#cardan letters

[highqueen-judeduarte]

“Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must.”

― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

[flueroses]

cardan’s letters to jude in a nutshell

That’s a waste of pap— that’s a waste of grief, begging, love and I quote, “indiscreet promises”

the “I expect you to come back now that everything is settled” letter

lol the “I want you to come back but I don’t want to say it so just come be angry at me closer” letter

The second half part though- 😭. the “just come home I don’t care what you do to me but just COME BAAAACK” letter

Cardan be like: tf does this queen think she is not responding to my letters, AKA the “YOU HAVE NEVER DONE MORE OF A SIN THAN THIS JUDE DUARTE” letter

Also cardan: yeah I’m doing something wrong, how about I address this to The High Queen of Elfhame, ha this will definitely work AKA the most heartfelt, poetic and longest letter

At this point cardan just gave up and started doing what he does best: writing Jude’s name in an angry, passionate and grieving fashion. This is called the, “ I give up you win” letter.

[whisperingreader]

I adore the Greenbriar boys. Well when I say that, I mean Oak and Cardan. They are down bad in the best way possible. They’re fae so their charm makes sense, but it’s so easy to love them as characters. They’re just two guys who love dangerous women, I mean who wouldn’t be obsessed with Jude and Wren??

[heiseisherlockholmes]

Come home and shout at me. For tricking you and embarrassing you.

Come home and fight with me. For keeping you in the dark, when we were partners in crime.

Come home and break my heart, if you must. Go ahead and throw it in my face that you never loved me, that you married me solely for the throne, that I was only ever a pawn in your relentless pursuit for power.

Just come home. To me.

[lqveharrington]

Feelings Mutual | C.G.

summary: Your forced to hangout with Cardan at the High King’s birthday celebration. Turns out, you both make stupid decisions when drunk. And what’s the fine line between hatred and love between two being who can’t lie anyway?

pairing: Cardan Greenbriar x half fae!fem!reader

includes: drunk Cardan, drunk reader, cursing, making out, suggestiveness, no use of Y/N, barely proofread (i think that’s it)

a/n: i’m on a reading spree, and working on my projects, so this should help get me out of a huge writing slump.

In Faerie, it was uncommon for a half fae, half human being to be a princess in the court. Your father — the King of one of the many lands — wed a human woman, causing you to become the land’s princess. Of course many of the court thought that you were lesser than them; For such a creation should never hold that high of a status.

Ever since you were younger, you often attended lessons with the High King’s youngest child. At first, you sought out to befriend him and his group of friends. But you soon found out that they loathed you. Because how could a halfling ever be a worthy princess?

So you gave up trying to befriend them. You let the group taunt you for not being full fae, but what was the worst thing they could do? You still were a daughter of a very powerful king. The very king that was the closest with the High King himself.

You and your family were constantly invited to all their gatherings, and this one wasn’t an exception. It was the High King’s birthday, which meant all of Faerie was invited to Elfhame palace to celebrate such a day. The only issue with that meant your father and mother urged you to talk to Cardan and his group.

“Mother, they don’t like me.” You wring your hands together, fidgeting with your silver jewelry.

She clicked her tongue, “Nonsense. Prince Balekin spoke of how much Cardan talks about you when he comes home from your lessons.”

“Wait what?” Your eyes widen at her in disbelief. “Mother, I’m sure they’re words of hate.”

“Is it because you don’t like your dress? Are you afraid they’ll hate it?” She tugged you to stand in front of herself. “You look gorgeous, angel.”

You purse your lips at her compliment. You truly loved the dress. It was a beautiful sage color that complimented your skin tone completely, and the corset really did wonders. There were gorgeous lace details of butterflies that were a shade darker, with a slit running down one side of the dress. It was beautiful, but you feared that it was much too modern for Faerie, causing your thoughts to wander to how Cardan’s friends would insult it.

“No, I love the dress, mother.” You give her a tight lipped smile, squeeze her hands. “If you truly wish for me to find Cardan, I’ll go and be friendly so you and father can enjoy your time here.”

“Thank you.” She pressed a kiss to your forehead and a real smile etched its way onto your face.

“Be safe, alright?” Your father squeezed your shoulder before leaning down to whisper words your mother couldn’t hear. “If trouble comes, you know what I’ve taught you. You have your dagger?”

Your lips twitch in excitement, “Of course.”

“Then you’re all set then, kiddo.” He gave you one last look before resting an arm around your mother’s waist. “I’ll come find you when it’s time for us to depart.”

