Jude Duarte

Quick Facts

Bold, mortal, and razor-smart, Jude Duarte is the human protagonist of The Cruel Prince. She’s abducted to Elfhame after her parents’ murder by Madoc and grows up alongside her twin Taryn Duarte and half-fae sister Vivienne Duarte. Jude’s central conflicts and choices drive the novel’s exploration of Power, Politics, and Ambition, Belonging and Otherness, and Family, Loyalty, and Betrayal—as well as the stark tension between Mortality vs. Immortality. Key figures orbiting her rise include Prince Cardan Greenbriar, Prince Dain Greenbriar, and Locke.

• Role: Mortal heroine; point-of-view architect of a blood-soaked coup
• First appearance: The novel’s opening murder scene that propels her into Faerie
• Family: Twin Taryn; sister Vivi; foster father Madoc; younger brother Oak
• Defining aim: Turn human “weakness” into leverage—and claim a place no one can take

Who They Are

Jude is the consummate outsider who refuses to stay outside. Mortal among the immortal, she’s mocked for her “blunt fingers, round ears, and mayfly life,” yet she uses those very limits to fuel an audacious appetite for power. The missing tip of her ring finger—bitten off by a redcap guard when she was nine—becomes a private heraldry of survival: pain converted into purpose. Jude’s core is contradiction—she covets the beauty of Faerie even as it brutalizes her; she hates the man who killed her parents even as she craves his approval. That tension births a ruthless strategist who would rather remake the game than play by rules designed to keep her small.

Personality & Traits

Bred in violence and schooled in humiliation, Jude learns to alchemize vulnerability into strategy. She doesn’t simply endure Faerie; she studies it, exploits it, and forces it to make room for her.

• Ambitious and power-hungry: First she seeks knighthood for legitimacy; denied that, she pivots to subtler weapons—oaths, secrets, and leverage—culminating in crowning Cardan and binding him to her will for “a year and a day.”
• Defiant and stubborn: When Cardan’s circle shoves her into a nixie-filled river, she refuses to beg. That moment crystallizes a vow: if Faerie won’t grant dignity, she’ll seize it.
• Resilient and tough: Raised by Madoc—the man who slaughtered her parents—she survives both his battlefield lessons and her peers’ cruelty. The missing fingertip is not a weakness; it’s a scar that keeps score.
• Strategic and cunning: She weaponizes human deceit in a land where the Folk cannot lie. As Dain’s spy, she collects secrets, turns glamour-proof geas into freedom, and outmaneuvers generals and princes alike.
• Violent and ruthless: When cornered by Valerian, she kills him—and later eliminates a redcap spy without flinching. Jude won’t be prey again, even if it means becoming a hunter.
• Conflicted loyalties: She loves Madoc as a father and loathes him as a murderer; she longs for Faerie yet recognizes its rot. These fractures make her choices sharper—and more dangerous.

Character Journey

Jude’s arc begins with a simple survival strategy: be good, be useful, become a knight. But goodness offers no protection. After Madoc blocks her knighthood and Cardan’s crew escalates their torment, Jude abandons the path of acceptance for one of control. Dain’s recruitment gives her cover and tools—oaths, training, immunity to glamour—but the coronation massacre burns away any illusion that power can be borrowed. With the royal line butchered and allies gone, she chooses the unthinkable: kidnap Cardan, bargain him into obedience, and install him as High King on her terms. By book’s end, Jude achieves what she wanted most—a place in Faerie that cannot be revoked—but at the cost of isolation, secrecy, and the knowledge that she now resembles the monsters she learned from.

Key Relationships

• Madoc: As captor and foster father, he sharpens Jude into a weapon yet underestimates her will to wield herself. She exploits his blind spot—his belief that she’s too mortal to be dangerous—to outflank his bid for the crown.
• Taryn Duarte: Her mirror and foil. Taryn seeks safety through assimilation and romantic alliance, while Jude demands respect through dominance. Taryn’s complicity with Locke reopens old wounds between the sisters and reframes “survival” as betrayal.
• Prince Cardan Greenbriar: Bully, obsession, and eventual sovereign partner. Their dynamic mutates from open hostility to wary fascination as each recognizes the other’s damage. By crowning him, Jude shackles Cardan to her design—and to herself.
• Vivienne Duarte: Vivi rejects Faerie’s claim on them, offering Jude an exit she refuses. Vivi’s love is a lifeline to the mortal world, but Jude’s ambition pulls her deeper into Elfhame’s courts.
• Locke: His charm masks a taste for chaos. He toys with Jude’s heart to amuse himself and to advance others’ plots, teaching her that in Faerie affection is often a performance with a knife behind it.
• Prince Dain Greenbriar: He sees Jude’s utility but not her autonomy. His death collapses her scaffolding and forces her to build power that is hers alone.
• Oak: Innocent and adored, he becomes the center of Jude’s long game. Protecting his childhood—and future crown—justifies choices she knows will damn her.

Defining Moments

Jude’s life pivots on choices made at the edge of fear. Each moment below converts helplessness into agency—and escalates the cost.

• Witnessing her parents’ murders: The origin of her alienation and her obsession with safety that can’t be taken away. Why it matters: It binds her to Madoc while making her determined never to be powerless again.
• The river incident: She refuses to beg Cardan for rescue after being pushed among nixies. Why it matters: Her line in the sand—defiance over appeasement—even if it invites more danger.
• Becoming Dain’s spy: She swears an oath and receives a geas against glamour. Why it matters: Her first legitimate foothold in Faerie politics and proof that secrets can be sharper than swords.
• Killing Valerian: Faced with lethal violence, she kills him. Why it matters: The moral Rubicon—Jude accepts that survival sometimes requires blood, and she won’t look away.
• The coronation massacre: Madoc’s coup slaughters the royal line. Why it matters: It obliterates illusions about honor or safety within the system and forces Jude to act without patronage.
• Crowning Cardan: She abducts him, secures his oath, and puts the crown on his head herself. Why it matters: Jude stops playing the game and becomes the game master—the hidden power behind the throne.

Essential Quotes

If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.
This is Jude rejecting respectability as a path to acceptance. “Worse” isn’t villainy for its own sake—it’s a commitment to the only language Faerie rewards: leverage, fear, and decisive action.

I am going to keep on defying you. I am going to shame you with my defiance. You remind me that I am a mere mortal and you are a prince of Faerie. Well, let me remind you that means you have much to lose and I have nothing. You may win in the end, you may ensorcell me and hurt me and humiliate me, but I will make sure you lose everything I can take from you on the way down. I promise you this—this is the least of what I can do.
Here Jude reframes “mortality” as advantage: with little to lose, she can risk everything. The speech is a tactical thesis—she will weaponize her limits, and in doing so, invert the power dynamic.

Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.
Fear becomes a tool rather than a cage. The line marks her shift from defensive endurance to offensive strategy: safety through dominance, not compliance.

Father, I am what you made me. I’ve become your daughter after all.
Addressed to Madoc, this confession is both accusation and acceptance. Jude recognizes that her ruthlessness is a legacy of his tutelage—and claims it as her own, severing any remaining innocence in their bond.

This is what you wanted, isn’t it? What you sacrificed everything for. Go on. It’s all yours.
Spoken at the crowning, the words drip with irony: the crown is both prize and trap. Jude grants power while ensuring it serves her design, revealing how triumph in Faerie often hides a new form of captivity.