you're going to lie to me again?
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
Jude heard Cardan say as they both entered the throne room. “He didn’t even finish it, love. It was a long time ago.” Cardan may have seemed angry at that moment, scary even, but after years of marriage, it only took Jude one glance to his face and to know that his expression was hiding the horrible worry he was experiencing.
He started pacing in front of her, it was something he did when he was worried, most of the time Jude was the main reason. She understood why he was worried and mad, but she couldn’t bring herself to admit to him the reason why she had hidden so many years. As Jude sat on the throne she began to remember that night; Valerian trying to kill her with nothing more than rage in his eyes, the fear she felt when she thought he was going to succeed, but most of all, the last thing Valerian had said to her before passing,
‘I curse you. I curse you. Three times, I curse you. As you’ve murdered me, may your hands always be stained with blood. May death be your only companion. May you—’, it still haunted her on her most wretched nights.
Even now everything else after that was a blur, she didn’t tell anyone about it, at least she hadn’t remembered until earlier that night.
Since Oak was on winter break Jude’s sister had visited Faerieland this weekend from the mortal world, Jude had been talking to Heather about her job and how Oak was doing, she missed them a lot, but she understood that Vivi was happier there with Heather, and that Oak was safer. That didn’t mean she was unhappy, on the contrary, the past four years had been the most wonderful in her life, Jude wasn’t a person of words but she always made sure to make her husband know how much she loved him and how grateful she was for him.
But then when Jude heard how Vivi some way —in which she was not interested— told Cardan about the fucking curse she knew they’d have to talk about it.
“Don’t you understand the gravity of a curse?!”, Cardan was exasperated, how could she keep this a secret for so long?
Jude, in the safety of their bed, had promised him no more lies years ago, after they finally made their feelings for each other clear. And now her last secret was revealed. “I understand that you are mad, but I really had forgotten about it and since it’s been years I doubt it is dangerous anymore”, she didn’t wanna talk about it anymore, didn’t wanna remember how scared she was it would come true after all, that it would reach the people she loved the most.
“Of course I’m mad! I worry about you, I want you to be safe and if you keep secrets like this one, how can I be sure you won’t put yourself in danger?! You said you wouldn’t…” He looked so sad it broke her heart, she would do anything to change how disconsolated he felt, but it was already done.
She could do nothing.
Jude approached him, and held his hands, trying to make him know how sorry she was. “I know… I just…”
“What Jude? You’re gonna lie to me again?” Cardan said.
...
She was speechless, she didn’t know what to say to fix everything. It hurt as hell the fact that he implicitly just told her he didn’t trust her at that moment.
Cardan let go of Jude’s hands and sighed and said “Let’s talk about it later, alright?”
She just watched as Cardan left the Throne room, still in the same place as he left her. Jude knew he would be angry, yet it did not mean she was prepared for it or that it hurt less.