SPOILER WARNING May contain plot details |
| “ | Do you love me enough to weep over me? | ” |
–Locke to Jude Duarte, The Cruel Prince | ||
Locke was a faerie. He was the son of Liriope and his unnamed father, half brother to Oak and former husband of Taryn Duarte. He was also a member of Cardan Greenbriar's inner circle of friends.
Physical Description[]
Locke had russet-colored hair and tawny fox eyes that were seemingly soft and feline at moments. He had pointed ears and a pointed chin. Locke was fairly tall and had a lean build. He was described as resembling a fox with fox-like eyes and hair the color of fox fur.
Personality[]
Just as he was described as looking like a fox, Locke was as sly as a fox. He showed a caring side but he was also very manipulative. He liked dramatics and enjoyed being a part of the story. Locke mentioned that he didn't mind creating a story of his own if there isn't one good enough. He craved dramatic experiences and entertainment. Cardan described him as having "an endless appetite for merriment."[1]
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Locke's mother, Liriope, took him to the human world as a child once. She told him that their world would grow stagnant without the human realm. At some point, his father left to reside in the Wild. At the age of ten, his mother was murdered and Locke had been on his own ever since, living in his family's estate.
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Jude sneaks salt into Cardan and his group's lunch in retaliation for the previous day. After lessons, they attack Jude and Taryn. Locke grabs Taryn and throws her in the river. He then joins Nicasia and Valerian in throwing their belongings into the water. He watches Cardan threaten Jude and offer Taryn protection if she abandons Jude.
Locke participates with the group in the Summer Tournament. When Jude refuses to back down and give in to Cardan, he is watching nearby. Afterward, he comes up to Jude and asks if she's alright. When Jude asks why he cares, he replies that he found it funny. He tells Jude that he finds it funny that she gets under Cardan's skin like iron and that no one bothers him quite the way she does. Locke then begins to clean Jude's injuries from the Tournament. Lastly, he tells her to keep it up.
When Valerian forces Jude to eat faerie fruit and she begins to embarrass herself, he intervenes before anything worse can happen and takes her home. As they walk to Madoc's Stronghold, Jude asks him how he can stand to be friends with them. Locke tells her that there "is a pleasure in being with them." He tells Jude he wants to see her again because she is "like a story that hasn't happened yet" and he wants to see what she will do and be "part of the unfolding of the tale."
Locke visits Jude at Madoc's Stronghold to ask her to return to school. He flirts with her and they almost kiss. Locke continues his flirtation with Jude. He sits with her and Taryn during lunch and occasionally he walks Jude home through the woods, stopping to kiss her. Nicasia asks Locke if he's enjoying himself, telling him that Cardan won't forgive him for what he's doing with Jude. He just laughs and asks if Cardan is angrier that she chose him over Cardan or that he chose a mortal over her.
After Valerian attempts to kill Jude during school, he brings her to his estate and they spend the afternoon together. He convinces her to stay for his party. They spend most of the party kissing and she spends the night.
At the coronation, Locke begins to ask Jude strange questions. He asks her if Jude loves him enough to weep over him. After Balekin's unsuccessful coup, and back at Madoc's Stronghold the truth about Locke comes out. Locke is the faerie that Taryn is in love with and who was going to ask Madoc for permission to marry her. Everyone except for Jude knew what Locke was doing. Locke told Taryn that if she could endure what he was doing with Jude it would be a test of love and prove to him that she was like the fey and not like mortals. The day Jude saw Cardan making Taryn cry was when Cardan was telling Taryn that it was her fault he kicked dirt onto Jude's food. Locke had tricked them into thinking it was Jude who stole him away from Nicasia. So, it was Jude they were punishing. Cardan told Taryn that Jude was suffering in her place and that if Jude knew why, she'd back down to him, but Taryn couldn't tell her. Jude is disgusted and feels betrayed by Locke and embarrassed that everyone, even her sister, was in on the joke at her expense.
Unbeknownst to Jude, Locke seduces Taryn. He first sneaks a note to Taryn, asking her if he could meet her outside of her room. She answers yes and they begin to meet in secret at night.
Later however, Taryn and Jude go to a revel and there Locke looks at Jude and winks. Making Cardan's inner group assume his lover is Jude to protect Taryn. He then stops visiting her.
During which Cardan and his friends throw Taryn and Jude into the river, Locke whispers to Taryn to trust him and that it will be over quick. Taryn begs Locke to do something, and Locke replies that he has. He has been making his friends think that Jude is his lover rather than Taryn. Taryn whispers to Locke that he can't do that to her sister, but Locke praises Jude by saying that she is strong enough to bear it.
