The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black Excerpt

‘Holly Black is the Faerie Queen’
His voice is soft, and I make the mistake Victoria Aveyard Cover Sign Off Fill in
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rot away to nothing. You will be nothing. You are nothing.’ Finishes
CMYK YES
As the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is reeling from Cardan’s Pantone –
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Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, Lamination matt lam
whose life is in peril. Jude must return to the treacherous Faerie Spot UV YES
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But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing, and she becomes Checklist Please tick or correct
ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics. When a terrible curse is Imprint hot key
unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing Jude to ISBN
choose between her ambition and her humanity . . . Price
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Praise for THE FOLK OF THE AIR series
‘Brilliantly enjoyable . . . Definitely Holly Black’s best so far.’

Amanda Craig
‘An enticing world that’s as sinister as it is appealing . . . Shadowhunters

fans should read this at their earliest opportunity.’
SciFi Now magazine
‘A veritable queen of dark fantasy, Holly Black spins a thrilling tale of

intrigue and magic . . . Unmissable for fans of Sarah J. Mass and the
Grisha trilogy.’ Buzzfeed UK
‘Whatever a reader is looking for – heart-in-throat action, deadly

romance, double-crossing, moral complexity – this is one heck of a ride.’
Booklist
‘Complex, nuanced characters, frank sensuality and thorn-sharp,

intricate storytelling all conspire to ensnare.’
Guardian
‘Lush, dangerous, a dark jewel of a book . . . This delicious story will

seduce you and leave you desperate for just one more page.’
Leigh Bardugo, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author
of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom
‘Holly Black is the Faerie Queen.’

Victoria Aveyard
‘A lush, immersive experience . . . where little is what it seems.’

Books for Keeps
‘This tale of a kingdom and deadly power struggles as seen through

human eyes is an absolute must-read.’ Irish Independent
Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 1 23/09/2019 16:58

The Folk of the Air series
The Cruel Prince
The Wicked King
The Queen of Nothing

HOLLY BL ACK
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY

NEW YORK BOSTON

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by
HOT KEY BOOKS
80–81 Wimpole St, London W1G 9RE
www.hotkeybooks.com
Copyright © Holly Black, 2019

Illustrations by Kathleen Jennings
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted

in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The right of Holly Black to be identified

as author of this work has been asserted by them
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents

are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
‘Elfin Song’ by Edmund Clarence Stedman, first published in 1860

‘A Fairy Tale’ by Philip James Bailey, first published in 1855
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
HB ISBN: 978-1-4714-0758-1
Export TPB ISBN: 978-1-4714-0850-2
Also available as an ebook
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.
Hot Key Books is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK

www.bonnierbooks.co.uk

For Leigh Bardugo,
who never lets me get away with anything

Book One
And the Elfin-King has sworn to wed
A daughter of Earth, whose child shall be,
By cross and water hallowéd,
From the fairies’ doom forever free.
What if there be a fated day !
It is far away ! it is far away !
—Edmund Clarence Stedman,

“Elfin Song”

PR OLOGUE
T
he Royal Astrologer, Baphen, squinted at the star chart and tried
not to flinch when it seemed sure the youngest prince of Elfhame
was about to be dropped on his royal head.
A week after Prince Cardan’s birth and he was finally being pre‑
sented to the High King. The previous five heirs had been seen imme‑
diately, still squalling in ruddy newness, but Lady Asha had barred the
High King from visiting before she felt herself suitably restored from
childbed.
The baby was thin and wizened, silent, staring at Eldred with black
eyes. He lashed his little whiplike tail with such force that his swaddle
threatened to come apart. Lady Asha seemed unsure how to cradle him.
Indeed, she held him as though she hoped someone might take the bur‑
den from her very soon.
“Tell us of his future,” the High King prompted. Only a few Folk

2 holly black
were gathered to witness the presentation of the new prince—the mortal

Val Moren, who was both Court Poet and Seneschal, and two members
of the Living Council: Randalin, the Minister of Keys, and Baphen. In
the empty hall, the High King’s words echoed.
Baphen hesitated, but he could do nothing save answer. Eldred had
been favored with five children before Prince Cardan, shocking fecun‑
dity among the Folk, with their thin blood and few births. The stars
had spoken of each little prince’s and princess’s fated accomplishments
in poetry and song, in politics, in virtue, and even in vice. But this time
what he’d seen in the stars had been entirely different. “Prince Cardan
will be your last born child,” the Royal Astrologer said. “He will be the
destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.”
Lady Asha sucked in a sharp breath. For the first time, she drew the
child protectively closer. He squirmed in her arms. “I wonder who has
influenced your interpretation of the signs. Perhaps Princess Elowyn
had a hand in it. Or Prince Dain.”
Maybe it would be better if she dropped him, Baphen thought
unkindly.
High King Eldred ran a hand over his chin. “Can nothing be done
to stop this?”
It was a mixed blessing to have the stars supply Baphen with so
many riddles and so few answers. He often wished he saw things more
clearly, but not this time. He bowed his head so he had an excuse not
to meet the High King’s gaze. “Only out of his spilled blood can a great
ruler rise, but not before what I have told you comes to pass.”
Eldred turned to Lady Asha and her child, the harbinger of ill luck.
The baby was as silent as a stone, not crying or cooing, tail still lashing.
“Take the boy away,” the High King said. “Rear him as you see fit.”

