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1.
Jude sighed, nodding gratefully to the guard holding the doors to their chambers open as she led Cardan into their room. A very intoxicated Cardan.
They had hosted a revelry for the beginning of Spring, and of course, Cardan had indulged in several glasses of wine. Jude never did, mainly because the drink of the fae affected her in such horrible ways, but also because Cardan always imbibed and she preferred if one of them remained sober.
She deposited her husband on the bed, rolling her eyes fondly at the way he dramatically sprawled out. And then she left him there to prepare herself for sleep. He knew better than to believe she would baby him all throughout the night.
She undressed, pulling on her night clothes, and sat at her vanity to take down her hair and remove her jewelry. She was just about finished when she saw Cardan drag himself into a sitting position through her mirror. His hazy eyes landed on her and he grinned, walking across the room.
He stopped directly behind her chair, reaching up to help her remove the few final pins. “Are you ready for bed, my queen?” he asked, a slight slur in his words.
“I am,” she said, tilting her head back to see him. “You are the one still dressed in your revelry clothes and makeup.”
His eyes, lined with black and gold, flicked to the mirror, as if he had completely forgotten of his current state.
“It would seem so,” he drawled. A smile threatened to break loose as Jude waited to see if he would actually prepare himself for bed, or if he would insist on just sleeping the way he was, as he had done many times.
Then, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I shall join you in a minute, then.”
He disappeared into their bathroom, his shoulder just narrowly missing the door frame as he stumbled. Jude snorted to herself quietly, crawling into their bed. True to his word, only a moment later, he returned to their room, free of makeup and clothes.
As soon as he was under the blankets of their bed, he once again sprawled out, but this time, it was on top Jude. She was almost completely underneath him.
“Cardan,” she protested lightly. She had never understood his desire to cuddle and rarely indulged him in it. It felt claustrophobic to her, especially with the way he sometimes wrapped around her like a vice.
“Hm?” he hummed, sleep already pulling at his voice.
“Get off me.”
Instead of listening completely, he rolled them so that they were on their sides, but he was still tangled around her. “Just for a bit,” he murmured. “Let me hold my wife.”
She rolled her eyes, but relaxed into his embrace. A few kisses grazed her skin, warming her from the inside out. He was always good to her, but there was something about alcohol that turned him so sweet in a lazy way. His movements were softer, slower, gentler. Her hand trailed up his back and tangled in his dark hair. Any remaining tension in his body released and he deflated against her. Jude knew immediately that this would last longer than she would prefer, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she just combed her fingers through his curls and waited for sleep to take him.
2.
Jude rolled onto her back, her hand clapping over her forehead as she took deep breaths. Beside her, Cardan was also trying to catch his breath, though he seemed to be in much better shape than she was. (Granted, she had been the one on top, but regardless.)
He pulled himself off the bed, walking into the bathroom to retrieve something to clean them up. She laid there, muscles quivering. Cardan came back with a warm cloth, trailing it over her inner thighs. He grinned at her lax state.
“You doing alright there?” he teased.
“Mhm,” she hummed. “Just can’t entirely feel my legs. No big deal.”
“Perhaps next time, I’ll pull my weight.”
They both knew Jude much preferred being in charge, even if her body was the one that felt the aftereffects of it. Still, she chuckled and said, “Perhaps you should.”
He discarded the cloth and returned to bed. Cardan curled an arm around her waist, pulling her over him so that laid atop his body. Jude grunted in disagreement, but was otherwise too tired to put up a fight.
Unlike mortals, fae usually ran a bit cooler so Cardan’s skin was a nice reprieve from the way Jude was sweating from exertion. His fingers trailed up and down her back slowly.
“You’re so sweet like this,” he whispered. “I should tire you out more frequently.”
A touch of heat sparked in her core, but she scoffed lightly. “I tired myself out,” she replied, causing him to chuckle. She placed a hand on his chest and attempted to push herself up, but his arms came around her. “No,” she complained halfheartedly. If she fell asleep on his chest like this, they would wake up in a tangle of limbs that she wouldn’t be able to escape.
“Sleep, my love,” Cardan replied softly. “I’ll move you to your side of the bed after.”
Somewhere in her mind, the kindness of his promise registered. Cardan loved nothing more than to hold her, he did it every chance she would allow, and yet, he was telling her that he would let her go so she could be more comfortable as she slept. She stopped resisting immediately, settling on his chest.
“Well if I had known it was that easy,” she could hear the smile in his voice.
“Shut up,” she responded, but she didn’t move from her spot. His hand traced over her spine as he spoke softly about everything and nothing, slowly pulling her further from consciousness.
3.
Jude was still in the process of getting ready for the day when the doors to their chambers were thrown open and Cardan stormed inside. She whipped around, the laces of her dress only halfway done up. It was rare to see Cardan upset, yet anger was so clearly painted on his face.
“What is wrong?” she asked.
“The Living Council is buying too much into rumor and it is driving me mad,” he said, pacing around their chambers. “Supposedly the Court of Moths is planning an attack on the Undersea and the Ministers are insisting that we use the fear you install into people to threaten them into compliance, but there is no proof of any attack plans. I do not think it is worth the risk to visit the Court of Moths and risk their wrath for rumor.”
Jude watched him, her brows furrowed. “How did these rumors come about?”
Cardan shook his head. “There are multiple answers to that. Most say it was from mortal servants overhearing plans and sharing, which of course, could be lies. Some think it was from Queen Annet being purposely vague when speaking of Queen Olraugh, which could mean anything.”
