<Flashback one month ago, during Cardan's revel>

It's the monthly revel, and I just downed 17 glasses of wine, which is no big deal for me.

My shirt hangs half open as a faerie girl with deer horns kisses my legs.

My glazed eyes are hardly open but all I can tell is: I have never had this much fun since Jude controlled me.

Nicasia stands behind me as she whispers in my ear, asking me to raise my glass to a toast, denouncing all mortals.

                                ***

Oh, most beautiful Nicasia..

She wears a tight, sleeveless dress adorned with pearls and her hair cascades loosely down her shoulders in a blue flurry..

She almost makes up for Jude.

Honestly she's more fun than Jude, she's always up for a drinking game or two or sometimes a late night at the tavern.

Being with Nicasia brings back a flood of memories that I remember from back when we courted.

I remember every reason why I loved her first.

But I would never betray Jude.

                               ***

I laugh maliciously and carress her hand obliging to her request.

"And heres a toast to this clean, mortal-less world!" I drunkenly shout, raising my glass.

The crowd cheers; seelie, unseelie, shy folk and wild folk alike.

I smile lazily as I lounge on my throne, perched regally. Nicasia strokes my head, and my tail swishes slightly.

Eventually my eyes become heavy lidded and start to close...

"Cardan, let's go inside," Nicasia's honey-smooth voice jolts me back to reality.

I peer up at her, she seems bored. And my first vow as king was to never stimulate boredom but to encourage laughter, joy, revels, rowdiness and wine.

So I slightly begrudgingly get to my feet and tell my soldiers to keep an eye on the wild folk and end the revel in the morning.

Nicasia pounces on me and rakes her long, sharp nails up my arm.

I expect her to leave me at her room, which is five doors down from mine, but instead, she confidently follows me.

"Aren't you going to your bedroom?" I curiously look at her, halting in my tracks.

"Well I was just thinking.." Nicasia starts, the sleeve of her dress sliding off her shoulder.

"You were thinking..?" I teasingly pull her hair gently.

"That.." she looks at my lips, distracted.

"Why don't you come to my room?" I cock a brow and gesture to my room.

Delighted, she scampers in.

"So.." she starts, gazing at me.

"Nicasia.." I sigh.

"Cardan.." she replies, her dress falling a bit to reveal her cleveage.

"Nicasia!" I raise my voice slightly.

I grab her shoulders and steer her out if my room.

I don't flinch and say, "Nicasia, what would it take for you to realise that I do not and can not love you?"

She blinks and after a moment she groans, tugging her dress back up and storming out of the room.

Then, she backs up to look at me through the door.

"It would take the simple announcement that you have a new seneschal- me." she looks dead serious and stares at me with a determined kind of grimace.

"What..?" I laugh, reaching up to rumple my crow-feather hair, agitated.

"Make me your seneschal Cardan Eldred Greenbriar," she takes a step forward, eyeing me with a deadly kind of grace ,"Make me your seneschal or I will-"

"You dare threaten the High King of Elfhame!?" I sneer with a rare rage.

"Or I will tell the entire world of Elfhame that you are betrothed to mortal, daughter of DIRT, Jude Duarte," she spits jealously. 

Jealously.

Jealously..

My features soften and I realise she's just jealous that she lost both Locke AND me to Jude.

But wait-

"Bethrothed to Jude?" I laugh manically.

"Yes, Cardan, I know more than you think I know." She scowls.

Then her expression twists into a sob, shocking me.. . Nicasia never cries..

"My mom hates me! She thinks I can't find love.. she thinks I'm not good enough that I can't even get the king of Elfhame- who was my best friend and my beloved- to love me! And h-her spies told her you were in b-bed with Jude.." she crumples into a sobbing mass on the floor, her skirt fanning out around her.

I roll my eyes and sit down next to her," Nicasia, Nicasia, my dear Nicasia. Of course you can be my seneschal," the wine gets to my head, making me forget that the public will then realise I have replaced Jude, because they don't know that she's my queen. But I love making drunk Decisions.

So why not?

"I hereby anoint thee my seneschal, seneschal to the High King of Elfhame." I drone.

"Now get back to your room, I need my beauty sleep," I say dramatically.

She leans in a kisses my cheek and saunters away.

As soon as she's gone I scrub furiously at my cheek, making it bleed.

The taste of blood makes me think of Jude.

Jude..

Oh no.

Jude..!