the queen of nothing 3
Lady Asha did not flinch. “I will rear him as befits his station. He is
a prince, after all, and your son.”
There was a brittleness in her tone, and Baphen was uncomfortably
reminded that some prophecies are fulfilled by the very actions meant
to prevent them.
For a moment, everyone stood silent. Then Eldred nodded to Val
Moren, who left the dais and returned holding a slim wooden box with
a pattern of roots traced over the lid.
“A gift,” said the High King, “in recognition of your contribution to
the Greenbriar line.”
Val Moren opened the box, revealing an exquisite necklace of heavy
emeralds. Eldred lifted them and placed them over Lady Asha’s head.
He touched her cheek with the back of one hand.
“Your generosity is great, my lord,” she said, somewhat mollified.
The baby clutched a stone in his little fist, staring up at his father with
fathomless eyes.
“Go now and rest,” said Eldred, his voice softer. This time, she
yielded.
Lady Asha departed with her head high, her grip on the child
tighter. Baphen felt a shiver of some premonition that had nothing to
do with stars.
High King Eldred did not visit Lady Asha again, nor did he call her
to him. Perhaps he ought to have put his dissatisfaction aside and culti‑
vated his son. But looking upon Prince Cardan was like looking into an
uncertain future, and so he avoided it.
Lady Asha, as the mother of a prince, found herself much in demand
with the Court, if not the High King. Given to whimsy and frivolity,
she wished to return to the merry life of a courtier. She couldn’t attend

4 holly black
balls with an infant in tow, so she found a cat whose kittens were still‑
born to act as his wet nurse.
That arrangement lasted until Prince Cardan was able to crawl. By
then, the cat was heavy with a new litter and he’d begun to pull at her
tail. She fled to the stables, abandoning him, too.
And so he grew up in the palace, cherished by no one and checked
by no one. Who would dare stop a prince from stealing food from the
grand tables and eating beneath them, devouring what he’d taken in
savage bites? His sisters and brothers only laughed, playing with him as
they would with a puppy.
He wore clothes only occasionally, donning garlands of flowers
instead and throwing stones when the guard tried to come near him.
None but his mother exerted any hold over him, and she seldom tried to
curb his excesses. Just the opposite.
“You’re a prince,” she told him firmly when he would shy away from
a conflict or fail to make a demand. “Everything is yours. You have only
to take it.” And sometimes: “I want that. Get it for me.”
It is said that faerie children are not like mortal children. They need
little in the way of love. They need not be tucked in at night, but may
sleep just as happily in a cold corner of a ballroom, curled up in a table‑
cloth. They need not be fed; they are just as happy lapping up dew and
skimming bread and cream from the kitchens. They need not be com‑
forted, since they seldom weep.
But if faerie children need little love, faerie princes require some
counsel.
Without it, when Cardan’s elder brother suggested shooting a wal‑
nut off the head of a mortal, Cardan had not the wisdom to demur. His
habits were impulsive; his manner, imperious.

“Keen marksmanship so impresses our father,” Prince Dain said

with a small, teasing smile. “But perhaps it is too difficult. Better not to
make the attempt than to fail.”
For Cardan, who could not attract his father’s good notice and des‑
perately wanted it, the prospect was tempting. He didn’t ask himself
who the mortal was or how he had come to be at the Court. Cardan
certainly never suspected that the man was beloved of Val Moren and
that the seneschal would go mad with grief if the man died.
Leaving Dain free to assume a more prominent position at the High
King’s right hand.
“Too difficult? Better not to make the attempt? Those are the words
of a coward,” Cardan said, full of childish bravado. In truth, his brother
intimidated him, but that only made him more scornful.
Prince Dain smiled. “Let us exchange arrows at least. Then if you
miss, you can say that it was my arrow that went awry.”
Prince Cardan ought to have been suspicious of this kindness, but
he’d had little enough of the real thing to tell true from false.
Instead, he notched Dain’s arrow and pulled back the bowstring,
aiming for the walnut. A sinking feeling came over him. He might not
shoot true. He might hurt the man. But on the heels of that, angry
glee sparked at the idea of doing something so horrifying that his father
could no longer ignore him. If he could not get the High King’s atten‑
tion for something good, then perhaps he could get it for something
really, really bad.
Cardan’s hand wobbled.
The mortal’s liquid eyes watched him in frozen fear. Enchanted,
of course. No one would stand like that willingly. That was what
decided him.

6 holly black
Cardan forced a laugh as he relaxed the bowstring, letting the arrow

fall out of the notch. “I simply will not shoot under these conditions,”
he said, feeling ridiculous at having backed down. “The wind is coming
from the north and mussing my hair. It’s getting all in my eyes.”
But Prince Dain raised his bow and loosed the arrow Cardan had
exchanged with him. It struck the mortal through the throat. He
dropped with almost no sound, eyes still open, now staring at nothing.
It happened so fast that Cardan didn’t cry out, didn’t react. He just
stared at his brother, slow, terrible understanding crashing over him.
“Ah,” said Prince Dain with a satisfied smile. “A shame. It seems
your arrow went awry. Perhaps you can complain to our father about
that hair in your eyes.”
After, though he protested, no one would hear Prince Cardan’s side.
Dain saw to that. He told the story of the youngest prince’s recklessness,
his arrogance, his arrow. The High King would not even allow Cardan
an audience.
Despite Val Moren’s pleas for execution, Cardan was punished for
the mortal’s death in the way that princes are punished. The High King
had Lady Asha locked away in the Tower of Forgetting in Cardan’s
stead—something Eldred was relieved to have a reason to do, since he
found her both tiresome and troublesome. Care of Prince Cardan was
given over to Balekin, the eldest of the siblings, the cruelest, and the
only one willing to take him.
And so was Prince Cardan’s reputation made. He had little to do
but further it.

