The Queen of Nothing (Full Book) by Holly Black ( PDFDrive )

Nor will he ever plan another party for the purpose of
humiliating Cardan. He won’t laugh with Nicasia nor play
Taryn and me against each other again. Maybe I should be
relieved, for all the trouble he caused. But I am surprised by
feeling grief instead.
Taryn takes a breath, as if steeling herself. “He’s dead
because I killed him.”
I shake my head, as though that’s going to help me
understand what she’s saying. “What?”
She looks more embarrassed than anything else, as though
she were confessing to some kind of dumb accident instead of
to murdering her husband. I am uncomfortably reminded of
Madoc, standing over three screaming children a moment after
cutting down their parents, surprise on his face. As though he
hadn’t quite meant for it to go so far. I wonder if that’s how
Taryn feels.
I knew I’d grown up to be more like Madoc than I was
comfortable with, but I never thought she and he were
anything alike.
“And I need you to pretend to be me,” she finishes, with no
apparent worry that suggesting the very trick that allowed
Madoc to march off with half of Cardan’s army, the very trick
that doomed me to agreeing to the plan that got me exiled, is
in poor taste. “Just for a few hours.”
“Why?” I start, and then realize I am not being clear. “Not
the pretending part. I mean, why did you kill him?”
She takes a breath, then looks back at the apartment. “Come
inside, and I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you everything. Please, Jude.”
I look toward the apartment and reluctantly admit to myself
I have nowhere else to go. I don’t want to go to Bryern. I want
to go back inside and rest in my own bed. And despite being
exhausted, I can’t deny that the prospect of sneaking into
Elfhame as Taryn has an unsettling appeal. The very thought
of being there, of seeing Cardan, speeds my heart.