He collapsed on the bed, sighing. Jude finished lacing her dress and crossed the room, standing beside the bed. The anger had drained from his face, but he was clearly still annoyed and frustrated.
“We shall keep an eye on them,” Jude said. “Perhaps send a spy if the Council continues to persist, but we won’t take action yet. I’ll handle the Council if they continue to push.”
He looked up at her and nodded. “Yes, the Council seems to fear you as well so hopefully they will listen to you since they will not take no as an answer from me.”
That was another thing she knew bothered him. People respected their King, but they feared the Queen. This usually meant they knew who they could potentially push for an outcome they desired.
Cardan gazed up at her before holding out his hand. “Lie with me.”
Jude hesitated. She would wrinkle her dress which would mean she would have to change. He could clearly sense her wariness because he dialed his desperation up a notch. “Please?” he asked softly.
Her dress was just a dress, she decided. She knelt on the bed, taking his hand and allowing herself to be pulled into his arms. He pressed his nose into her hair and took a deep breath, his body almost immediately relaxing into the mattress. Something in her chest eased.
It was not often she saw Cardan so worked up, and the fact that holding her for only a few seconds was enough to help him unwind softened her. She wrapped an arm around his waist. She had done much more strenuous and difficult things to ensure his happiness, allowing herself to be held for a bit was hardly a demanding task for her.
After some time, she propped herself up on her elbow to look down at him. The frustration that had plagued his features before were smoothed out now. The corner of his lips even curved up into a slight smile when he looked at her..
“Do you feel better now?” she teased softly.
He pretended to think. “Yes, I think so. However, I may need a few kisses to fully forget my frustration.”
Jude rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stop the smile from pulling at her mouth, too. “You poor thing,” she murmured, leaning down to connect their lips. He pulled her even closer, arms wrapping around her waist. The skirt of her dress was squashed between them, surely developing several wrinkles but she was beginning to forget why that had mattered so much.
“Much, much better,” Cardan whispered, lips trailing over her jaw.
+1
Cardan did not know what to do.
Fae rarely fell ill unless it was from poison—far too often of an occurrence, in his opinion. So now that Jude had developed what mortals called the flu, he had no idea what to do.
“Stop staring at me,” she rasped from their bed.
“I do not know how to help, my love,” he admitted.
“You don’t have to do anything,” she said, not for the first time. “I go to the mortal world for three hours and contract a minor illness. I am not dying, you don’t have to stay.”
He knew this, she had mentioned it multiple times by now, and yet he could not bear to leave her side. She coughed again, the sound coming from deep in her chest.
There was a knock on the door and Cardan moved to answer it. Taryn handed him a basket containing mortal medicine, as well as a fae concoction that should help Jude’s congestion.
“Thank you,” Cardan said. Before Taryn could leave, though, Cardan whispered, “What else can I do? Is there anything?”
Taryn glanced past him, wincing when Jude coughed again. “Keep her hydrated. There is also soup and a mortal drink that should help her. I’m not sure what her temperature is but keep her warm, too. It will pass, though.”
Cardan stared at the basket in his hands, feeling so far out of his realm, before nodding. “Okay.”
Taryn left him alone. He returned to the bed, setting the basket down.
“Sit up for me, darling,” he murmured. “Allow me to give you some medicine and soup.”
“I can do it myself,” she complained, sitting up against their headboard. She reached for the medicine but he held it just out of her reach. Jude glared at him. Her nose was adorably red and the underneath of her eyes were a few shades darker than normal.
Apparently she decided the fight was not worth it because she allowed Cardan to feed her—mortal medicine in the shape of two little white tablets, the purple fae potion that smelled heavily spiced, a pale yellow broth with small chunks of vegetables and meat, and the blue mortal drink Taryn had mentioned, something called Gatorade.
Jude’s entire demeanor changed once she had some food in her, though as she laid back down, she still insisted that Cardan didn’t need to stay with her.
“I’m not going anywhere, my love,” he murmured as he covered her back up with the blankets. “Get some rest.” Jude sighed softly, nodding.
Cardan cleaned up the remnants from her meal, setting the basket off to the side. He was about to sit on the chaise against the wall when Jude’s quiet voice said, “Cardan?”
“Yes, darling?” he asked. For a moment, he worried because her cheeks were newly pink. Was she overheating? Was something else wrong?
A beat of silence, and then, “Will you lie with me?”
Strings tugged at his heart. Of course his very mortal wife was blushing at asking him to lay beside her. He did not dare to poke fun at her though, rounding the bed and crawling in. He didn’t get too close at first, aware that she often did not like to be touched. But then Jude closed the space between them, wrapping her arms around his abdomen.
He slipped an arm underneath her neck and wrapped the other around her shoulders. Taryn had said to keep Jude warm so surely his cooled skin wasn’t helping, but with the way she let out a content sigh, he did not plan on letting her go. Cardan hid a smile in her hair. He understood her discomfort about being held, but judging by the way she usually relaxed into him when he insisted, he believed that she did enjoy it, too.
He held her for a while, fingers brushing back her hair and trailing between her shoulder blades. There was something about holding Jude that settled him in ways he had never experienced before. All his thoughts quieted down until there was nothing but peace. Being around her in general did something similar, but being pressed against her, feeling their hearts beat in sync, he felt ease all the way down to his very bones.
Even though she was very much lost to sleep, he pressed the softest kiss to her head and whispered, “I love you, my sweet Jude,” the way he always did once she fell asleep in his arms.