CHAPTER
I
, Jude Duarte, High Queen of Elfhame in exile, spend most morn‑
ings dozing in front of daytime television, watching cooking compe‑
titions and cartoons and reruns of a show where people have to complete
a gauntlet by stabbing boxes and bottles and cutting through a whole
fish. In the afternoons, if he lets me, I train my brother, Oak. Nights, I
run errands for the local faeries.
I keep my head down, as I probably should have done in the first
place. And if I curse Cardan, then I have to curse myself, too, for being
the fool who walked right into the trap he set for me.
As a child, I imagined returning to the mortal world. Taryn and
Vivi and I would rehash what it was like there, recalling the scents
of fresh‑cut grass and gasoline, reminiscing over playing tag through
neighborhood backyards and bobbing in the bleachy chlorine of sum‑
mer pools. I dreamed of iced tea, reconstituted from powder, and orange

8 holly black
juice Popsicles. I longed for mundane things: the smell of hot asphalt,
the swag of wires between streetlights, the jingles of commercials.
Now, stuck in the mortal world for good, I miss Faerieland with
a raw intensity. It’s magic I long for, magic I miss. Maybe I even miss
being afraid. I feel as though I am dreaming away my days, restless,
never fully awake.
I drum my fingers on the painted wood of a picnic table. It’s early
autumn, already cool in Maine. Late‑afternoon sun dapples the grass
outside the apartment complex as I watch Oak play with other chil‑
dren in the strip of woods between here and the highway. They are kids
from the building, some younger and some older than his eight years,
all dropped off by the same yellow school bus. They play a totally dis‑
organized game of war, chasing one another with sticks. They hit as
children do, aiming for the weapon instead of the opponent, screaming
with laughter when a stick breaks. I can’t help noticing they are learning
all the wrong lessons about swordsmanship.
Still, I watch. And so I notice when Oak uses glamour.
He does it unconsciously, I think. He’s sneaking toward the other
kids, but then there’s a stretch with no easy cover. He keeps on toward
them, and even though he’s in plain sight, they don’t seem to notice.
Closer and closer, with the kids still not looking his way. And when
he jumps at them, stick swinging, they shriek with wholly authentic
surprise.
He was invisible. He was using glamour. And I, geased against
being deceived by it, didn’t notice until it was done. The other children
just think he was clever or lucky. Only I know how careless it was.
I wait until the children head to their apartments. They peel off,
one by one, until only my brother remains. I don’t need magic, even

with leaves underfoot, to steal up on him. With a swift motion, I wrap

my arm around Oak’s neck, pressing it against his throat hard enough
to give him a good scare. He bucks back, nearly hitting me in the chin
with his horns. Not bad. He attempts to break my hold, but it’s half‑
hearted. He can tell it’s me, and I don’t frighten him.
I tighten my hold. If I press my arm against his throat long enough,
he’ll black out.
He tries to speak, and then he must start to feel the effects of not
getting enough air. He forgets all his training and goes wild, lashing
out, scratching my arms and kicking against my legs. Making me feel
awful. I wanted him to be a little afraid, scared enough to fight back,
not terrified.
I let go, and he stumbles away, panting, eyes wet with tears. “What
was that for?” he wants to know. He’s glaring at me accusingly.
“To remind you that fighting isn’t a game,” I say, feeling as though
I am speaking with Madoc’s voice instead of my own. I don’t want Oak
to grow up as I did, angry and afraid. But I want him to survive, and
Madoc did teach me how to do that.
How am I supposed to figure out how to give him the right stuff
when all I know is my own messed‑up childhood? Maybe the parts of it
I value are the wrong parts. “What are you going to do against an oppo‑
nent who wants to actually hurt you?”
“I don’t care,” Oak says. “I don’t care about that stuff. I don’t want
to be king. I never want to be king.”
For a moment, I just stare at him. I want to believe he’s lying, but, of
course, he can’t lie.
“We don’t always have a choice in our fate,” I say.
“You rule if you care so much!” he says. “I won’t do it. Never.”

10 holly black
I have to grind my teeth together to keep from screaming. “I can’t,

as you know, because I’m in exile,” I remind him.
He stamps a hoofed foot. “So am I! And the only reason I’m in the
human world is because Dad wants the stupid crown and you want it
and everyone wants it. Well, I don’t. It’s cursed.”
“All power is cursed,” I say. “The most terrible among us will do any‑
thing to get it, and those who’d wield power best don’t want it thrust upon
them. But that doesn’t mean they can avoid their responsibilities forever.”
“You can’t make me be High King,” he says, and wheeling away
from me, breaks into a run in the direction of the apartment building.
I sit down on the cold ground, knowing that I screwed up the con‑
versation completely. Knowing that Madoc trained Taryn and me bet‑
ter than I am training Oak. Knowing that I was arrogant and foolish to
think I could control Cardan.
Knowing that in the great game of princes and queens, I have been
swept off the board.
Inside the apartment, Oak’s door is shut firmly against me. Vivienne,
my faerie sister, stands at the kitchen counter, grinning into her phone.
When she notices me, she grabs my hands and spins me around and
around until I’m dizzy.
“Heather loves me again,” she says, wild laughter in her voice.
Heather was Vivi’s human girlfriend. She’d put up with Vivi’s eva‑
sions about her past. She even put up with Oak’s coming to live with
them in this apartment. But when she found out that Vivi wasn’t human
and that Vivi had used magic on her, she dumped her and moved out. I