After Jude pushes Cardan for making Taryn cry, Locke visits Taryn for the first time in a while. Locke tells Taryn that it was hard to stay away from her, Taryn answers that he didn't have to. Locke warns her then that the folk don't love as she does, and so she shouldn't trust him with her heart. Locke then compares Taryn to a hungry person sitting in front of a banquet refusing to eat. He asks her if she's ever careless, she replies that she is careless with him. Locke then leads Taryn to a revel taking place by the Lake of Masks. There, they dance and then relax in the grass. Locke points at a particular fae, Edir, who is watching Taryn and tells her to go talk to him. After Taryn dances and talks with Edir, Locke strides up and kisses Taryn. He then asks her if Edir was amusing for Taryn. When Taryn asks Locke why he made her do that he claims that desire is "plain" without envy, fear, anger, and jealousy. Taryn is still confused and Locke tells her that not every lover can appreciate those spices, but he thinks Taryn can. Locke goes on to compliment her that she can be the teller of a story, make all the fae love her. Taryn questions him on how she does that, and he replies that all she has to do is put aside her mortal ways. They then sleep together.
After Jude's tournament, in which Cardan orders her to beg and she doesn't, Locke tells Taryn that he is drawn to trouble, and that Jude is the one with the story. He then went after Jude.
That night, Locke comes to her window and calls for her. Taryn ignores him. Locke then gives up and leaves.
Taryn then marches over to Locke's estate and orders him to marry her. He agrees on three conditions: first, that she can tell no one about their marriage until Prince Dain's coronation; second, that Taryn must never renounce Locke; and third, that she must always remember that the Folk "don't love the way that mortals do.
Locke is at the palace attending a revel with Taryn, who he will marry in three weeks. Locke asks King Cardan to make him Master of Revels. Cardan agrees. Locke announces that he has plans for a Hunter's Moon Revel that will be full of "glorious debauchery."
He uses his position to create a dramatic experience that creates conflict in the court, through the Circles. He also uses his position to push Taryn to see how she reacts. Taryn doesn’t like it and asks Jude to ask Cardan to fire Locke.
Locke is killed by Taryn after he neglected and abused her.
The book starts some time before the first book. Going through events taking place throughout Cardan's life and providing insight into Cardan's past and current relationships.
Cardan and Nicasia are lovers, after having met at a revel. They spend their days together alongside Locke and Valerian. Locke is unloyal and works to hurt Cardan as it's in his nature. He plans on taking Nicaisa from Cardan which he eventually succeeded in seducing Nicasia at a revel Cardan throws. There he sees Locke and Nicasia getting very close. Sitting together on a couch with their legs touching. Later he finds Nicasia and Locke lying wrapped in a tapestry in his bedroom. Cardan tells them to take this to another room, to which Locke gloats him on by saying they're all friends. Cardan punches Locke and a fight begins, Nicasia objects and tries to stop Cardan and Locke from hurting each other. Cardan then tells Locke to spin a story as to why he is injured. Locke taunts Cardan and replies that Cardan and Nicasia were only together from habit, if it wasn't that way, it wouldn't have been so easy for Locke to make Nicasia love him. Cardan then lunches himself at Locke and Locke swings back. They wrestle around before Locke runs off.
Nicasia comes to Cardan a while after, telling him that Locke has taken either one or both of the mortal twins, Jude and Taryn, as a lover. She explains to Cardan that Locke means to humiliate him, to steal his lover, and then tire of her quickly. Nicasia then tells Cardan to punish the mortal girls, this being when Cardan throws Jude and Taryn into the pixie lake. Locke purposely allows them to think that it is Jude who is his lover.
Relationships[]
Romances[]
Locke and Taryn were husband and wife. They had known each other for ten years before becoming romantically involved. Their relationship ended when Locke was murdered by Taryn.
History
Locke and Taryn's relationship was secret for a while because Locke wanted to test Taryn to see if she really loved him and to see if she could love like the fey and not like a mortal. This test involved forcing Taryn to remain silent while he began a relationship with Taryn's twin sister, Jude.
After the coronation where Prince Balekin staged his unsuccessful coup, Locke went to Madoc's estate to speak with Madoc about marrying Taryn. When Jude confronted Taryn about Locke, Taryn told her that she wanted to tell her but she couldn't because Locke said if she could endure it would prove her love and it was all part of a test. Taryn revealed that the day Jude saw Cardan making her cry he was telling her that it was because of her that he kicked dirt onto Jude's food. Locke has tricked Cardan and his friends into thinking it was Jude who stole Locke away from Nicasia. So it was Jude they were punishing. Cardan said Jude was suffering in Taryn's place and that if she knew why, she would stop fighting Cardan and back down, but Taryn couldn't tell Jude.
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Jude knew it must have made Taryn furious that Locke was kissing her and that she slept in his bed. While Jude and Taryn dueled, Jude asked Taryn if it was fun to deceive her if she liked the feeling of having something over her and if she liked that he was flirting and kissing Jude all the while promising Taryn she would be his wife. Taryn responded that she hated it but she wasn't like Jude and wanted to belong in Elfhame. She was angry that Jude never asked her before going against Prince Cardan and that while he may have started things because of her, Jude kept it going. She had to show Locke that she was different.
