Opening
A knife at his throat and a kiss on his mouth: in Prince Dain Greenbriar’s secret study, Jude Duarte and Prince Cardan Greenbriar ignite a plan that reshapes Elfhame. As rivals circle and a crown hangs in the balance, Jude gambits everything—love, family, and safety—to outplay princes and monsters alike.
What Happens
Chapter 26
In Dain’s hidden study, Jude kisses Cardan while holding a blade to his throat. The moment tilts between threat and desire until she flings the knife away; Cardan laughs, then offers a bargain: he will submit to being traded to Prince Balekin Greenbriar if Jude secures his freedom afterward—lands far from court, a life of idleness well out of his brother’s reach. His cynicism and pragmatism impress her.
Jude leaves the Court of Shadows to think. At the Lake of Masks, she weighs catastrophic options. Handing Cardan to Balekin would unleash cruelty on mortals and faeries alike. Giving him to Madoc would place Oak on the throne under Madoc’s iron regency, shaping the boy into a future warlord. The calculus of Power, Politics, and Ambition becomes stark.
She forges a third path: crown Oak and spirit him to the mortal world with Vivienne Duarte, out of Madoc’s reach. But a vacant throne invites conquest. Jude resolves to find a temporary regent—someone who is not Madoc or Balekin—to hold Elfhame safe until Oak can rule. A vision in the lake of her mother and a younger, gentler Madoc steels her resolve. She chooses the risky plan.
Chapter 27
Back in the Court of Shadows, the Bomb packs explosives and relays that Cardan believes Jude has a larger scheme, since she has neither sold him out nor betrayed the spies. Taking the Bomb into her confidence, Jude asks, “What do you think about stealing a crown?” The grin she gets in reply says everything.
Jude wakes Cardan and brings him to Dain’s office to lay out her plan: crown Oak, send him to the mortal world, and block both Balekin and Madoc from seizing power. Cardan needles her—what if Oak prefers Madoc?—but Jude, a stolen child herself, insists. She demands an oath to bind Cardan to her.
He scoffs at yielding to a mortal, until the terms tempt him. To prevent betrayal—no crowning Balekin, no crowning himself—Cardan names his price: Hollow Hall, all the wine in the royal cellars, and lessons in thievery from the Roach. Jude agrees. Cardan offers his service “for a year and a day,” kneels, and swears. The binding takes, but his mocking tone makes Jude feel he has kept an edge.
Chapter 28
Oath-bound, Jude brings Cardan to the monarchs’ encampment to secure witnesses for the coup at Balekin’s feast. Her first attempt—approaching Queen Annet of the Court of Moths—fails when guards dismiss her as a messenger of a “king without a crown.” She retreats to Cardan for tactical advice.
Cardan steers her toward rulers with something to gain: Lord Severin, son of a traitor king, and Lord Roiben of the Court of Termites. Jude offers Severin recognition and alliance in exchange for support. He’s intrigued but cautious, agreeing only if she can secure a stronger ally to stand beside him.
Jude then infiltrates Roiben’s barricaded camp, slipping beneath his tent to find him and his pixie consort, Kaye, eating mortal Chinese takeout. Caught by the knight Dulcamara, she is nonetheless granted audience. Roiben, impressed by her audacity and logic, agrees to support her—if her future king will one day grant him an unspecified favor. With no leverage left, Jude accepts, winning the allies she needs.
Chapter 29
Jude briefs the Ghost and the Roach. The Ghost, mourning Dain and hungry for revenge on Balekin, signs on. The Roach refines logistics, sketches Hollow Hall, assigns roles, and insists that Jude and Cardan must glitter to play their parts. Jude braces for Madoc’s wrath, a pivot point in Family, Loyalty, and Betrayal.
At dawn, she returns to Madoc’s estate, packs her childhood life into a bag, and tells Vivi everything—her spying, Madoc’s plan for Oak, and her own counterplot. She begs Vivi to take Oak into the mortal world and raise him well. Furious and frightened, Vivi relents when Jude swears this is the only way to keep Oak alive.
On her way out, Jude meets Taryn Duarte. Taryn looks at her, then shuts her door. The silence between twins says what words cannot.
