed making snarky comments, he also wanted to know what she'd been through. He knew that it was something so awful that she refused to talk or think about it; yet, here she was, doing both of those things.

"The queen's older sister was there: Princess Manipulative. She had wanted the throne so badly, yet was outraged that her incompetent younger sister took it. And Princess Manipulative knew that Sir Overconfident was rather close with Queen Insufferable..." She breathed, inhaling a shaky breath before continuing with her story.

"What did Princess Manipulative do to Sir Overconfident?" Cardan's voice came out like a growl, knowing it wasn't anything good.

Jude ignored him. "Sir Overconfident wasn't affected by the glamour, like most humans were. However, he couldn't let any of his captors know that. So he played along, doing whatever they asked of him. It was a good thing that he was capable of lying directly through his teeth about Queen Insufferable and her intentions for the looming war."

"What did Princess Manipulative do to Sir Overconfident?" Cardan asked once again, knowing that something had happened. And seeing as Jude was actively evading the question, he knew it wasn't anything good.

Jude blinked at her husband, inhaling a shaky breath and feeling as he squeezed her hand. She had seen Cardan angered quite a few times, but this time it felt like something else; this was no minor inconvenience to him, this was rage that he was feeling. Anticipation and fury.

"She glamoured him. Glamoured him to kiss her. And, once he did, she decided that it wasn't good enough. 'Kiss me like I'm her. Kiss me like I'm my insufferable sister'."

The pair went quiet for a long moment.

"He didn't have a choice but to obey..." Jude breathed.

The High King of Elfhame sat silent for a minute, allowing the words to seep into his mind. He felt his heart pound a bit quicker in his chest, many emotions slamming into him all at once. But he didn't know what to do with them.

Balekin had done many terrible things in his lifetime: poor treatment of humans, killing almost all of his family, physically abusing Cardan, and betraying the Crown. All of those things Cardan had found himself able to push away and forget about. But this? He wasn't too certain as to why, but this ignited white-hot fury in his soul.

"Cardan...?" Jude whispered, snapping him out of his trance. He jolted a bit, eyes quick to land on her.

"Your silence is concerning," She admitted.

The High King continued to watch his High Queen with a possessive stare. His own brother had done that to her. If Cardan was cruel, then Balekin was downright evil. His own brother, who had abused him and killed off the remainder of their family. And he touched Jude. The invincible Jude Duarte-Greenbrier.

He wanted to scream at his brother; lecture him and accuse him of all the terrible things he'd done. Tell him off for touching - let alone kissing - his wife. Cardan's wife. To yell and imprison his brother for eternity was something that he wanted more than anything in that moment.

But Balekin was dead.

In the quiet, Cardan reached out one of his hands and caressed Jude's cheek, fingers gracefully gliding over her tanned skin. She stilled, dark eyes trained on his expression in a concerning manner. Her stare took in the golden powder that had been spread across his cheekbones; the way his mouth sat in a straight line, stained red with wine; how his ebony hair curled up around his pointed ears, golden jewelry dangling from the lobes; how his flawless dark eyebrows remained knitted together, outwardly displaying his frustration with the information that she'd just given him.

"You are so much stronger than anyone needs to be, my darling Jude," Cardan breathed, his fingers finding their way up to her hair.

With a saddened smile on her lips, she leaned into Cardan's hand. He accepted her, wrapping one of his arms around her form and pulling her into him. She rested her skull against his chest, closing her eyes and breathing in the safety of her current position. With her king. With her husband. With Cardan.

"Queen Insufferable exchanged political power for Sir Overconfident. She saved him. However, there is a happy ending to this. A little while after, they got married. He loved her with his whole heart. And, as far as I know, she loved him. That isn't the end of their story, but that was the moment that they determined they were each other's happiness." She recited all of this with her eyes shut and leaning into Cardan.

He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head, holding her tightly. The very concept of releasing her in that moment seemed like something so absurd. He wouldn't. He couldn't. In his mind, he was still processing Balekin's actions.

The audacity that his brother possessed was more problematic than Cardan's reckless alcoholism and his ability to love a female who has the capability of murdering him.

"Oh, don't doubt yourself, Jude. She loved him then and she loves him now..." He promised, words whispered carefully into her ear.

Jude smiled, keeping herself securely against her husband's chest. He continued to maneuver his fingers through her wavy hair; strands of hair being twirled between his pointed fingernails, which had been painted black and dusted with gold. He was extremely careful to not get his rings trapped in her hair.

"He loves her now, too..."

She lifted her head, weakly grinning up at her husband before utilizing her fingertips to steer his face towards her. Pressing a gentle kiss to his lips, she felt his hold on her tighten. He pulled her closer, never wanting to release her lips. He wanted this forever. He wanted everything that had to do with Jude for as long as he would live.

"Good... Because I don't know what I would do if you didn't..." He breathed against her lips before capturing her in a kiss once again.

They spent the remainder of that evening tending to one another's lips and grasping onto each other as if they'd disappear if they let go.