hate to say this, because I want my sister to be happy—and Heather did

make her happy—but it was a richly deserved dumping.
I pull away to blink at her in confusion. “What?”
Vivi waves her phone at me. “She texted me. She wants to come
back. Everything is going to be like it was before.”
Leaves don’t grow back onto a vine, cracked walnuts don’t fit back
into their shells, and girlfriends who’ve been enchanted don’t just wake
up and decide to let things slide with their terrifying exes.
“Let me see that,” I say, reaching for Vivi’s phone. She allows me to
take it.
I scroll back through the texts, most of them coming from Vivi and
full of apologies, ill‑considered promises, and increasingly desperate
pleas. On Heather’s end, there was a lot of silence and a few messages
that read “I need more time to think.”
Then this:
I want to forget Faerie. I want to forget that you and Oak

aren’t human. I don’t want to feel like this anymore. If I
asked you to make me forget, would you?
I stare at the words for a long moment, drawing in a breath.

I can see why Vivi has read the message the way she has, but I think
she’s read it wrong. If I’d written that, the last thing I would want was
for Vivi to agree. I’d want her to help me see that even if Vivi and Oak
weren’t human, they still loved me. I would want Vivi to insist that
pretending away Faerie wouldn’t help. I would want Vivi to tell me
that she’d made a mistake and that she’d never ever make that mistake
again, no matter what.

12 holly black
If I’d sent that text, it would be a test.

I hand the phone back to Vivi. “What are you going to tell her?”
“That I’ll do whatever she wants,” my sister says, an extravagant
vow for a mortal and a downright terrifying vow from someone who
would be bound to that promise.
“Maybe she doesn’t know what she wants,” I say. I am disloyal no
matter what I do. Vivi is my sister, but Heather is human. I owe them
both something.
And right now, Vivi isn’t interested in supposing anything but that
all will be well. She gives me a big, relaxed smile and picks up an apple
from the fruit bowl, tossing it in the air. “What’s wrong with Oak? He
stomped in here and slammed his door. Is he going to be this dramatic
when he’s a teenager?”
“He doesn’t want to be High King,” I tell her.
“Oh. That.” Vivi glances toward his bedroom. “I thought it was
something important.”

CHAPTER
T
onight, it’s a relief to head to work.
Faeries in the mortal world have a different set of needs than
those in Elfhame. The solitary fey, surviving at the edges of Faerie, do
not concern themselves with revels and courtly machinations.
And it turns out they have plenty of odd jobs for someone like me,
a mortal who knows their ways and isn’t worried about getting into the
occasional fight. I met Bryern a week after I left Elfhame. He turned up
outside the apartment complex, a black‑furred, goat‑headed, and goat‑
hooved faerie with bowler hat in hand, saying he was an old friend of
the Roach.
“I understand you’re in a unique position,” he said, looking at me
with those strange golden goat eyes, their black pupils a horizontal rect‑
angle. “Presumed dead, is that correct? No Social Security number. No
mortal schooling.”

14 holly black
“And looking for work,” I told him, figuring out where this was
going. “Off the books.”
“You cannot get any further off the books than with me,” he assured
me, placing one clawed hand over his heart. “Allow me to introduce
myself. Bryern. A phooka, if you hadn’t already guessed.”
He didn’t ask for oaths of loyalty or any promises whatsoever. I
could work as much as I wanted, and the pay was commensurate with
my daring.
Tonight, I meet him by the water. I glide up on the secondhand bike I
acquired. The back tire deflates quickly, but I got it cheap. It works pretty
well to get me around. Bryern is dressed with typical fussiness: His hat
has a band decorated with a few brightly colored duck feathers, and he’s
paired that with a tweed jacket. As I come closer, he withdraws a watch
from one pocket and peers at it with an exaggerated frown.
“Oh, am I late?” I ask. “Sorry. I’m used to telling time by the slant
of moonlight.”
He gives me an annoyed look. “Just because you’ve lived in the High
Court, you need not put on airs. You’re no one special now.”
I am the High Queen of Elfhame. The thought comes to me unbid‑
den, and I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from saying those
ridiculous words. He’s right: I am no one special now.
“What’s the job?” I ask instead, as blandly as I can.
“One of the Folk in Old Port has been eating locals. I have a con‑
tract for someone willing to extract a promise from her to cease.”
I find it hard to believe that he cares what happens to humans— or
cares enough to pay for me to do something about it. “Local mortals?”
He shakes his head. “No. No. Us Folk.” Then he seems to remember

