Jurdan in the Mortal World

...Why Would You...?

(A/N: hi. so...a little bump in the plot. a reader told me that bryern and the roach were friends, which makes things a minor issue...but you'll see. hahahahaha.

sorry for the one-day cliffhanger you guys probably didn't give a fuvk about. um...this will be a long, long chapter. like...LONG. so be prepared. 

thank you for all the support i've gotten from people i didn't know prior to this story. it was really just for me to fangirl about jurdan, so the fact that people actually read it and liked it means a lot to me.

please comment, vote, and enjoy the very, very long chapter. this is prbly going to be the second-to-last chapter, so...enjoy it while it lasts.)

"From where." I knew I should have trusted my instincts. I knew I should've done something.

"Two things, Jude my dear. Calm down. And second of all...you're going to have to tell us how you met this Bryern."

"No. Where are they coming through."

The Roach looks shaken. "Insmire. But Jude...Bryern would not have done this had not there'd been a very good reason. So explain."

I take a shuddering breath. "You"-I point at The Roach-"were the reason I knew him. I worked with him, earning money by calming down the Fae rifts in the mortal world. Sure, he was cunning, but...not more than the average Fae. I really don't think...I don't think he would have done this."

"But here we are," Cardan says, raising an eyebrow. "So what are we going to do."

"We don't need more than half of our army to go meet with them. If this goes as planned...we're not going to need any bloodshed. And get Oriana. Clearly, she didn't matter as much to Madoc as we previously thought."

I storm into our room, shucking off my dress and stepping into training clothes, comfortable and worn. I haul on a black cloak and cram my feet into my boots. Sheathing two blades at my hip, I run back out to the courtyard, where Cardan is getting the horses ready to enter Insmire. 

"Let's go. Go go go, and tell the army to flank our both sides."

As soon as I haul myself onto a horse, the group starts moving. We move at a good clip, and soon, we're nearing Insmire. 

"Jude."

"What?"

"What's your plan."

I take a deep breath. This. This is the scariest thing I've ever done. More than giving my trust to Cardan, more than the day I was drowning in the river, more than the days I had to spend pretending I was Taryn.

"I'm going to tell them my story."

Cardan grabs my hand. "No."

"I have a past, and I'm going to do what I want with it."

"Your life isn't a weapon."

"It's exactly what I want it to be. Nothing more, nothing less!"

"We-we have other choices."

"Like what. Most of our army are rebels, still stewing over Madoc's exile. Like what."

"I don't know. We can think of something."

A headache starts pounding away at my forehead. "Why. You've never done the protective shit, so why now?"

"Because all my life, I was used. My life was used as a weapon, something to threaten with. Not only were people afraid of me, but they didn't understand what my life was like. They didn't want to.