While the second Wayward Child novella delved deeper into the backstory of two characters from the first novel. This novella, on the other hand, takes the reader back to the school grounds to meet new children trying to find their way home while also checking in on old characters.
Cora and Nadya are two new characters, and they were called to magical realms where they had strong connections to water, Cora as a mermaid, and Nadya as a Drowning Girl. As a result, it is not a surprise that they are at the pond on the school grounds when a girl falls from the sky into it.
Rini is Sumi’s daughter, and in her world, Sumi returned from the school with fond memories, defeated the evil queen, and married and had a family. Of course, this doesn’t align with what happened in the first novella, where Sumi was miserable at the school and murdered before she could accomplish any of those things. Rini needs help to get the time line right and return her mother so all the things she did won’t be undone, including her daughter’s birth.
In addition to the three girls, Kade and Chris join on the quest, and enter into worlds not their own. It shows them just how perfect they were for their worlds for as they have a hard time adjusting to the rules of Sumi and Rini’s world.
I quite enjoy this series, but I’ve enjoyed the other stories more – I think as much as I like fantasy, I can only handle nonsense worlds so much, so I like the boarding school and Jack and Jill’s world but this is a set of whimsy that is too much for me. Still, it was nice to see the characters again, see hints of other potential worlds, and it even had a check in with the world of the dead to ask Nancy for assistance as they try to put Sumi back together again.