to whom he’s speaking and looks a little flustered. I try not to take his
slip as a compliment.
Killing and eating the Folk? Nothing about that signals an easy job.
“Who’s hiring?”
He gives a nervous laugh. “No one who wants their name associ‑
ated with the deed. But they’re willing to remunerate you for making it
happen.”
One of the reasons Bryern likes hiring me is that I can get close to
the Folk. They don’t expect a mortal to be the one to pickpocket them
or to stick a knife in their side. They don’t expect a mortal to be unaf‑
fected by glamour or to know their customs or to see through their ter‑
rible bargains.
Another reason is, I need the money enough that I’m willing to take
jobs like this—ones that I know right from the start are going to suck.
“Address?” I ask, and he slips me a folded paper.
I open it and glance down. “This better pay well.”
“Five hundred American dollars,” he says, as though this is an
extravagant sum.
Our rent is twelve hundred a month, not to mention groceries and
utilities. With Heather gone, my half is about eight hundred. And I’d
like to get a new tire for my bike. Five hundred isn’t nearly enough, not
for something like this.
“Fifteen hundred,” I counter, raising my eyebrows. “In cash, verifi‑
able by iron. Half up front, and if I don’t come back, you pay Vivienne
the other half as a gift to my bereaved family.”
Bryern presses his lips together, but I know he’s got the money. He
just doesn’t want to pay me enough that I can get choosy about jobs.

16 holly black
“A thousand,” he compromises, reaching into a pocket inside his

tweed jacket and withdrawing a stack of bills banded by a silver clip.
“And look, I have half on me right now. You can take it.”
“Fine,” I agree. It’s a decent paycheck for what could be a single
night’s work if I’m lucky.
He hands over the cash with a sniff. “Let me know when you’ve
completed the task.”
There’s an iron fob on my key chain. I run it ostentatiously over the
edges of the money to make sure it’s real. It never hurts to remind Bry‑
ern that I’m careful.
“Plus fifty bucks for expenses,” I say on impulse.
He frowns. After a moment, he reaches into a different part of his
jacket and hands over the extra cash. “Just take care of this,” he says.
The lack of quibbling is a bad sign. Maybe I should have asked more
questions before I agreed to this job. I definitely should have negotiated
harder.
Too late now.
I get back on my bike and, with a farewell wave to Bryern, kick off
toward downtown. Once upon a time, I imagined myself as a knight
astride a steed, glorying in contests of skill and honor. Too bad my tal‑
ents turned out to lie in another direction entirely.
I suppose I am a skilled enough murderer of Folk, but what I really
excel at is getting under their skin. Hopefully that will serve me well in
persuading a cannibal faerie to do what I want.
Before I go to confront her, I decide to ask around.
First, I see a hob named Magpie, who lives in a tree in Deering
Oaks Park. He says he’s heard she’s a redcap, which isn’t great news, but
at least since I grew up with one, I am well informed about their nature.

Redcaps crave violence and blood and murder—in fact, they get a little
twitchy when there’s none to be had for stretches of time. And if they’re
traditionalists, they have a cap they dip in the blood of their vanquished
enemies, supposedly to grant them some stolen vitality of the slain.
I ask for a name, but Magpie doesn’t know. He sends me to Ladhar,
a clurichaun who slinks around the back of bars, sucking froth from the
tops of beers when no one is looking and swindling mortals in games of
chance.
“You didn’t know?” Ladhar says, lowering his voice. “Grima Mog.”
I almost accuse him of lying, despite knowing better. Then I have a
brief, intense fantasy of tracking down Bryern and making him choke
on every dollar he gave me. “What the hell is she doing here?”
Grima Mog is the fearsome general of the Court of Teeth in the
North. The same Court that the Roach and the Bomb escaped from.
When I was little, Madoc read to me at bedtime from the memoirs of
her battle strategies. Just thinking about facing her, I break out in a cold
sweat.
I can’t fight her. And I don’t think I have a good chance of tricking
her, either.
“Given the boot, I hear,” Ladhar says. “Maybe she ate someone Lady
Nore liked.”
I don’t have to do this job, I remind myself. I am no longer part of
Dain’s Court of Shadows. I am no longer trying to rule from behind
High King Cardan’s throne. I don’t need to take big risks.
But I am curious.
Combine that with an abundance of wounded pride and you find
yourself on the front steps of Grima Mog’s warehouse around dawn. I
know better than to go empty‑handed. I’ve got raw meat from a butcher

18 holly black
shop chilling in a Styrofoam cooler, a few sloppily made honey sand‑

wiches wrapped in foil, and a bottle of decent sour beer.
Inside, I wander down a hall until I come to the door to what
appears to be an apartment. I knock three times and hope that if
nothing else, maybe the smell of the food will cover up the smell of
my fear.
The door opens, and a woman in a housecoat peers out. She’s bent
over, leaning on a polished cane of black wood. “What do you want,
deary?”
Seeing through her glamour as I do, I note the green tint to her skin
and her overlarge teeth. Like my foster father: Madoc. The guy who
killed my parents. The guy who read me her battle strategies. Madoc,
once the Grand General of the High Court. Now enemy of the throne
and not real happy with me, either.
Hopefully he and High King Cardan will ruin each other’s lives.
“I brought you some gifts,” I say, holding up the cooler. “Can I come
in? I want to make a bargain.”
She frowns a little.
“You can’t keep eating random Folk without someone being sent to
try to persuade you to stop,” I say.
“Perhaps I will eat you, pretty child,” she counters, brightening. But
she steps back to allow me into her lair. I guess she can’t make a meal of
me in the hall.
The apartment is loft‑style, with high ceilings and brick walls.
Nice. Floors polished and glossed up. Big windows letting in light and a
decent view of the town. It’s furnished with old things. The tufting on a
few of the pieces is torn, and there are marks that could have come from
a stray cut of a knife.

