Cardan's Letters To Jude Novels & Stories

Chiara’s POV With the money and identification cards spread across my desk, I noticed there was one final item still inside the envelope. A letter. I pulled it out slowly and unfolded it. The handwriting was unmistakable. Luciano De Luca’s. It read: Whether you choose to remain with Nightfall or travel elsewhere, you and your child will forever be welcomed and respected here. These cards will ensure that you may always return. Sincerely, Alpha King Luciano De Luca My fingers tightened around the paper.

Something was peeking out from the tight, dusty space right under the low edge of the bed. He bent down, reaching underneath the heavy mattress, and pulled out a single piece of heavy, premium paper. It was a card. Adrian flipped it over in his trembling hands, and his breath hitched completely in his throat. The elegant, sweeping handwriting was unmistakable. It was a card from Mr. Hudson, filled with words of love, regret, and a deep longing to connect with his children. It was exactly like his father had said—he had been writing cards and letters to them all these years.

I picked it up slowly, holding it up to the light. The King of Spades. The edges were clean, untouched by fire like it had been placed there after everything went up in flames. My blood simmered at the pure arrogance of this message. “They’re not sending a warning. They’re sending a challenge.” I murmured staring at the card in my hand. “Albanian signature?” Nathan exhaled hard knowing what this means. The Brotherhood hasn’t been to a war in a long time “Get me Romano. Now.” I nodded once slipping the card into my coat pocket.

Jude grinned and said just before Estella could finish, "Excuse me, how much do you want to borrow?" Estella declared her desired quantity of money with haste. "Not much, only two hundred thousand dollars!" "Mum! You recently stated..." Stella had to cut her off with a loud interruption. Estella shot her a hard glance. With a smirk, Jude moved to block Stella’s voice behind him. He then removed his wallet, pulled out a bank card, and gave it to Estella. "There are $300,000 in this card, Auntie. Use it first if you're pressed for time. Six Sevens is the code.”

“And he’s not playing with us. Well, not like you are implying. He’s teasing us, yes. But because we’re his mate, he wants to tempt us into action. And we should do something.’ Cardinal rolled his eyes. ‘I am not doing anything. Least of all, in a room full of people.’ I dismissed instead, focusing on what was going on. After all, we were finally discussing the reason I’m even here. This war and the Alpha who started it. ‘Ignazio sounds a lot like Alpha Knox….’ Cardinal wrinkled his nose as he then spat at even uttering my deceased Alpha’s name. Knox was a piece of shit, but we didn’t have much of a choice. I certainly won’t argue with that.

"I know I do. It's refreshing." It seemed that after that comment Carden lost any interest in talking about our week hidden away. I went and joined Sarin in the nesting bed. Carden went into his closet, I heard papers rustling and vibrant cursing in several languages. What I presume to box went tumbling. I got up and opened his closet to find him under a tiny home-sized mountain of paperwork I picked one up it read: "I never thought I was condemning my mates when those laws were passed. Now that the women, Belladonna has died I don't want to save those in-betweens or my other male beloved.

Artemisia pulled some letters, admiring the gold of the back, there were drawings of leaves so delicate that the young woman could spend hours and hours watching it. Artemisia landed six cards in the middle of the sunflower table, Tinea turned the cards carefully, looking intently at them. In the first letter turned, the woman did not make a very good expression, the letter had a drawing of a flower similar to the belladonna flower, but a little different, below the drawing and was written in gold "Lily-of-the-black wind". The second letter had a drawing of a grayish trunk with pink flowers rising from it, below, also in golden letters, was written "Judas-tree".

POV: Luca Calder found the correspondence on the thirty-first day. Not all of it — enough. Three letters, passed through a merchant intermediary in the Western Reach, between Aldric's lawyers and a man whose name appeared twice in Elsa Mourne's records as a financial conduit. The letters did not say anything incriminating on the surface. They were the letters of lawyers corresponding with a business contact about matters that could, in isolation, be explained as entirely legitimate. The letters were not in isolation.

Estate of the Osei Family. I flipped the card over. There was a handwritten note in a sharp, elegant script that made my stomach turn. It wasn't Zara’s handwriting. I’d seen this script before, in the old ledgers my father had hidden in the floorboards of our house in Geneva. 'Don’t let them see you blink, little wolf. I’ll see you Saturday. - V.' I dropped the card like it was made of hot coal. "Audrey?" Luca was by my side in an instant, his hand steadying mine. "What is it? What does it say?"

Halle looked at Andrius, feeling proud. Only Jude was stunned as if a bolt of lightning struck him. He looked at the scene with utmost disbelief. Was Andrius not from the mountains? Wasn’t he a nameless poor guy? How could he bring the mayor over with just one call? Why? How did he, Jude Carver, the young master of a large company, lose to a nameless guy from the mountains? He was defeated, completely. Therefore, since the family and Andrius were held up by the mayor’s arrival, Jude quickly left. He could not afford to stay any longer because he was afraid that Andrius might insult him again.