You nod before taking a small bow. You watched them leave and make their way to the throne, immediately engaging with the High King and Queen. They seemed happy, which made you glad that they accepted your mother as their own. Shaking your head, you took a deep breath and blew out the air in one go. Carefully, you made your way over to Cardan. Luckily, he was on his own for once.

“Cardan.” You nod in his direction, watching his dark eyes with flecks of gold suddenly gazing into yours. Without fail, his eyes roam over your body, tail whipping behind himself after gaining someone’s attention.

“Princess! Don’t you look absolutely captivating tonight.” He slurred, red wine dripping out of his glass. “Welcome to my humble abode.”

You raised a brow at the prince. From what you could recall, he didn’t live inside the palace walls. And there wasn’t a chance he could lie either. “You don’t live here.”

“I used to.” He tipped his glass up to his wine stained lips, taking in the drink whilst taking in the sight of you.

“Where are your—“ You use your hand to gesture in the air as you grab your own glass of wine from a server passing buy. Unsure of how to word your question, you sip on the wine, immediately hit by its strength. “Where are your friends, I should say.”

“Off to bother some mortal or do something stupid.” He smiles in your direction as you down your drink and reach for another. “What’s upsetting you, princess?”

“Nothing.” You tilt your head toward him, eyes flicking down from his strange stare to his stained lips. “Just want time to move faster.”

“How drunk do you want to get?” He leans closer to you, fingers itching to pull you into him.

You place a hand to his mouth and push him further away from yourself. He hums as he traces his finger over his empty wine glass.

“How many glasses have you had, Cardan?” You tip back your third drink, missing his smirk while he watches.

“Enough.”

“Enough to forget?” You turn toward the table and grab the strongest drink, carefully downing the drink.

His shadow towers over you as his breath tickles your neck, “Forget what exactly, love?”

“I hate you.” You say against Cardan’s lips, arms loosely hanging around his neck. “I hate you so much.”

He continues to push you backwards as he slams the door behind him, hands finding their place around your waist. “Feelings mutual, princess.”

Letting your hand thread through his hair, you pull him in for a more heated kiss, tugging ever so slightly at his roots. Cardan groans against your lips, pulling your body closer to his.

“This is such a stupid idea.” You unwillingly part as he drops you down on a bed — hopefully one that used to be his. You let out a small gasp as he litters soft kisses on your throat and down to your exposed collar bone. Your hands find his shoulders, pulling him impossibly closer. “Cardan—“

“Yes, love?” He slowly makes his way back up to your lips, pressing short kisses as you try to make sense of the situation. He stops attacking you with his lips, staring and waiting for you to continue.

You shake your head, eyes glassy with drunkenness as you meet his gaze. “Kiss me.”

“You’re too perfect for me.” He groans again, tasting the red wine from your lips as he kisses you harder. “God, I hate you.” Cardan mumbles as he lets his hands wander over your body, refraining from the more private areas at the moment.

Cardan allows you to wander over his own body, feeling you fidget with the hem of his shirt. Letting your hands slip underneath his shirt, you let out a small sigh before flipping the both of you over. You quickly toss your dagger onto the floor before meeting his lips again, the kiss heightening all your profound feelings.

As minutes turned into an hour more, you both fell into a pit of no return. The shared kisses were intensified, and without either party having a clear mind or being sober, neither could stop the motions that lulled them both to sleep very late into night.

It wasn’t until early afternoon that the pair awoke to the sounds of pounding at the door and a splitting headache.

“Your highness, your father is looking for you.” The voice called from outside the wooden doors, causing you to groan and bury your head into the warmth emitting from your bed.

A beat passed before the pounding occurred once more.

“Your highness—!”

“In a minute!” Cardan shouted, eyes shut from the dizziness and hangover. “For fucks sake…”

Your eyes widen at the voice, head rushing up before falling back down at the impact of a jaw. “Shit, that hurt.” You mutter, wincing when you felt the hangover hit you. Slowly, you remove yourself from Cardan’s arm, slightly frowning when you saw him rubbing his jaw. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to slam into you…”

“I think that’s the least of our concerns.” He grumbled, glaring at the door again.

He pushed himself up from the bed, eyes raking over your appearance. He smirked over at you before leaning against the headboard. You crease your brows before looking down and realizing whose clothes you were in — crossing your arms over the loose shirt.

“Princess, I think your father will be a little disappointed in you.”

“Why is that?” You roll your eyes at him, keeping one arm over Cardan’s shirt while running your free hand through your hair.