The whole place smells like blood. A coppery, metal smell, overlaid
with a slightly cloying sweetness. I put my gifts on a heavy wooden
table.
“For you,” I say. “In the hopes you’ll overlook my rudeness in calling
on you uninvited.”
She sniffs at the meat, turns a honey sandwich over in her hand, and
pops off the cap on the beer with her fist. Taking a long draught, she
looks me over.
“Someone instructed you in the niceties. I wonder why they both‑
ered, little goat. You’re obviously the sacrifice sent in the hopes my appe‑
tite can be sated with mortal flesh.” She smiles, showing her teeth. It’s
possible she dropped her glamour in that moment, although, since I saw
through it already, I can’t tell.
I blink at her. She blinks back, clearly waiting for a reaction.
By not screaming and running for the door, I have annoyed her. I
can tell. I think she was looking forward to chasing me when I ran.
“You’re Grima Mog,” I say. “Leader of armies. Destroyer of your
enemies. Is this really how you want to spend your retirement?”
“Retirement?” She echoes the word as though I have dealt her the
deadliest insult. “Though I have been cast down, I will find another
army to lead. An army bigger than the first.”
Sometimes I tell myself something a lot like that. Hearing it aloud,
from someone else’s mouth, is jarring. But it gives me an idea. “Well, the
local Folk would prefer not to get eaten while you’re planning your next
move. Obviously, being human, I’d rather you didn’t eat mortals—I
doubt they’d give you what you’re looking for anyway.”
She waits for me to go on.
“A challenge,” I say, thinking of everything I know about redcaps.

20 holly black
“That’s what you crave, right? A good fight. I bet the Folk you killed
weren’t all that special. A waste of your talents.”
“Who sent you?” she asks finally. Reevaluating. Trying to figure out
my angle.
“What did you do to piss her off?” I ask. “Your queen? It must have
been something big to get kicked out of the Court of Teeth.”
“Who sent you? ” she roars. I guess I hit a nerve. My best skill.
I try not to smile, but I’ve missed the rush of power that comes with
playing a game like this, of strategy and cunning. I hate to admit it, but
I’ve missed risking my neck. There’s no room for regrets when you’re
busy trying to win. Or at least not to die. “I told you. The local Folk
who don’t want to get eaten.”
“Why you?” she asks. “Why would they send a slip of a girl to try to
convince me of anything?”
Scanning the room, I take note of a round box on top of the
refrigerator. An old‑fashioned hatbox. My gaze snags on it. “Probably
because it would be no loss to them if I failed.”
At that, Grima Mog laughs, taking another sip of the sour beer. “A
fatalist. So how will you persuade me?”
I walk to the table and pick up the food, looking for an excuse to get
close to that hatbox. “First, by putting away your groceries.”
Grima Mog looks amused. “I suppose an old lady like myself could
use a young thing doing a few errands around the house. But be careful.
You might find more than you bargained for in my larder, little goat.”
I open the door of the fridge. The remains of the Folk she’s killed greet
me. She’s collected arms and heads, preserved somehow, baked and broiled
and put away just like leftovers after a big holiday dinner. My stomach turns.
A wicked smile crawls across her face. “I assume you hoped to

challenge me to a duel? Intended to brag about how you’d put up a good

fight? Now you see what it means to lose to Grima Mog.”
I take a deep breath. Then with a hop, I knock the hatbox off the
top of the fridge and into my arms.
“Don’t touch that!” she shouts, pushing to her feet as I rip off the lid.
And there it is: the cap. Lacquered with blood, layers and layers of it.
She’s halfway across the floor to me, teeth bared. I pull out a lighter
from my pocket and flick the flame to life with my thumb. She halts
abruptly at the sight of the fire.
“I know you’ve spent long, long years building the patina of this
cap,” I say, willing my hand not to shake, willing the flame not to go
out. “Probably there’s blood on here from your first kill, and your last.
Without it, there will be no reminder of your past conquests, no tro‑
phies, nothing. Now I need you to make a deal with me. Vow that there
will be no more murders. Not the Folk, not humans, for so long as you
reside in the mortal world.”
“And if I don’t, you’ll burn my treasure?” Grima Mog finishes for
me. “There’s no honor in that.”
“I guess I could offer to fight you,” I say. “But I’d probably lose. This
way, I win.”
Grima Mog points the tip of her black cane toward me. “You’re
Madoc’s human child, aren’t you? And our new High King’s seneschal
in exile. Tossed out like me.”
I nod, discomfited at being recognized.
“What did you do?” she asks, a satisfied little smile on her face. “It
must have been something big.”
“I was a fool,” I say, because I might as well admit it. “I gave up the
bird in my hand for two in the bush.”

