The Cruel Prince

Jude reports back to Dain about the letter she found, and he tells her it’s from the queen of the undersea kingdom, giving Balekin poison to kill Dain. Dain questions Jude about her experience in Hollow Hall, which makes Jude realize she enjoyed the thrill of evading capture. One of Dain’s other spies, a goblin called the Roach, shows Jude the spies’ secret underground lair, called the Court of Shadows.

The Roach introduces Jude to Dain’s other two spies: a male faerie known as the Ghost, and a female creature with the nickname the Bomb. (Jude realizes that she saw the Bomb at the party in Chapter 3.) They tell her that until Dain assigns her next mission, they’re going to train her. Jude decides to sneak out of her house while everyone is sleeping to meet with the other spies.

When she returns to Madoc’s house, Jude finds Locke with her family, hoping to spend time with her. He also urges Jude and Taryn not to stop taking lessons after their classmates tormented them. He follows Jude to Madoc’s stables, and the two almost kiss before Taryn calls Jude in for dinner.

Jude and Taryn discuss Locke’s visit, and Jude learns that her sister expects a marriage proposal from a faerie at the coronation. Taryn won’t tell Jude who the suitor is, feeling it would be a breach of honor. Uneasy at this secrecy, Jude nonetheless tries to be happy for Taryn, knowing that marriage is the way into the faerie Court. Jude discovers a piece of paper from Hollow Hall on which Cardan has written her name over and over.

While they are arranging for gowns to be sewn for the coronation, Jude has a fight with Oriana about Oak. She feels that Oriana doesn’t trust her with him.

Jude undertakes an exhausting routine, maintaining all of her different roles. Upon Dain’s suggestion, she begins training her body to become immune to various poisons and to faerie fruit. She practices sword fighting and military tactics with Madoc, attends her lessons with Taryn, and trains at night with Dain’s other spies.

During a break in their lessons, Valerian tries to enchant Jude and make her kill herself, but Dain’s protection deflects the magic. Jude stabs Valerian, and afterward Jude speaks with Cardan. His behavior makes her think that Cardan didn’t know about Valerian’s attempt to kill her, which surprises her. Shortly after, Locke confirms that Cardan isn’t as much of a leader within his group as Jude thinks he is. Jude visits Locke’s house, where she finds that his father abandoned him and his mother, Liriope, died by poisoning, leaving him all alone. Locke takes Jude to a high balcony, where they can see out over Faerie and the lights of the human world in the distance. They finally kiss. Locke is having a gathering at the house that night and invites Jude to stay. She agrees, although she knows Cardan and his gang will be there and is wary of socializing with them. Locke loans her one of his mother’s old gowns, and Jude finds a golden acorn in one of the pockets.

The party takes place at the center of a hedge maze on Locke’s grounds. Cardan is intoxicated from drink and the potent faerie substance called nevermore, and he stares at Jude. Locke kisses Jude in front of the others. 

The morning after the party, Jude wakes up in Locke’s bed after a pleasant but chaste evening, and then goes to her lessons and back to Madoc’s. After she has returned home, she discovers that Liriope’s acorn is actually mechanized and opens to reveal a tiny mechanical bird. The bird speaks a message from Liriope to an unknown person, asking them to take Locke away from the Court. This makes her think of the letter she found again, and she realizes that the queen of the undersea’s phrasing in the letter to Balekin actually means that Balekin might not be planning to poison Dain after all. Because her fellow spies are only looking out for poisoning, and because the queen of the undersea might also have known who killed Locke’s mother Liriope (who also died from poisoning), Jude dons her disguise as Balekin’s servant and rushes to Hollow Hall.

At the hall, Jude searches the room where she found the letter, but finds nothing implicating Balekin in a plan to murder Dain. Disappointed, on her way out of the Hall, Jude frees an enslaved girl from the faerie enchantment that’s kept her in servitude and takes her with her as she leaves. The girl, once she’s awoken from her enchantment, is terrified by everything she sees around her. Jude manages to sneak her to Madoc’s house and have Vivi try to take her back to the mortal world, but the girl fills her own pockets with rocks and deliberately falls off Vivi’s flying horse into the ocean below. 

Angry about Jude stabbing Valerian in Chapter 16, Dain visits Madoc’s estate and orders Jude to not make any rash decisions or call attention to herself until he tells her to. To punish her, Dain makes her stab her own hand—but he doesn’t use magic to do it, which forces her to mutilate herself willingly as a sign of loyalty to him. Then Dain leaves, and Jude nurses her wound. It’s two days before Dain’s coronation.

Vivi comes to Jude’s room, and they talk about the mortal girl and about Heather. Vivi relates that Heather observed Vivi’s pointed faerie ears, and the observation implies that Heather has guessed that Vivi is magical. Vivi, however, doesn’t think Heather knows anything.

The family prepares to go to the coronation, and Oriana, who after walking in on Jude and Dain thinks that Jude is the prince’s lover, warns her not to try and rise above her station. Afterwards, Taryn tells Jude that Balekin came and visited Madoc. Jude doesn’t know why Balekin was there and is uneasy. As she waits for the Ghost to show up that night, Valerian climbs into her bedroom window, intoxicated. The two fight, and even though she knows it’s against Dain’s orders, Jude kills Valerian to defend herself. She hides his body under her bed.