Your bored gaze meet his amused one, watching him tilt his head. You look away as you weren’t necessarily hiding the fact that you were eyeing his bare chest either.

He pulled you into his chest, despite your halfhearted protests. “Because you have hickeys all over your skin.” Cardan presses a kiss to your cheek, causing your breath to hitch.

All the memories from last name came rushing in, warmth filling your body at the thoughts. Your eyes flit to your dress and dagger scattered across his floor, still thinking of the punishment to come.

However, you did not regret him.

“I don’t think we drank enough last night.” You twist in his arms, lips barely touching his.

“I don’t think so.” He lands a soft kiss to your lips. “I still hate you, love.”

“Feelings mutual.” You straddle over his hips and rest your forehead on his, both your heads still pounding from last night’s activities.

©lqveharrington - all rights reserved. do not copy, translate or share my work on other media platforms

[mommyjude]

No one:

Not a single soul:

Cardan to Jude:

[darlingod]

Cardan: *brings his ex back to live on the land and then exiles Jude who he married the night before & who just got back from enduring over a month of torture*

Cardan: *does not have any doubts that Jude could possibly misinterpret this situation*

[thatoldbooksmellsstuff]

When Achilles said "And though the dead forget the dead in the house of Hades, even there I shall still remember my beloved companion" and Lemony Snicket said "I will love you as misfortune loves orphan, as fire loves innocence and justice loves to stil and watch while everything goes wrong" And when Franz Kafka said "Love is that you are the knife which i plunge into my self" And when Cardan Greenbriar said "My heart is a shabby, worm eaten, scabrous thing. But it is yours"

[tothestarsinvelaris]

I just can't get over Cardan's letters to Jude... This man really said:

"And yet my heart is buried with you in the strange soil of the mortal world, as it was drowned with you in the cold waters of the undersea. It was yours before I could admit it, and yours it shall ever remain."

and I'm supposed to move on with my dull human life where no man will ever speak to me this way?? I will spend all of eternity not recovering from this.

[clockworkbee]

these illustrations by @rosiethorns88 ended me 😭

[amrubrum]

Cardan as Kermit memes

Cardan getting held hostage by The Court of Shadows:

Cardan just chilling while Jude runs Elfhame for him:

Cardan thinking Jude will figure out his little riddle and come back to him immediately:

Cardan realizing that Jude hasn't figured it out and actually thinks she's in exile forever:

"I can only suppose your continued absence in Elfhame is due to me. I urge you: come be angry at a nearer distance."

How Cardan felt writing "Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must. Just come home."

[your-hologram]

Cardan's letters to Jude will always be one of my favourites pieces of literature. The yearning, the tension, the desperation COME BE ANGRY AT A NEARER DISTANCE??? IN MY MOST WRETCHED HOURS I BELIEVE YOU WILL NEVER COME BACK??? They are THE fantasy couple

[whisperingreader]

One thing that I’ll always love about The Folk of Air trilogy is how Jude is a mortal who ended up queen. LIKE the fae use mortals for their own selfish reasons, I can’t even imagine how some people thought as the tables turned. Now a human, the ultimate boss Jude, rules over them. Along side her the playboy Cardan. Such a dynamic duo ruling Elfhame. I’ll eat it up every. single. time.

[magexii]

book covers i designed for the folk of the air series

[kaipaedyn]

these represent the five stages of grief so well

denial

anger

bargaining

depression

acceptance

the progression in the first two scenes where cardan goes from smugly writing letters, like he knows the whole exile thing is a joke and jude would understand and come back soon bc he's in denial. to the third making him a bit angsty grabbing his crown with his wine glass is beside him bigger than before. in the fourth he's far past angsty and his crown is long forgotten with the glass of wine replaced with a full bottle; now half empty bc he drank it all. in the last he's begging bc he cannot take it anymore, he has also given up in his mind thinking he lost jude forever and that she won't spare him another glance

[mylovecardan]

Cardan's letters to Jude <3

“Well,” he says, patting the couch beside him. “Didn’t you get my letters?” “What?” I am confused enough that the word comes out like a croak. “You never replied to a one,” he goes on. ” I began to wonder if you’d misplaced your ambition in the mortal world.”

below is a compilation of all the letters Cardan wrote to Jude during her exile and are only available in the B&N copies of Queen of Nothing.

I still cry over the fact that Jude never got to read these letters. I'll forever hate Lady Asha for burning these!! i mean these are so wholesome and they only made me love Cardan more! <3