22 holly black
She gives a big, booming laugh. “Well, aren’t we a pair, redcap’s

daughter? But murder is in my bones and blood. I don’t plan on giving
up killing. If I am to be stuck in the mortal world, then I intend to have
some fun.”
I bring the flame closer to the hat. The bottom of it begins to
blacken, and a terrible stench fills the air.
“Stop!” she shouts, giving me a look of raw hatred. “Enough. Let me
make you an offer, little goat. We spar. If you lose, my cap is returned to
me, unburnt. I continue to hunt as I have. And you give me your littlest
finger.”
“To eat?” I ask, taking the flame away from the hat.
“If I like,” she returns. “Or to wear like a brooch. What do you care
what I do with it? The point is that it will be mine.”
“And why would I agree to that?”
“Because if you win, you will have your promise from me. And I
will tell you something of significance regarding your High King.”
“I don’t want to know anything about him,” I snap, too fast and too
angrily. I hadn’t been expecting her to invoke Cardan.
Her laugh this time is low and rumbling. “Little liar.”
We stare at each other for a long moment. Grima Mog’s gaze is amiable
enough. She knows she has me. I am going to agree to her terms. I know it,
too, although it’s ridiculous. She’s a legend. I don’t see how I can win.
But Cardan’s name pounds in my ears.
Does he have a new seneschal? Does he have a new lover? Is he going
to Council meetings himself? Does he talk about me? Do he and Locke
mock me together? Does Taryn laugh?
“We spar until first blood,” I say, shoving everything else out of my
head. It’s a pleasure to have someone to focus my anger on. “I’m not

giving you my finger,” I say. “You win, you get your cap. Period. And
I walk out of here. The concession I am making is fighting you at all.”
“First blood is dull.” Grima Mog leans forward, her body alert. “Let’s
agree to fight until one of us cries off. Let it end somewhere between
bloodshed and crawling away to die on the way home.” She sighs, as if
thinking a happy thought. “Give me a chance to break every bone in
your scrawny body.”
“You’re betting on my pride.” I tuck her cap into one pocket and the
lighter into the other.
She doesn’t deny it. “Did I bet right?”
First blood is dull. It’s all dancing around each other, looking for an
opening. It’s not real fighting. When I answer her, the word rushes out
of me. “Yes.”
“Good.” She lifts the tip of the cane toward the ceiling. “Let’s go to
the roof.”
“Well, this is very civilized,” I say.
“You better have brought a weapon, because I’ll loan you nothing.”
She heads toward the door with a heavy sigh, as though she really is the
old woman she’s glamoured to be.
I follow her out of her apartment, down the dimly lit hall, and into
the even darker stairway, my nerves firing. I hope I know what I’m
doing. She goes up the steps two at a time, eager now, slamming open a
metal door at the top. I hear the clatter of steel as she draws a thin sword
out of her cane. A greedy smile pulls her lips too wide, showing off her
sharp teeth.
I draw the long knife I have hidden in my boot. It doesn’t have the
best reach, but I don’t have the ability to glamour things; I can’t very
well ride my bike around with Nightfell on my back.

24 holly black
Still, right now, I really wish I’d figured out a way to do just that.
I step onto the asphalt roof of the building. The sun is starting to
rise, tinting the sky pink and gold. A chill breeze blows through the air,
bringing with it the scents of concrete and garbage, along with golden‑
rod from the nearby park.
My heart speeds with some combination of terror and eagerness.
When Grima Mog comes at me, I am ready. I parry and move out of the
way. I do it again and again, which annoys her.
“You promised me a threat,” she growls, but at least I have a sense
of how she moves. I know she’s hungry for blood, hungry for violence. I
know she’s used to hunting prey. I just hope she’s overconfident. It’s pos‑
sible she will make mistakes facing someone who can fight back.
Unlikely, but possible.
When she comes at me again, I spin and kick the back of her knee
hard enough to send her crashing to the ground. She roars, scrambling
up and coming at me full speed. For a moment, the fury in her face and
those fearsome teeth send a horrible, paralyzing jolt through me.
Monster! my mind screams.
I clench my jaw against the urge to keep dodging. Our blades shine,
fish‑scale bright in the new light of the day. The metal slams together,
ringing like a bell. We battle across the roof, my feet clever as we scuff
back and forth. Sweat starts on my brow and under my arms. My breath
comes hot, clouding in the chill air.
It feels good to be fighting someone other than myself.
Grima Mog’s eyes narrow, watching me, looking for weaknesses. I
am conscious of every correction Madoc ever gave me, every bad habit
the Ghost tried to train out of me. She begins a series of brutal blows,
trying to drive me to the edge of the building. I give ground, attempting

to defend myself against the flurry, against the longer reach of her blade.
She was holding back before, but she’s not holding back now.
Again and again she pushes me toward a drop through the open
air. I fight with grim determination. Perspiration slicks my skin, beads
between my shoulder blades.
Then my foot smacks into a metal pipe sticking up through the
asphalt. I stumble, and she strikes. It’s all I can do to avoid getting
speared, and it costs me my knife, which goes hurtling off the roof. I
hear it hit the street below with a dull thud.
I should never have taken this assignment. I should never have
agreed to this fight. I should never have taken up Cardan’s offer of mar‑
riage and never been exiled to the mortal world.
Anger gives me a burst of energy, and I use it to get out of Grima
Mog’s way, letting the momentum of her strike carry her blade down
past me. Then I elbow her hard in the arm and grab for the hilt of her
sword.
It’s not a very honorable move, but I haven’t been honorable for a
long time. Grima Mog is very strong, but she’s also surprised. For a
moment, she hesitates, but then she slams her forehead into mine. I go
reeling, but I almost had her weapon.
I almost had it.
My head is pounding, and I feel a little dizzy.
“That’s cheating, girl,” she tells me. We’re both breathing hard. I
feel like my lungs are made of lead.
“I’m no knight.” As though to emphasize the point, I pick up the
only weapon I can see: a metal pole. It’s heavy and has no edge whatso‑
ever, but it’s all there is. At least it’s longer than the knife.
She laughs. “You ought to concede, but I’m delighted you haven’t.”

