Jude can no longer hide her lies from me. She doesn't know, of course. And I don't know enough about lies to know if she could then hide her lies from me in a new way, so I'm not going to tell her if I can help it.

Madoc was the one to tell me, or to help me figure it out. On the day of his exile, he gave me a slight bow and said "My king." I did not acknowledge him, too angry at him for what he had done, not only to Elfhame, but also mad about him stabbing Jude. Quietly, almost under his breath, he said, "watch her eyes." And so I have been, every moment we are in a room together and I don't need to have my eyes on someone else, they are on her eyes. She's told me several times that it's beginning to creep her out. I told her that her eyes were beautiful. It is not a lie, but not why I'm being so intense about staring at them. She just blushes when I say this though, and drops the subject.

Her Majesty has a tell.

A small one. No Faerie could tell.

Although I have learned that she lies in two ways. One way, with her words, another with her voice. In the latter, she changes her voice subtly and says exactly the opposite of what she means. But she does not have a tell when she does that. Sometimes she and Taryn have entire conversations like this. Jude told me it was called 'sarcasm'. But it is still lying. I asked Vivienne about it the last time she came to visit her nephew, Justice Key. Vivienne said that to humans, the change of tone isn't subtle and that it's very obvious to them, that they use tone to convey meaning often and humans don't typically think of sarcasm as a form of lying at all, they often view it as a joke. But it is lying, or else I would be able to do it.

We've been at this revel for far too long now. I'm so bored. Maybe Jude will dance with me. I look over at her, she looks on guard, and tired. I wonder what is wrong. I stand up, trying to subtly stretch myself. "My Queen, would you join me for a dance?" I ask, offering her my arm. She gives me a tight smile, I wonder what she is worried about.

"It would be my pleasure, my King." She responds and stands, taking my arm, we step off of the dais. I look over at the musicians and say "A waltz." The music abruptly changes and I start whirling Jude around the dance floor. She is beautiful, and she's smiling, but she doesn't seem to be enjoying it as much as she usually does. I'm worried it's about me…I won't forget to pull her out, this isn't our first revel as a couple. I lean towards her and say "Is everything alright, Jude?" She looks startled for a moment and then blinks rapidly twice, barely shutting her eyes, and says "Of course everything is alright."

Shit.

My stomach seems to plummet to the floor.

Why is she lying? Why now? She rarely lies to me, instead, she typically evades my questions. That's why it took me months and months to figure it out. What is she lying about?

I'm concerned now, "Would you like to retire then? It has been a long evening of reveling."

This time is even a shorter double blink, barely a whisper of her lashes against her cheek, but still there. "No," she responds, "no, I am enjoying myself and would like to stay a bit longer, Cardan."

All right. There is something definitely wrong.

"What's going on, Jude?" I say, suddenly angry. My worry has morphed into anger at these blatant lies, and the secrecy she always reverts to.

Again, there's a quick double blink of those beautiful eyes. "Nothing, Cardan." Another two rapid blinks "Everything is fine."

"Jude, you're lying to me." I am so angry, I can hear the frustration in my voice. So can she apparently because she looks taken aback.

Two blinks. "No, I'm not." She responds.

"Liar," I say.

Two deliberate blinks this time, like she's more concentrated on her lie now. "No, I'm not."

"Jude, come on. We've been married for over a year. I know when you're lying." Our one-year anniversary was last month, but I didn't want to share with the kingdom when our actual wedding was, I didn't want them to deduce that I married her and exiled her the next day. So we celebrated in private. It was a sweet romantic night, she gave me a wedding ring, that I prize over all of my other jewels. We will have a revel for the anniversary of her Coronation, so the kingdom will get to celebrate our union as well.

She looks very taken aback, "How -" she begins, and then sighs "okay," she breaths out. "There's going to be an assassination attempt." She states blandly. I tense, but when I am tense my own training to hide my emotions kicks in. I stay utterly composed.

"Ah," I say. "So you're using me as bait?" I ask, annoyed that she didn't just tell me. I trust her. I would be happy to have a mission from the court of shadows. Damn her and her secrets.

"What? No." She says, there were no blinks, I know she's being honest. "It's not an assassination attempt on you, it will be on me." This time when I tense, I pull her closer to me, I don't want anything to happen to her. Then the sound of her voice catches up in my brain, she's breathing heavily. Damn, I forgot to stop her dancing, too caught up in our own private affairs. I pull her off the dance floor to a table with wine goblets, wine bottles, and a flowing fountain of shiny liquor that I know to skew the senes. I pour two goblets of Blackberry wine and hand one to her. She smiles her thanks and takes it.

"So why does an attempt on your life mean we can't go to bed? Are you using yourself as bait? I won't allow it, Jude." I say, trying to sound stern, although I know she won't ever listen to me.

She gives me a small smile, and quicks an eyebrow, "Allow me? Have you forgotten whom you're talking to, your Majesty? I'm the High Queen of Elfhame. You allow me nothing, other than when you granted me that title." She smirks at me. As If I don't have her begging to be allowed to touch me most nights.

"Your Highness," I say giving her a mock bow, "please explain." At that moment a small group of courtiers walk up to me and begin discussing tomorrow's activities. She watches me as I tell them about how I must meet with certain people and hear their pleas. They say they will come to observe for a few hours. "You are generous with your time. I'm glad you are at the high court." They bow and I reach for Jude's hand and start leading her back to the dais. Once on our thrones, we can't speak without fear of being overheard. I hope she won't be difficult.

"The Court of Shadows found evidence that the Court of Teeth has reassembled under new leadership, because of Queen Suren's pledge to me. Their first act of business is to get rid of me." We're already stepping onto the dais. At least she told me, although I want to know more. As we stop our ascent to our thrones, where we should part ways to sit in each separate chair, I take both of her hands for a moment, turning her towards me.

"So you are setting you're self up as bait?" I ask.

She looks at me very seriously but does not lie as she says the second most devastating news I've heard since we began this conversation, "No. Intelligence believes that they will attack when I am in private. So no privacy for the next few days. The Court of Shadows is setting up a 24-hour guard as we speak. We need to give them at least two more hours before everything is prepared." I must be giving her a strange look because now she says, "Is everything alright, Cardan?"

I choke out the words in horror, "24 hours a day? We won't have any privacy?"

She understands my meaning. My desperation to touch her, to be with her. But she just gives a light laugh and then sits down on her throne, I have no choice but to also sit down.

Here come the days of hell.