Read Online The Cruel Prince by Holly Black - Free Book Online Page A

want with acorns she enchants to pass as money. Taryn doesn’t love it the way Vivi does, but she has fun. When I am here, though, I feel like a ghost.
    We strut through the JCPenney as though we’re the most dangerous things around. But when I see human families all together, especially families with sticky-mouthed, giggling little sisters, I don’t like the way I feel.
    Angry.
    I don’t imagine myself back in a life like theirs; what I imagine is going over there and scaring them until they cry.
    I would never, of course.
    I mean, I don’t think I would.
    Taryn seems to notice the way my gaze snags on a child whining to her mother. Unlike me, Taryn is adaptable. She knows the right things to say. She’d be okay if she were thrust back into this world. She’s okay now. She will fall in love, just as she said. She will metamorphose into a wife or consort and raise faerie children who will adore and outlive her. The only thing holding her back is me.
    I am
so glad
she can’t guess my thoughts.
    â€œSo,” Vivi says. “We’re here because you both could use some cheering up. So cheer up.”
    I look over at Taryn and take a deep breath, ready to apologize. I don’t know if that’s what Vivi had in mind, but it’s what I’ve known I had to do since I got out of bed. “I’m sorry,” I blurt out.
    â€œYou’re probably mad,” Taryn says at the same time.
    â€œAt you?” I am astonished.
    Taryn droops. “I swore to Cardan that I wouldn’t help you, even though I came with you that day to help.”
    I shake my head vehemently. “Really, Taryn, you’re the one who should be angry that I got you tossed into the water in the first place. Getting yourself out of there was the smart thing to do. I would never be mad about that.”
    â€œOh,” she says. “Okay.”
    â€œTaryn told me about the prank you played on the prince,” Vivi says. I see myself reflected in her sunglasses, doubled, quadrupled with Taryn beside me. “Pretty good, but now you’re going to have to do something much worse. I’ve got ideas.”
    â€œNo!” Taryn says with vehemence. “Jude doesn’t need to do
anything
. She was just upset about Madoc and the tournament. If she goes back to ignoring them, they’ll go back to ignoring her, too. Maybe not at first, but eventually.”
    I bite my lip because I don’t think that’s true.
    â€œForget Madoc. Knighthood would have been boring anyway,” Vivi says, effectively dismissing the thing I’ve been working toward for years. I sigh. It’s annoying, but also reassuring that she doesn’t think it’s that big a deal, when the loss has felt overwhelming to me.
    â€œSo what do you want to do?” I ask Vivi to avoid any more of this discussion. “Are we seeing a movie? Do you want to try on lipsticks? Don’t forget you promised me coffee.”
    â€œI want you to meet my girlfriend,” Vivienne says, and I remember the pink-haired girl in the strip of photos. “She asked me to move in with her.”
    â€œHere?” I ask, as though there could be any other place.
    â€œThe mall?” Vivi laughs at our expressions. “We’re going to meet her here today but probably find a different place to
live
. Heather doesn’t know Faerie exists, so don’t mention it, okay?”
    When Taryn and I were ten, Vivi learned how to make ragwort horses. We ran away from Madoc’s house a few days later. At a gas station, Vivi enchanted a random woman to take us home with her.
    I still remember the woman’s blank face as she drove. I wanted to make her smile, but no matter what funny faces I pulled, her expression didn’t change. We spent the night in her house, sick after having ice cream for dinner. I cried myself to sleep, clinging to a weeping Taryn.
    After that, Vivi found us a motel room with a