When Amelia finds a hidden door in her attic, she climbs into a floating garden above the clouds and meets a winged stranger with a terrible warning.
It began with a loose stair in the attic and a door Amelia was certain had not been there the day before.
Rain tapped at the roof while she searched through the dust and old trunks, trying to cure a boring afternoon. Then she found it: a narrow wooden door tucked beneath a stack of boxes, its brass handle cold to the touch. Carved into the wood were the words, "Imaginative Entrance Prohibited ... unless you dare!" Beside it sat a tiny key, as if someone had left it there on purpose.
Amelia slipped the key into the lock and turned it. The door opened at once. On the other side was not another attic room, but a staircase climbing straight up through a shimmer of light. She took one careful step, then another, and the air around her seemed to sparkle. The stairs bent higher and higher until, without warning, they ended.
Amelia stepped out onto soft grass that swayed under her shoes. She stared. Above her was sky, below her was sky, and all around her floated a garden suspended among the clouds. Puffball flowers rose as tall as lampposts. Trees with bright, candy-like fruit leaned over winding paths. Tiny foxes with glowing wings darted between the beds, and butterflies flashed like pieces of stained glass.
At the edge of the garden, houses made from layered leaves and woven branches clung together like nests. Amelia was still staring at them when she heard a soft laugh behind her.
She turned.
A small figure stood among the flowers, with blue hair, dragonfly wings, and a face that looked both worried and relieved. "I've been waiting for you, Amelia," she said. Then her voice dropped to a whisper. "Someone has stolen the heart of the garden. If we don't find it soon, everything will begin to vanish."
Amelia opened her mouth to ask what that meant, but the stranger was already pointing toward a path that twisted into a dark, leafy maze. From deep inside it came another sound: a slow, steady humming, like the garden itself was calling her name.