“You cannot run, Rose. Not when you have pulled the card.” It is the Queen of Ever After’s birthday. The kingdom is welcome to celebrate within the palace halls, and so is Jester—a classic fool hired to entertain the Queen. But with the fool arrives vengeance; what is assumed to be a simple magic trick turns into an act of revenge when the Queen pulls the Nine of Hearts. A card that comes to life just to take nine more. Nine of Hearts explores grief and loss in the shape of spilled blood, beating hearts, and a white rabbit in a waistcoat. How much can a person face the same pain again and again before they lose themselves? And what happens when someone from your past arrives just to destroy the happiness you think you deserve, taking it away one heart at a time? Before Wonderland, there was Ever After. And this is the story behind the Queen of Hearts.