Firelight moved across the velvet box in Cassius's hand. He looked straight at me.
He opened it.
A single flawless pink diamond had been custom-cut into the arched shape of a ballerina's pointe shoe.
The cut followed a pointe shoe's arch. Cassius had put what I lost at the center of his promise.
"Stand beside me, Aria. Rule this empire with me as my partner, my wife, and my queen."
My eyes filled. Cassius had never asked me to bury the dancer before I could rule beside him.
"Yes."
Our wedding was quiet, attended only by his inner circle. We exchanged the old country's vows.
In the year that followed, Cassius backed my "Red Swan" Arts Foundation. We found dancers whose careers had ended through injury and gave them a second chance.
In the charity ward of a public hospital, Dante Ro
