The Princess of Elfhame

I know you better than that

A/N: so I finally bought The Stolen Heir. What do you guys think of it? Any good? Better than the series or no? LMK what you think about it 

Cardan 

Something pulled in my heart when Jude and Rhea disappeared upstairs. 

Something I haven't felt since Jude got injured all those nights ago. 
When I had un-regrettably told my entire court she was my wife. That she was to be their Queen of Elfhame.

 Knowing that my two sisters had been killed by someone who had known them their entire lives, my own brother. 

Knowing that my daughter had almost been killed by someone who had known her her entire life, her closest friend. 

I knew that Rhea would shrug it off and act as if she didn't care that someone had tried to take her life and that she would vow to fight back harder against anyone who dared, but I knew how scared she would be. 

I was leaning against her doorframe, watching her slowly breathing figure sleeping when Jude slips up beside me, Taryn laying on the bench in Rhea's room, lightly sleeping and waiting for any sounds of an intruder. 

 "We have to get to the Undersea" she whispers, placing her hand on my shoulder and I squeeze her hand. 

"I just had to come by and see she was safe. The Bomb is watching over her?" 

"Yes. It reminds me of her babysitting days before Aeden and Trevan." 

I chuckle. "You mean before she became a scowling presence around her baby brothers.'" 

I can almost feel Jude's smile tug at her lips as she leans against me and shakes her head. "I want to kill that bitch where she sits for even breathing on our daughter's hair. I mean, we nearly could have lost her if Prince Castien hadn't been so.." 

"Cautious? Overbearing?" I suggest and she rolls her eyes as she takes my hand. 

"No. I was going to say protective. I know that Rhea and Prince Castien hate each other for the moment being, but he knows to protect her and who around her is ready to poise a threat." 

I let out a deep sigh as I watch Rhea shuffle in her sleep and close my eyes. "Caelia and Elowyn would be horrified to know that Rhea was almost killed the same way as they were." 

"By the one they trusted the most?" Jude says hushedly and I nod. 

"Yes. It just reminded me so much of them tonight and it scared me. And yes, Jude, I know how much of an over-bearing mother hen you've been to all of our children and how you were loosening your hold on Rhea and now you want to leash her to your side but if you do that, our daughter will seek revenge on us by poisoning us." 

Jude chuckles. "I wonder where she got it from." 

"I'll tell you one thing; not from me." 

Jude closes the door to Rhea's rooms and nods. "We should get going." 

She squeezes my hand in her own as she looks into Trevan and Aeden's room, both sound asleep.

 "Jude" I whisper quietly as we slip out of the castle and she nods. 

"I know. But I won't be able to look in the eyes of the woman who nearly killed our daughter." 

Rhea 

Aunt Taryn and The Bomb watched over me all day, and for that I'm grateful.

I suppose this evening I should also be grateful for Prince Castien.