[Jurdan] To see you again

Chapitre 2

"She's been living here with her sister, her sister's lover and her brother for the past eighteen months," the Ghost said.

Cardan looked at the nondescript cube. It was huge and covered with well-ordered windows.

"Well, at least she found herself a new Palace," Cardan joked to ease his nervousness.

The Roach made a skeptical hum. "It's several small apartments stacked upon each other," he said.

"Hardly a Palace then," the Bomb said.

Cardan winced. "Let's get in," he said.

"Wait," the Roach said. Then remembering who Cardan was, "Your Majesty."

"What?" Cardan asked.

"There might have been some... developments," he said hesitantly.

"Maybe we could convene of a meeting in a neutral space," the Bomb suggested.

"Nonsense," Cardan waved it off. "Let's get in. It's just a talk."

He was too eager to see her again to postpone again. He had waited a year and a half. He couldn't survive a day more, and if it meant Jude would kill him as soon as she opened the door, then at least he would have seen her stunning gaze again.

He almost ran in the stair when a neighbor walked out the building. During the anticipatory minutes after he knocked, he could feel his heart thrumming up in his throat.

Oak opened the door. He stared at him bewildered.

"Hello young prince," Cardan said. "Do you remember me?"

Oak nodded. "Jude has a drawing of you she uses as a target for her throwing knives," the child said. Cardan recalled that fateful night when she had him tied tight at a chair. He could almost feel the bite of her knife on his sensitive throat. He didn't know if the shiver that traveled down his spine was of excitation or fear, but that feeling was so familiar and missed he would have wept if he could.

"Where is she?" He asked.

"Oak, who is it?" A familiar voice said at the end of the corridor.

Cardan looked up to caught a glimpse of her. When she come in sight, her busy face crumpled into shock. Oh! she hadn't change so much. She still had this round face and hard brown eyes, her long hair loosed past her squared up shoulder. He could almost feel her downy skin under his finger, and her uncharacteristic smell. Her waist had thicken since he had last seen her, and he wondered if it was firm or soft. He was delighted that there was more of her, that she was even more round and human. The skinny faes he used to take in his bed hadn't satisfy him very much lately.

Her face was only hard lines and venomous scowls. I fucking hate you, Nicasia said in his mind. Cardan took a deep breath and tried to stop his tail from twitching and flapping. She stomped toward them, grabbed her brother by the collar of his shirt, and protectively put him behind herself.

Cardan frowned at that. "What are—"

"What are you doing here?" She spat between gritted teeth. She kept herself from yelling, but something in her eyes told him she wasn't only mad.

She sneered.

"It has come to my knowledge that you have never received my letters," he said with all the calm he could muster.

"What letters?" She stood her ground, but Cardan didn't miss the faint frown that had appeared between her eyebrows. So he had caught her attention.

"The letters I've tried to send you since the first month you left," he said. "The letters my mother had intercepted and burnt."