1
Wendy
If Wendy Darling has anything to say about it, she’s never, ever going to grow up.
After all, what’s waiting on the other side of
grown-up except for bills to pay, gray hairs to worry about, a heart that’s likely been kicked around a bit, and kids to feed?
Plenty of people say plenty of things, and talking is all they end up doing.
Wendy intends to make things happen.
That’s why when the Miravale city bells ring six long gongs and the street kids start to break away from their game of hopscotch, heading home for dinner, Wendy tries to slip down an alley without being noticed.
Miravale is a large city the color of sunrise, settled close to the pines of the Dreamwood. It’s one of Reverie’s capitals, and a fairly calm one, perfectly content to sit out the drama of dragons or magical storms. It’s the only home Wendy has ever known, and the one she’s now planning to leave.
She has a plan in her mind and a poster in her pocket and a party she’d rather avoid.
“Wendy,” John calls, stopping Wendy in her tracks. “Aren’t you reconvening with us for the festivities?”
John is Wendy’s brother and the Darlings’ middle child, which, according to the fairies, means that nothing all that exciting will happen to him. John is probably fine with that. He wants to grow up to become a banker, and at ten years old he has already collected an assortment of top hats and unnecessarily complicated words, as though someone’s going to knock on the Darlings’ door in a panic, demanding,
Does anyone here happen to want to be a banker and have the necessary top hat? We’re desperately in need of someone with a top hat!“Yeah,” Michael chirps. “Ain’t you comin’ home, Wendy?”
“Aren’t,” John corrects.
“Ain’t you comin’ home, Aren’t?” Michael repeats. His little face furrows. “That a new nickname for her, or somethin’?”
Michael is the youngest Darling child, constantly tagging behind John and doing a poor job of imitating him. As the youngest, Michael is universally beloved, and according to the fairies, he’s destined for great things.
According to the fairies is something their mother always said. She kept books about that sort of thing, how birth order predicted your fate, and often treated those as law, meaning she didn’t have to do much in terms of mothering.
As for Wendy? You don’t need to ask the fairies about that. As the eldest daughter to a successful restaurant owner, she’s meant to become a proper lady, get married off to a boring lordling, and turn up her nose at people having adventures, even though she wishes to have adventures. And doesn’t like being proper.
“I’m gonna go say goodbye to Fiona,” Wendy lies. John and Michael exchange glances and shrug. “I’ll be back in time.”
Tonight is a special night. None of the usual chores or dinner with her family babbling about their day. Tonight, the whole household and the nearby Darling Tavern are crackling with preparation to celebrate Wendy.
Because tonight is the last night of her life.
Okay. That’s dramatic. Although maybe fair.
Tonight is her last night in Miravale before she’s to be shipped off to St. Geraldine’s School for Wayward Girls in the Glacial Halls, a city of eternal winter.
St. Geraldine’s is a horrible, horrible place.
As Wendy wanders through Miravale’s streets, the pink stone walls turning nearly rosy in the dusk, just the thought of St. Geraldine’s makes her stomach knot.
It’s basically a prison sentence. It would be better to be cursed, like that princess who was turned into a beast. Wendy’d take some fur and claws over this.
At St. Geraldine’s, Wendy will be forced at sword point to learn how to:
1) Put the utensils in their proper place to host a dinner party.
2) Never complain if your shoes pinch your toes.
3) Be worthy of True Love.
4) Be the perfect wife and mother. (Yuck. Wendy’s not the biggest fan of mothers in general.)
Okay. She won’t be forced at
sword point. It’s not ladylike to hold a sword. And it’s
very unladylike to point it at someone. But what they’re doing to her is even worse, honestly.
At St. Geraldine’s, they’re going to stuff her into pretty dresses that you
simply cannot get dirty and train her to be a brainless drone whose only concern is marrying someone quite wealthy.
That’s why Wendy is running away.
But not just running away to the end of the block for a few hours, hoping her family will notice she’s gone and start to panic. She’s tried that. They didn’t panic.
No.
For something as severe as St. Geraldine’s, she’s going to go far, far away.
She’s going to go to Neverland.
Copyright © 2026 by Kim Bussing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
