Beatrix of Alexandria is the most dangerous woman on the planet. She has used her sword and her magic to destroy countries and rebuild them. She is respected and feared throughout Gaia. And people say her heart is made of stone.

But for the very first time in her life, she feels like a woman, and she loves him for it.

There are roses in her room every night. She receives awkward, anonymous love letters while on guard duty – and it is all she can do to not blush like a schoolgirl in front of the queen.

She does her best to hide it. Beatrix the General is who keeps her beloved queen safe, not Beatrix the Fool.

She pretends that her soldiers don't see the looks she sends him, or the way his eyes linger on her curves. She tricks herself into thinking that no one will notice him slipping into her chamber late at night. She ignores the whispers the next day, the maids' murmurs about tangled bedclothes.

She cannot, however, ignore the bittersweet, knowing smile of her queen. Strange that a girl of barely eighteen should be the one more practiced in love. Garnet presses a hand to her cheek and tells her to not waste the time she's been given. To be happy.

She is. More than she has ever been.

So when he comes to relieve her of her duty for the night, she kisses him in greeting, in full view of any who would see. Her women will give her looks and suggestive smiles, and Steiner's Knights of Pluto will be utterly incorrigible, but it is worth it to see the look in his eyes. No man has looked at her with adoration untempered by fear since she first picked up a blade. No man but him.