When Madoc talked to Taryn about his conversation with Locke he told her that Locke informed him that as Madoc knew, the Folk are changeable people, but he'd still like to take Taryn as his wife. Madoc warned Taryn that this means that she would not find him particularly constant. He said nothing of his relationship with Jude, but when Madoc asked him about it, Locke replied, "Mortal feelings are so volatile that it's impossible to help toying with them a little." Madoc told Taryn that he found Locke to be unworthy of both girls. When Taryn asked if Madoc forbade her from marrying him, Madoc told her it wouldn't end well, but he wouldn't stand in front of her happiness and not even in front of the misery that she chose for herself. Finally, he reminded her that whatever pleasure she found with Locke, her loyalty is to her family.
Taryn and Locke got married and took vows the Faerie way with no one around.
Taryn asked Jude to speak with Cardan about revoking Locke's new title of Master of Revel and explained how Locke craves dramatic experiences, and as Master of Revels he can create stories. He didn't think of parties as food and drinks and music, but rather as a dynamic that might create conflict. Taryn didn't like conflict. Locke wanted to see how Taryn would react to things he did. Jude agreed, recalling how he wanted to know if Taryn loved him enough to let him court Jude while she stood by, silent and suffering. Taryn said she doesn't care about Locke taking lovers, but hated him being away from her. Taryn told Jude that when she was with Locke she felt like the hero of the story, but when he wasn't there things didn't feel right.
During Jude's exile, Taryn turned up on Vivienneʻs doorstep looking for Jude. She told she killed Locke and explained that Locke had promised to love her until he died. However, he was unkind to Taryn during their marriage and blamed it on the fact that the Folk didn’t love the same way as humans do. He would leave Taryn alone in his great, awful estate for weeks on end. Taryn distracted herself by cultivating hybrid roses in the garden, commissioning new curtains, and hosting month-long revels for his friends. Finally, Locke told Taryn that "the story had gone out of her." She explained to Locke that things had to change but he acted as though Taryn was being ridiculous. He kept talking as if he could talk Taryn out of her own feelings. This is when was she noticed that there was a jeweled letter opener on the desk, which she used to stab Locke in the throat, killing him. Later Taryn reveals to Jude that she is pregnant with Locke’s child.
Jude and Locke’s relationship was always unclear and confusing once they became romantically involved. Locke started charming Jude and being kind to her. He told Jude that he found it funny how she gets under Cardan's skin like no one else. When he told her he wanted to see her, he explained that she was "like a story that hasn't happened yet" and he wanted to be "part of the unfolding of the tale." Locke continued his flirtation with Jude and sat with her and Taryn during lunch and occasionally he walked Jude home through the woods, stopping to kiss her. She didn't understand why he liked her but found it exciting to be liked. When she discovered Tarynʻs relationship with Locke, Jude challenged her to a duel which was stopped by Madoc.
While Nicasia was Prince Cardan's lover, she and Locke were caught together at a revel hosted by Prince Balekin at Hollow Hall when Locke seduced Nicasia into leaving Cardan for him. They were lovers for a while, but Locke left her to begin courting Taryn and Jude Duarte instead. When Nicasia taunted Locke for being with Jude, he only laughs and asks, "Is he more angry that you chose me over him or that I chose a mortal over you?" Nicasia seems to be generally heartbroken by the way that Locke played with her feelings. She admits to Jude that Locke ruins everything.
Cardan Greenbriar[]
Locke is part of Cardan's inner circle. However, their friendship hit a rough patch when Locke stole Nicasia from Cardan. Their relationship remains rocky while Locke is involved with Jude because of Cardan’s suppressed feelings for her.
Their romance continues to go well, until the coronation. Locke begins to act weird and asks strange questions to Jude. After it is revealed that he was playing with Jude and Taryn and that he is the faerie Taryn is in love with and wants to marry, Jude is disgusted by Locke and feels embarrassed that everyone, including her sister, was in on the joke.
Quotes[]
- "If I came to your window, would you come out?" (Lost Sisters, 9)
- "Remember, we don't love the way that you do." (Lost Sisters, 26)
- "Come down my beauty, my darling, my dove." (Lost Sisters, 26)
- "To show you what you would not otherwise believe. Envy. Fear. Anger. Jealousy. They’re all spices. What is bread without salt? Desire can grow just as plain.” (Lost Sisters, 29)
- '“I can show you a version of yourself, Taryn. One you’ve never imagined. It’s terrible to be a girl trapped in a story. But you can be more than that. You can be the teller. You can shape the story. You can make all of Faerie love you.” (Lost Sisters, 29)
- "Put aside your mortal ways and your mortal qualms" (Lost Sisters, 30)
Gallery[]
