Opening
On a quiet Sunday in the mortal world, seven-year-old Jude Duarte watches cartoons with her twin, Taryn Duarte, and their older half-sister, Vivienne Duarte. A knock at the door shatters that ordinary afternoon and brings Madoc—a Faerie general and Vivi’s father—into their living room, setting a violent destiny in motion.
What Happens
The scene opens with domestic calm: fish sticks, cartoons, and parents nearby. Only Vivi’s split pupils and tufted ears hint at something otherworldly. Jude answers a knock to find a tall, green-tinged man whose eyes look like Vivi’s. Their mother sees him, goes pale, and orders Jude to her room. The stranger enters anyway. He is Madoc—Vivi’s father and the mother’s former husband—who reveals that she faked her death years ago, stole their child from Elfhame, and remade a life with a mortal husband.
The confrontation explodes. Jude’s father raises a decorative axe; Madoc, a seasoned warrior, disarms him and kills him with a swift stroke of his curved sword. When the girls’ mother tries to flee, he cuts her down. Blood slicks the kitchen tiles as the three sisters scream; Vivi swears she will hate Madoc forever and begs him to leave her human sisters behind. Jude, shaking with rage, rushes Madoc and strikes him—an instinctive, futile act of defiance that he blocks with ease.
Madoc declares he has come for his daughter, yet he also claims responsibility for the children of his former wife. He commands the terrified girls to pack. Before dark, he places them on a black horse and carries all three—Vivi, Jude, and Taryn—across the threshold into Faerie, away from the mortal life that ended the moment he stepped through their door.
Character Development
The prologue forges identities in blood. Each sister—and Madoc—reveals the instincts that will shape their paths in Elfhame.
- Jude: Ordinary moments vanish as she witnesses her parents’ murder; she responds by attacking Madoc, showing raw courage, hunger for agency, and the seed of her future ferocity.
- Taryn: Overwhelmed and passive, she sobs and tries to rouse their mother, signaling a conflict-averse, survival-by-compliance instinct.
- Vivienne: Marked as other from the start, she rejects Madoc outright, vows hatred, and tries to protect her sisters, establishing loyalty to her mortal family over Faerie ties.
- Madoc: A ruthless general governed by a brutal code—vengeful enough to kill, “honorable” enough to take in his wife’s mortal children—embodying a guardian-monstrous paradox.
Themes & Symbols
The new family is born from betrayal. Family, Loyalty, and Betrayal drives every choice: the mother’s stolen escape from Elfhame leads to Madoc’s retributive slaughter, which collapses one household and constructs another bound by fear, obligation, and a twisted sense of duty. Madoc’s claim of responsibility turns parenthood into power—love entangled with dominance.
The massacre teaches Jude the currency of power. Cruelty and Bullying arrive as lawless personal justice: a Faerie general kills without consequence. The scene also stages Mortality vs. Immortality: fragile human lives end in heartbeats before an ancient, lethal being. Finally, the sisters’ removal to Elfhame cements Belonging and Otherness; Vivi is visibly fae among mortals, while Jude and Taryn become mortal outsiders among immortals. The prologue marks the beginning of their lifelong struggle to claim a place—or seize one.
Key Quotes
“I may be cruel, a monster, and a murderer, but I do not shirk my responsibilities.”
Madoc defines himself with chilling clarity: his brutality coexists with a code. This line foreshadows his role as both destroyer and guardian, the contradiction that will govern the sisters’ upbringing and Jude’s moral calculations.
The blood smells like “the scrubbing pads Mom used to clean the frying pan.”
Filtered through a child’s senses, horror becomes domestic and unforgettable. The simile collapses safety and violence, anchoring the fantastical terror of Faerie in the ordinary textures of Jude’s former life—and making her trauma tactile.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
This prologue is the novel’s fuse. It explains why a mortal girl lives in Faerie, hardens Jude’s resolve to grasp power in a hostile world, and sets the story’s dark tone. Most importantly, it establishes the central paradox: Jude is trained, protected, and shaped by the very man who annihilates her family, ensuring that love, fear, ambition, and vengeance will remain inseparable.