26 holly black
“I’m an optimist,” I say. Now when she runs at me, she has all the
speed, although I have more reach. We spin around each other, her
striking and my parrying with something that swings like a baseball
bat. I wish for a lot of things, but mostly to make it off this roof.
My energy is flagging. I am not used to the weight of the pipe, and
it’s hard to maneuver.
Give up, my whirling brain supplies. Cry off while you’re still standing.
Give her the cap, forget the money, and go home. Vivi can magic leaves into
extra cash. Just this time, it wouldn’t be so bad. You’re not fighting for a
kingdom. That, you already lost.
Grima Mog comes toward me as though she can scent my despair.
She puts me through my paces, a few fast, aggressive strikes in the hopes
of getting under my guard.
Sweat drips down my forehead, stinging my eyes.
Madoc described fighting as a lot of things, as a game of strategy
played at speed, as a dance, but right now it feels like an argument. Like
an argument where she’s keeping me too busy defending myself to score
any points.
Despite the strain on my muscles, I switch to holding the pipe in
one hand and pull her cap from my pocket with the other.
“What are you doing? You promised—” she begins.
I throw the cap at her face. She grabs for it, distracted. In that
moment, I swing the pipe at her side with all the strength in my body.
I catch her in the shoulder, and she falls with a howl of pain. I hit
her again, bringing the metal rod down in an arc onto her outstretched
arm, sending her sword spinning across the roof.
I raise the pipe to swing again.

“Enough.” Grima Mog looks up at me from the asphalt, blood on

her pointed teeth, astonishment in her face. “I yield.”
“You do?” The pipe sags in my hand.
“Yes, little cheat,” she grits out, pushing herself into a sitting
position. “You bested me. Now help me up.”
I drop the pipe and walk closer, half‑expecting her to pull out a
knife and sink it into my side. But she only lifts a hand and allows me to
haul her to her feet. She puts her cap on her head and cradles the arm I
struck in the other.
“The Court of Teeth have thrown in their lot with the old Grand
General—your father—and a whole host of other traitors. I have it on
good authority that your High King is to be dethroned before the next
full moon. How do you like those apples?”
“Is that why you left?” I ask her. “Because you’re not a traitor?”
“I left because of another little goat. Now be off with you. This was
more fun than I expected, but I think our game is at a close.”
Her words ring in my ears. Your High King. Dethroned. “You still
owe me a promise,” I say, my voice coming out like a croak.
And to my surprise, Grima Mog gives me one. She vows to hunt no
more in the mortal lands.
“Come fight me again,” she calls after me as I head for the stairs. “I
have secrets aplenty. There are so many things you don’t know, daughter
of Madoc. And I think you crave a little violence yourself.”

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‘Holly Black is the Faerie Queen’

QueenOfNothing_TPB_ANZ_CVR.indd 1 02/10/2019 13:48

‘Brilliantly enjoyable . . . Definitely Holly Black’s best so far.’

‘An enticing world that’s as sinister as it is appealing . . . Shadowhunters

‘A veritable queen of dark fantasy, Holly Black spins a thrilling tale of

‘Whatever a reader is looking for – heart-in-throat action, deadly

‘Complex, nuanced characters, frank sensuality and thorn-sharp,

‘Lush, dangerous, a dark jewel of a book . . . This delicious story will

‘Holly Black is the Faerie Queen.’

‘A lush, immersive experience . . . where little is what it seems.’

‘This tale of a kingdom and deadly power struggles as seen through

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 1 23/09/2019 16:58

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LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 3 23/09/2019 16:58

Copyright © Holly Black, 2019

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted

The right of Holly Black to be identified

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents

‘Elfin Song’ by Edmund Clarence Stedman, first published in 1860

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.

Hot Key Books is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 4 23/09/2019 16:58

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 5 23/09/2019 16:58

—Edmund Clarence Stedman,

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 9 23/09/2019 16:58

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 1 23/09/2019 16:58

were gathered to witness the presentation of the new prince—the mortal

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 2 23/09/2019 16:58

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“Keen marksmanship so impresses our father,” Prince Dain said

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Cardan forced a laugh as he relaxed the bowstring, letting the arrow

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 6 23/09/2019 16:58

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 7 23/09/2019 16:58

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 8 23/09/2019 16:58

with leaves underfoot, to steal up on him. With a swift motion, I wrap

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 9 23/09/2019 16:58

I have to grind my teeth together to keep from screaming. “I can’t,

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 10 23/09/2019 16:58

hate to say this, because I want my sister to be happy—and Heather did

I want to forget Faerie. I want to forget that you and Oak

I stare at the words for a long moment, drawing in a breath.

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 11 23/09/2019 16:58

If I’d sent that text, it would be a test.

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 12 23/09/2019 16:58

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“A thousand,” he compromises, reaching into a pocket inside his

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 16 23/09/2019 16:58

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shop chilling in a Styrofoam cooler, a few sloppily made honey sand‑

Queen of Nothing Royal.indd 18 23/09/2019 16:58

‘Brilliantly enjoyable . . . Definitely Holly Black’s best so far.’