The folk of air fanfic

Jude's birthday/The letters

Fan fiction
Book series: The Folk of Air
Author: Holly Black
*Images not by me
*Contains a lot of spoilers.

Summary
*The rights about the triology go to the author. I only did the summary of the triology written by her. You can skip to my fanfiction chapter if you have already read the books.

Three sisters suddenly have to live in the magic world, Elfhame, a place of fairies that live for many, many years.
It is said that fairies can't lie, and if they make a promise they are bound to keep it. As many stories have said before, these creatures are magical.
The sisters suddenly learn that the oldest of them is in fact not human, but one of these magical creatures instead.
The twins, Taren and Jude, being human have to learn the rules to survive in this whole knew mysterious world, - a world where humans, by being mortal, are considered as unimportant, silly and unworthy creatures.

Cardan Greenbriar is the one of the main characters of "The folk of air" series.
The triology first introduces Cardan as the cruel prince, just like the title of the first book.
He considers himself above others and everyone fears and tries not to catch his sight. A lot of things happen when Jude Duarte, the human girl doesn't lower her head anymore.

As time passes and pages go by, Jude Duarte, first just known as one of the human twins, slowly gets to earn power. By the end she is Cardan's wife, who now is king and this makes her "the rightful High Queen of Elfhame", as Cardan introduces her on the third book.
As fairy tales always say: They lived happily ever after.

...

In this happy ever after let us know what Cardan, the king, will say in the banquet held for his queen's birthday.

*The following chapter is a fan fiction written by me (Tigreb) and it is not a part of the actual books.

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫
It is Jude's birthday and a banquet is being held. She is wearing a forest-colored dress with golden butterflies and other little details that pop out. Her curly, brown hair is tied in a complex way with braids and decorated with golden chains. On top of her head is the crown.

"My dear friends," Cardan says, rising from his flower-covered throne, "I am so happy to have you all here, and I would like to say something and also raise a toast for Jude.

For as much as I love wine and her, I could stay here and talk for hours, but I'll keep it brief and get to the main point."

"Since I didn't do it the right way the first time, let me try again once more," he says, getting a ring out of his silky, shiny black and gold jacket, while he now stands before her.

"Jude, would you accept my hand and become my queen?" he says and then smiles like he always does when he is nervous.

Jude doesn't hurry to reply. Smiling, she steps a bit closer and rises on her toes as she closes her eyes to put a light kiss on Cardan's lips.

"Yes, my king, I am all yours," she whispers in his ear, mocking him.

Jude doesn't fail to notice the smirk on his face as she moves the hand toward him, and Cardan then puts the ring on her finger. Laughs and applause are heard from all around.

The small crown-shaped ring with little royal blue sapphires combines perfectly with the ruby ring Cardan returned to Jude when they got married.

(The ruby ring originally belonged to Jude, but Cardan had stolen it from her and had worn it himself until they got married.)

"I love you with all my heart, my queen. You are like a glass of wine that never becomes empty, and I just can't get enough of you."

They hug tightly, perhaps forgetting everyone around them, because they stay like that for a little too long.

When they finally let go of each other, Cardan continues, "And before I finish, I have to give you your birthday gift." A faerie comes to Jude and hands her a wooden box with carvings of flowers around a crown.
"What is this?" she asks.
"You can open it later, Jude," he answers.

"What do you mean later? Finish that glass and come with me! You are not getting drunk today!" she says in a low voice.

"Ok, ok, as you say," he whispers back with a smile.

"So I think I should finish this now because my beautiful wife is so impatient and excited to open my gift."

"

To my wife, and to my queen, happy birthday!" he says with a laugh and raises a glass of red wine towards her, finishing it in one take. Everyone laughs and does the same movement.
...................

"Impatient? Really? Are you sure I'm the only one impatient here because you are blushing right now, Cardan," Jude tells him on their way to the royal chambers.

"My sweet nemesis, I told you before. By you, I am forever undone," he says as they enter the chambers.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇　⋇⋆✦⋆⋇　⋇⋆✦⋆⋇　⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

Jude sits on the bed and puts the wooden box before her.
"Why aren't you opening it?" Cardan says, amused.
"Are you sure it is not a prank of yours?" she asks, uncertain.

Cardan laughs at her words. "Trust me, it is not. No one would dare to mess with you like that." She smiles too.

Jude opens the box slowly, and the first thing that catches her eye is a small dagger with a black and silver sheath. She starts swinging it in her hands, admiring its beauty.
"Be careful with it. It is magical. Cursed to be more specific. Whosever blood touches its blade starts to lose trust in their abilities," Cardan says as she is still staring at the sharp blade.

"It may seem like it is not fair, but there are no rules in war, and I know you are not going to use it for fun," he continues.

"And what if I do?" Jude asks with a smirk. Cardan stays silent, looking for words. After some seconds, she laughs at him.

"Look at you all serious. Don't worry about it. I'm just kidding. Thanks for this! I like it."

Cardan goes in her direction and sits next to her. "I'm glad you do and it doesn't have a name, so you can name it yourself if you want. And there is also something else inside," he says, gesturing for her to look.
She looks inside once more. This time she takes out some pieces of paper folded in half to fit inside the box.

"What are these?" she asks, but she gets no reply.

She opens the papers and starts reading. Soon she realizes what she is reading. "Cardan, are these...?" she wants to ask, but he interrupts her.
"Yes... I felt very sad that you never got to read my letters when you were in the mortal world. I figured you would want to read what never came to your hands before. As you might have guessed, these are not the originals. Before I sent those letters, I had read each one over and over, so I just wrote them again for you," he says.

Jude doesn't speak. She puts her gaze to the papers and continues reading.

Cardan stares at her. His eyes are warm and his body is stable, but his tail is wiggling around. The room is silent for a while. What breaks that silence is the light sound of some tears falling on the paper.

Cardan cups her face and turns it in his direction.
"Why... Why are you crying? Don't cry. It's your birthday," he says, wiping her tears.

Still holding the letters in one hand, Jude puts her arms around Cardan's neck. "They are happy tears. Thank you, Cardan, really, thank you a lot!" she says.

Cardan, still surprised by her reaction, twists his hands together around her wrist.

After some time, he pulls her out of his grip. She wipes her tears and then looks into his eyes. While staring down at her, he whispers, "Happy birthday, Jude! I love you!"

She smiles, still sobbing a little, and then puts her lips on his, grabbing his jacket tight in her hands. "I love you too, Cardan!" she says slowly after some time. "I'll always love you."

🅣🅗🅐🅝🅚 🅨🅞🅤 🅕🅞🅡 🅡🅔🅐🅓🅘🅝🅖!
© Tigreb