Cool motive Taryn...still betrayal. This whole deal honestly sounds like a bunch of excuses as to why Taryn was a jerk to her sister. It was mostly jealousy that did her in and the false belief that just being nice was enough to fend off cruelty in a land of monsters. The first section of the short story is the story of a Fox Man who killed all his wives and one day one of them was bold and revealed his treachery. And then she goes on to say to Jude:

“I think about that story a lot. I think about it all the time.
It’s the kind of thing you like. The wicked are slain, with swords no less. Vengeance is had. Boldness is rewarded. But what about all those girls, all those obedient girls who trusted and loved and wed and died? Weren’t they bold, too?
I bet you don’t think so. I bet you think they were just stupid.
That’s your problem in a nutshell. You’re judgmental. Everyone makes mistakes. They trust the wrong people. They fall in love. Not you, though. And that’s why it’s so hard to ask you for forgiveness.
But I am. Asking. I mean, I am going to ask. I am going to try to explain how it happened and how sorry I am.”

So she basically starts off her apology accusing Jude of being too judgmental of her mistakes. Is that really the best way to start off an apology? No! And this sets the whole tone for the rest of her short story. Excuses. It feels like this passage is also directed at readers who are critical of Taryn and her questionable choices. Of course it’s important to look at other characters who may be just as bad or worse than Taryn and somehow we forgive them but not her? Usually this is because we forgive the protagonists because we see their side of things. Even as unreliable narrators we still tend to root for the main characters in a story. In this short story, Taryn is meant to be the protagonist and I still do not agree with her decisions. She chose a man who visited her a couple nights and made her feel special over her twin sister who she has survived Faerie with. They may not see eye to eye all the time but I feel like throwing away your closest sister for a boy you barely know (and what you do know is that he is a guy who betrayed his best friend by stealing his girlfriend Nicasia and then breaking her heart and leaving her for you...not the best choice in men) is a real dick move. She felt immense guilt and it gnawed at her more than we saw in the other two books but to me she is weak until she goes to Locke and demands that he marry her. She finally makes a move herself that doesn’t seem like she’s rolling over and playing nice because she wants people to like her. She has a spine in that moment but that is the only shining spot in a sea of weakness.

I wasn’t sure where to put this so I’ll just tag it on before my final thoughts but what she did to that musician at that party was incredibly cruel. She’s like a mean girl in school who plays with people’s hearts just because she can. Weakness and cruelty came together in Taryn and I don’t like it. Maybe him singing about her cruelty made her “immortal” and see how she can still be part of Faerie by being immortalized in songs and stories but if these are the kinds of stories she’s ok with then I don’t think she’s a good person.

Overall, I still don’t like Taryn even if she makes a bunch of excuses justifying her shitty behavior in an “apology” to Jude. The short story was well written and I can kind of see her character and her choices a little better but I still do not agree with them.