Heiress to a Court of Nothing

Before she was Queen, she was a nobody trying to escape.

Bitter bird in a court of snakes,
Sick of eating tarts and cakes...

In a court of gilded mirrors, gilded smiles, and gilded lies, I am an insignificant nothing. I mimic the emptiness of the velvet-swathed nobles dancing with me beneath teardrop chandeliers, but I want more.
When my father condemns me to a foul betrothal in another city, I crave at least one taste of freedom, a single adventure to savor before I am boxed up into nothingness.
For one night, I escape to the carnival.
Seeking to unravel some secret - to unveil the mechanisms behind the enchantment - I sneak behind one of the rides, only to find…
An open door.
Inside a small room, on time-eroded planks, kneels a beautiful boy scarcely older than I, cranking a cylinder to keep the ride’s gears spinning.
I fall into a little bit of agony, a little bit of wish. And as the wind brushes sand across my toes in my slippers, the boy glances up.
I swear my breath stops.
But my life?
This is where my life begins.

Look inside to discover how a nobody became a queen...