SNEAK PEEK: Queen of Hearts
READ THE FIRST CHAPTER FROM QUEEN OF HEARTS BY COLLEEN OAKES RIGHT HERE!!!!!! AHHHHHOMGOMGOMG (ps - this book goes on sale May 3!)
“Oh, my future queen, you’re late!” Harris hopped from one foot to the other, his plump face soaked with a cold sweat. He pulled off his thick-rimmed glasses and wiped them on his white checkered ascot. “Dinah! Walk faster, Your Highness! We are late, late, late!” He looked down at his pocket watch with an exaggerated sigh.
Dinah, Princess of Wonderland and future Queen of Hearts, rolled her eyes.
“Harris, I’m walking as swiftly as I can.”
“With all due respect, my dear, we have a very important summons from the King of Hearts. Your father wishes to see you. You know he is not a patient man.”
Dinah continued to shuffle down the Hallway of the Golden Birds feeling quite like one of the ridiculous bronze fowl perched on the golden pedestals that surrounded her.
A little bird ran across her path, and Dinah stomped near its feet, sending it shrieking into the air.
“My child!” thundered Harris. “Control your emotions! I beg of you—do not let your father see that behavior or you will be sleeping in the Black Towers.”
“I doubt it,” snipped Dinah glumly. “I wish that would happen, because then I would get to see inside them.”
Harris gave Dinah a disappointed look. “Never wish yourself inside the Black Towers,” he said gravely. “You have no idea the evil that lurks there.”
Dinah considered slowing her pace just to annoy him but took pity on her guardian and tutor, the man who had raised her from childhood. Harris had once been a dashing Card, or so Dinah had heard, but now he was somewhat walrus-like, a portly man with white hair and a dozen varieties of checkered outfits. Without a doubt, he loved Dinah deeply—something she lacked in other areas of her life. Dinah raised her voice, its sharp tone bouncing off the ornate halls of Wonderland Palace.