The Wicked King

It’s not until the group goes outside that Vivi and Oak reveal their magic to Heather. They arrive at home and Jude helps Heather understand the Faerie world. She makes her a charm of rowanberries and gives her salt to sprinkle on her food to keep her from being enchanted by the faerie foods.

Jude passes the throne room where Cardan and Nicasia are spending time together. She meets with the Court of Shadows and asks about Grimsen, a blacksmith who has also been showing Nicasia special attention. Jude goes to meet him in his forge claiming to want a wedding gift for her sister. Grimsen hints that he knows something about Jude’s father, who was also a blacksmith.

Grimsen recommends a set of earrings for Taryn, which will increase the beauty of the wearer. In exchange, Jude trades one of her tears, and agrees to take a message to Cardan offering Grimsen’s services as an armorer if they go to war.

Cardan tells Jude about his meeting with Nicasia; she’s revealed that the sea queen will attack Oak during the wedding. Jude deflects Cardan’s attempt to talk about their night together. Later, she meets with Madoc, and they agree to work together to protect Oak.

Cardan and Jude meet with Balekin; she has sent a message to Asha, hoping the false information will come to Balekin. Balekin tries to convince Cardan to free him from the tower and make him seneschal in Jude’s place. Cardan declines and sends him back to prison. At night, Jude practices her sword forms, feeling as though she can never be good enough.

Jude rides to meet Vivi and Taryn at Madoc’s, her old childhood home. On the way, she is attacked by a band of seven masked soldiers on horseback. She disarms them enough to send them running off, but not before getting shot by an arrow in the thigh. Wounded, she goes to Madoc’s estate. There she meets Vivi, who helps her sew her wound shut.

The next morning, Jude allows herself a moment of sorrow and fear. Then she meets Oak’s mother, Oriana, who gives her a dress for Taryn’s wedding. She joins the other girls, and they go to the wedding party.

Jude and Oak arrive safely at the wedding party. Oak leaves with the Bomb and Jude meets Cardan. She gives him a command not to be alone that night, and Madoc overhears, and tells Jude that after the Undersea is defeated, they will be enemies. After he leaves, Jude makes her way through a maze of trees to the party. On the way she finds Heather, who has been enchanted with the qualities of a cat. Together they find Jude’s family, and Jude confronts the faerie that enchanted her, forcing him to remove the spell. Heather returns to normal, but she is frightened and overwhelmed. Vivi enchants her into forgetting.

The Ghost arrives with Vulciber to summon Jude to the tower. The Ghost tells Jude that the Undersea has attacked. As Jude prepares to leave, she sees Taryn wearing the earrings she got for her from Grimsen—however, they’d been lost in the fight against the riders. She realizes that Locke must have been among those who attacked her.

At the tower, Jude finds that all the guards have drowned. She rushes to Cardan’s mother and releases her, then finds that Balekin has been released. As she considers her next move, the Ghost arrives with soldiers from the Undersea. She realizes that he’s the one who’s betrayed her. Jude is knocked unconscious.