Page 115 of A War of Crowns

But that moment never came.

Tiberius smiled to himself and settled back into the familiar rhythm that had always existed between them—the constant push and pull of the tides. Even when the steps of their dance saw them parted, it was for but a moment before she returned to him, the press of her fingers gentle against his own.

“Happy birthday, Your Majesty,” Tiberius murmured when next she drew close enough for him to offer that soft speech.

The queen’s nose crinkled in reply. “I feel so terribly old.Thirty. At last.” She swirled away from him, carried off by the latest notes trilling through the air.

When she stepped back in on the next pass, though, Tiberius was swift to whisper, “And yet you don’t look adayover twenty-nine,” which earned yet more laughter from his old friend.

When she laughed like that, everything felt right in the world. It felt as if they were in their twenties again, racing each other through the King’s Forest on horseback while their guards struggled to keep pace.

Except that now, there were several things glaringly different between them. Like the fact that she was now the queen.

And betrothed to a little beast posing as a member of the royalty.

Ah, there’s the little beast now, Tiberius noted when next he turned.

The dwarf lurked near the entrance to the ballroom with his Kunishi savage. And though the two men had clearly attempted to bathe and shave, they still stood out against all the sparkle and finery of Elmoria like two flies drowning in a glass of milk.

And yet, many courtiers already flocked to the Crow, eager to pay their respects to the man they thought was to be their king.

Idiots, the lot of them. There was no way Seraphina was actually going to go through with it. She would find some way to be rid of the dwarf.

They would all see.

“I have a present for you, Your Majesty, of course,” Tiberius softly revealed to the queen as he twirled in step with her, their hands pressed together in one of those rare, delicious moments of proximity. “But I fear it’s not the sort that can be placed within a box.”

The queen quipped without missing a beat, “Please, tell me you are not gifting me an entire diamond mine this time, Tiberius,” before the steps of their dance carried her away yet again.

But before she could return to him, she finally spotted the dwarfherself. Tiberius saw it so plainly in the way her shoulders stiffened when she shot a glance toward the insignificant figure skulking in the entryway.

Looking that way, Tiberius’s jaw tightened yet again when he saw the one-eyed beast staring at her in return.

“No,” Tiberius breathed in answer when next they were close. That time, he boldly laced his fingers with hers to draw her attention back his way in full.

Her eyes widened at his latest boldness. Her lips parted on a protest that never came.

He teased, “Though I’d be more than happy to see if I could find one for you, if you desired it.” He presented her with another of his warm smiles while she lingered with him for the span of those moments. Finally, Tiberius revealed, “I have commissioned a dozen new ships for Elmoria’s navy. I know my last gift was a bit frivolous, but—”

The steps of the dance drew her away from him again, and she twirled across the dance floor in a renewed flash of dark purple silk. Maddeningly, her eyes returned to the dwarf the second she was no longer in Tiberius’s immediate vicinity.

He had to count the moments until she was again within reach lest he skip a few steps. When she finally was, she wasted no time in whispering to him in breathless reply, “Tiberius…I hardly know what to say. That is”—she wet her lips, luring his attention down that way—“so very generous of you.”

“This is not another marriage proposal,” he hastily reassured her, and she visibly relaxed at those words. “Though, I…hadhoped to beg a favor of you, Your Majesty.”

The tension returned to the queen’s features at once. “What is it, Tiberius?”

The final strains of the music lilted all about, and Tiberius gave Her Majesty one final twirl before he paused and bowed low. Hislips hovered just over her knuckles and he whispered against her skin, “I would beg you for a wife.”

Silence greeted him for a brief time before she asked, “You are asking me to command a lady of the peerage to marry you?”

When Tiberius rose from his bow, he gently corrected, “I am asking you, Your Majesty, as my sovereign and friend, to negotiate a marriage alliance between House Beaumont and another Elmorian noble family on my behalf.”

Never once had Tiberius ever had trouble with the women of the court. He could earn the favor of any lady with a single glance and a smile.

It was theirfatherswho had always stood in his way.

But he needed a wife and if Seraphina wasn’t keen on marrying him and adding his family’s gold to the Crown’s treasury, the least she could do was broker a marriage on his behalf.

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