Of all the strange, magical things that happened to her on Never Land, the one Mia Vasquez could not get used to was flying.

Each time the fairy dust settled over her and she felt its magic—a tickly feeling, like soda bubbles rising inside her—Mia thought, This time will be different. This time I won’t be scared. And for an instant, as her feet left the ground, it really would seem different. When she floated up, light as a leaf, everything seemed possible.

As soon as she was above the treetops, though, she started to panic. She had to close her eyes and take deep breaths. It was hard not to think about falling.

But what choice did she have? Flying was the only practical way to get around Never Land, especially in the company of fairies. So Mia had learned to hide her fear. Her best friends, Kate McCrady and Lainey Winters, didn’t know she was still afraid of flying. Neither did her little sister, Gabby. And she certainly didn’t tell the Never fairies. Everyone thought Mia had simply gotten over her fear of heights, the way you get over a cold or a case of the hiccups.

The trick, she found, was never to look down. Mia kept her eyes on the horizon. She forced a calm expression onto her face. Mia had gotten so good at pretending she wasn’t afraid that some days she even managed to convince herself.

Today, unfortunately, was not one of those days.

As Mia flew out over the Never Sea, a knot formed in her stomach. The cold ocean wind tangled her long hair. It raised goose bumps on her arms. Flying over land was hard enough. But flying above water was a thousand times worse. In every direction, all she could see were white-capped waves. Losing her nerve here was not an option.

Keep going, Mia told herself. Think of Tink!

Their fairy friend Tinker Bell was lost at sea in a little toy boat. Mia, Kate, Lainey, Gabby, and four fairies from Pixie Hollow had come out to search for her. But it was an impossible task. Looking for a toy boat in the vast Never Sea was like trying to spot a pinhead in a mountain of sand.

“See anything?” Kate called over the wind.

“Nothing yet,” Mia yelled back. Looking for Tink meant looking down, and that was the one thing Mia couldn’t do. “Do we even know this is the right way?”

Kate shook her head. “Tink could be anywhere.”

It was all Gabby’s fault. Mia glared at the back of her sister’s head. If Gabby hadn’t left their great-grandfather’s model boat in Pixie Hollow, Tinker Bell wouldn’t have found it. And if Tink hadn’t found it and taken it out sailing, they wouldn’t be out here looking for her now.

As if she felt Mia’s eyes on her, Gabby glanced over her shoulder. She reached out her hand, and Mia’s anger softened. She couldn’t blame Gabby for wanting to find the boat. Their father had been so upset when Gabby lost it. The Treasure was—well, a family treasure. Gabby had promised not to come home without it.

What their father didn’t know was that they’d lost it in Never Land. The magical island was the girls’ secret.

Mia sped up and caught Gabby’s hand. It felt small and warm in her own cold one. She told herself that she was comforting her sister, not the other way around.

Two seagulls, carrying the fairies Fawn, Iridessa, and Silvermist, came circling back toward the girls. The fourth fairy, Rosetta, was riding on Gabby’s shoulder.

“Let’s turn around!” Iridessa shouted. The wind almost carried her voice away.

But Mia heard her. Relief spread through Mia’s chest.

“We can’t stop looking!” Gabby piped up. “Tink’s still out here somewhere!”

“I don’t think she could have come this far. Not in such a small boat,” Silvermist said.

“We won’t stop looking,” Fawn reassured Gabby. “But we don’t know which way Tink went. We need to warm up and rest. Then we’ll try another direction.”

The group turned back toward Never Land, but the wind was against them now. Mia felt as if someone were holding her shoulders, trying to push her backward. Ahead, she could see Never Land’s shore with its thin white thumbnail of sand. Only a few more minutes and her feet would be on the ground.

Abruptly, the air grew colder. Mia looked up and saw that a dark cloud had moved across the sun.

They had seen the same cloud earlier. Mia was sure of it. From the ground, it had seemed little and harmless, a distant smudge in the bright blue sky. But up here, in the air, it looked bigger and darker.

A raindrop splashed against Mia’s face.

The search party stopped and treaded air. They were at the edge of the storm. Ahead, rain hung like a curtain between them and Never Land.

“We’d better not fly through it!” Fawn shouted from the back of her seagull.

“Let’s take the long way around,” Iridessa agreed. “We can fly north over the tip of the island and come in from the west.”

Mia’s heart sank. That would mean at least another hour of flying, maybe more. And they were so close! “It’s only a little rain,” she argued.

“I don’t like the look of that cloud,” Rosetta said from Gabby’s shoulder.

Mia saw her friends hesitate. If she didn’t do something quickly, they’d agree to take the long route. “You guys fly around if you want,” she said with a boldness she didn’t feel. “I’m going ahead.” Without waiting for an answer, she plunged into the storm.

Behind her, Mia heard someone shouting her name, but she couldn’t tell who it was. The cold raindrops stung her skin and blurred her eyes. She could no longer see Never Land’s shore. Was she even going in the right direction?

Mia paused to get her bearings. Then she made her worst mistake: she looked down.

At the sight of the choppy sea below, Mia’s confidence fled. She dropped like a stone.

She screamed, but the sound was lost in the wind. The sea sped toward her. Mia braced herself for the cold water.

Then came a blinding flash. The cloud above her blazed from within. The air frizzled with electricity.

And suddenly everything flipped. That was the only word Mia could use to describe it. The world seemed to turn itself upside down.

A second later, she came down hard on dry sand.