Chapter 30
Jude and Cardan arrive at Balekin’s banquet in Hollow Hall in full splendor, turning heads. Madoc intercepts Jude, assuming she has delivered Cardan so they can bargain with Balekin. He offers her power and a knighthood. Jude counters: swear to protect Oak and relinquish power when Oak comes of age. Madoc refuses. They duel through the hall—until Jude reveals she poisoned both cups they shared earlier. Resistant to most poisons, she watches Madoc falter and fall.
The coup unfurls. The Bomb’s blast rattles the feast. The Roach fires bolts near Cardan to stage an assassination attempt; Balekin shields his brother. Amid the chaos, the Ghost steals the Blood Crown but mistakes Taryn for Jude and throws it to the wrong twin. Taryn freezes, then yields the crown to Jude.
In the shock that follows, Jude does not crown Oak. She whispers a command that holds Cardan motionless for one minute and has Oak place the Blood Crown on Cardan’s head. Lord Roiben kneels first; the other monarchs follow. Cardan, livid and trapped, accepts the throne he never wanted. He toasts Jude and promises to repay her “gift.” When the dust settles, the Bomb christens Jude with a new code name: “The Queen.”
Character Development
The machinery of Jude’s plan strips every relationship to its core: use, loyalty, and risk. Each character chooses who they are when the crown is in reach.
- Jude: Locks into strategist mode—demands an oath, engineers alliances, and crowns a “temporary” king to guard Oak’s future. She sacrifices peace and closeness for control and responsibility, embracing the shadow-regent role.
- Cardan: Reveals shrewd survivalism. He bargains for terms, binds himself for “a year and a day,” and then wakes to find himself a king—his mockery curdling into fury at lost autonomy.
- Madoc: Exposed as a would-be warmonger regent. He finally recognizes Jude as an opponent, not a child—and loses to the weapons he taught her to wield.
- Taryn: Given sudden power, she hesitates and yields, underscoring the widening gulf between the sisters’ appetites for risk and rule.
- Vivi: Bristles at the burden yet commits to protect Oak, choosing exile over Elfhame’s politics.
Themes & Symbols
The engine of these chapters is Power, Politics, and Ambition. Jude navigates rival courts, binds a prince by oath, and manufactures legitimacy by stacking witnesses. Crowning Cardan is the purest power play: she installs a controllable monarch while keeping Oak safe, creating a throne that answers to her.
But strategy has a cost. In the world of Family, Loyalty, and Betrayal, protection often requires treachery. Jude betrays Madoc to save Oak, betrays Cardan to save Elfhame, and burdens Vivi from love. The choices redefine kinship as a series of brutal equations.
Jude’s arc also inverts Fear and Powerlessness. A mortal in a faerie court, she turns vulnerability into leverage—poisons, oaths, and spectacle—until others are the ones held still by her words. The Blood Crown, the series’ central symbol of rule, gathers violence and sacrifice around it: whoever wears it inherits not just authority but the debts and dangers Jude accrues to place it there.
Key Quotes
“What do you think about stealing a crown?”
This line signals Jude’s pivot from survival to conquest. It also cements the Bomb as an ally and reframes the Court of Shadows as instruments of regime change, not merely spies.
“Jude Duarte, daughter of clay, I swear myself into your service... Let it be so for one year and one day…and not for one minute more.”
Cardan’s oath gives Jude legal and magical leverage while preserving his defiance in the final clause. The promise’s limits foreshadow future conflict and his determination to reclaim autonomy.
He raises a glass to Jude, publicly promising to repay her “gift.”
By calling the coronation a “gift,” Cardan wraps gratitude around a threat. The toast both ratifies Jude’s victory and promises consequences, keeping their alliance taut with danger.
“The Queen.”
The Bomb’s codename crowns Jude in the shadows. It recognizes her as the power behind the throne and reframes the series’ question from who wears the crown to who truly rules.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters deliver the novel’s climax and reset the board. The succession crisis resolves without elevating Oak or empowering Balekin or Madoc; instead, Cardan ascends as a reluctant king, and Jude becomes the covert sovereign who bound him there.
The aftermath defines the series’ stakes. Every bond—sisters, lovers, parent and child, ruler and subject—now runs through Jude’s choice. Built on oaths, secrets, and calculated betrayals, the new order is dazzling and unstable, guaranteeing that the price of this “gifted” crown will come due.