Page 116 of A War of Crowns

It was within her power. She was the queen.

Onlyshecould ensure House Beaumont rose to one day join the ranks of the Great Houses of Elmoria.

When Seraphina didn’t immediately answer him, Tiberius pulled his hand free from hers, and softly added while fighting against a frown, “Please, Your Majesty. Do not make me beg.”

Desperation was a bitter draught. He hated the taste of it in his mouth. But what else was he to do? Only she could secure him the sort of wife his father had always wanted for him.

At last, the queen bowed her head and cautiously promised, “I will consider it in the new year, after I have dealt with this…business of my own wedding.”

Tiberius twisted his mouth to the side at the reminder of her circumstances. He flashed a glance back to the entryway, where the Crow and his Kunishi pet were still being mobbed by the masses.

“I’m truly sorry, you know,” he murmured down to the queen when his attention returned her way, though her gaze remained elsewhere—staring off into nothing. “That you have had to tie yourself to that…beastlylittle monster, all for the sake of Mysai.”

Those words lured her eyes back up to his own, and he presented her with a smile he hoped looked sympathetic enough. “I hope the entirety of Elmoria appreciates the sacrifices you make for them all.”

Bowing one last time, Tiberius prepared to depart from the queen’s nearness at last. A small, wicked part of him desired nothing more than to continue to lay claim to her for the rest of the evening, especially now her husband-to-be was there to witness such a thing.

But he had already lingered in the center of the dance floor with her for too long. They were drawing attention.

In times past, he would have basked in that attention. But now? Now, he needed to be on his best behavior to show the rest of the peerage he was worthy of their daughters.

Tiberius only made it a single step before the queen’s hand alighted on his arm and halted his retreat. He glanced back to find her still staring up at him, her expression most solemn.

“Just so we are perfectly clear with one another, my lord,” the queen whispered, her words barely audible over the melody of the latest song now lilting through the ballroom. “Aldric Hargrave isa monster because of the atrocities he has committed, andnotfor the way the Lord on High fashioned his body.”

The urge to recoil from the sound of Seraphina de la Croix defending the beastly little gargoyle was too great to ignore. Try as he might, Tiberius couldn’t help but flinch away from her touch in the wake of those words. He tried to mask the movement with another smile and a bow of his head.

What hewanted to ask her was how could she possibly speak up for the man who had beaten poor young Tristan Dacre to within an inch of his life.

Not that he cared. Not truly.

But what he murmured instead was a mere polite, “Of course, Your Majesty. My apologies,” before he finished turning about and striding away from the woman.

In the course of his retreat, his gaze flitted toward the Duke of Coreto again. When their eyes locked, the older nobleman subtly raised his glass to him, as if in toast, and gave a knowing sort of smile.

A fresh rivulet of unease trickled its way into Tiberius’s stomach.

Under any other circumstances, he would have been thrilled to have suddenly gained the attention of one of the most powerful men in all Elmoria. The Duke of Coreto’s family, House Threston, could trace their lineage back to the times of King Hamon I.

And they were fairly well-respected, their strange religious beliefs aside.

But in that moment, he wasn’t quite sure what to feel as he about-faced and prowled about the fringes of the ballroom furthest from the duke. With a smile on his lips, he searched for a fresh lady he might lure out onto the dance floor.

Seraphina could have her dwarf if she wanted.

It was beyond time he began his hunt for a proper bride once more.

Chapter thirty-three

Aldric

He narrowed his eye as he tracked Crestley across the ballroom. The man had finally ceased openly flirting with his betrothed some moments ago.

But Aldric’s desire to sink one of his hidden daggers into the strutting peacock lingered.

“This was a mistake,” he growled to Calix the moment they fought their way free from the horde of courtiers who had come to gawk at him when he first arrived at the queen’s little ball.

He had never intended to come. He still wasn’t sure justwhyhe was there.

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