DARCY DARKLING: MG Urban Fantasy

Title: DARCY DARKLING AND THE FORGOTTEN CITY
Genre: MG urban fantasy
Word Count: 45,000

My Main Character's Greatest Fear:

I don't like the sun, or the moon, or my city with its high walls, so I live for the moments I can escape into the darkness of the underground. It's the best place ever, and my worst fear is that I'll get caught and not be
able to go back. I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm afraid of losing the dark.

I mean, the creatures with their howls and snapping jaws… they're kind of freaky and all (don't tell them I said that) but they won't stop me from going back. You'll see.

Query:

Twelve-year-old Darcy is bored of her city, with its high walls, fake grass and a whole lot of sameness. That is, until she finds a secret tunnel leading to an abandoned underground city. Every night she sneaks away to explore more of the winding tunnels and empty streets of The Forgotten City.

Her very own secret.

The underground seems empty at first, but the creatures who live in the dark don't appreciate a little girl poking her nose in their business. They don't trust the "sun-dwellers," a.k.a. humans. But Darcy refuses to stay away. She belongs to the dark, whether they like it or not.

When the creatures push her too far, Darcy gets lost in the labyrinth of tunnels and doesn't make it home by sun up. Now the humans know she's missing and they're coming after her—into the underground.

Because of Darcy, the forgotten race of goblins will come face to face with humans for the first time in two hundred years. An old feud turns into a fight over a girl who belongs nowhere and everywhere at once. Half human, half goblin.

First 250 words:

The best place in the whole world is a mile below my feet.

Damp sludge drips from the stone walls of the underground tunnels, surrounded by darkness so thick it's like a living, breathing thing. There are new adventures everywhere. Every turn is a new secret waiting to be uncovered.

Too bad I'm not supposed to go there, and if I was ever caught I'd be a lot worse than grounded. So right now I'm stuck above ground, in my boring apartment, doing my boring homework just waiting until I can sneak back to the tunnels.

No one can keep me away, not even Mom.

“Darcy!” Mom calls.

“What? I’m doing my homework, just like you said.”

She walks into my room carrying a pair of muddy tennis shoes. “Explain to me how these got so dirty.”

Whoops. She wasn't supposed to find those.

I shrug, playing it off. “I was playing bee with Joe.”

“Bee?”

I hold up a Frisbee. Lucky for me it’s got some dirt on it too. Otherwise she might suspect I’m not telling
the truth.

“Leave it to you to find the only dirt in the whole city."

Here we go.

"Why do you think they did away with those parks I played in as a kid? They were dangerous. Stick to the
astro-turf, okay?"

She says it so serious that I can't help but roll my eyes. Astro-turf is just a stupid name for fake grass.
Seriously, a little dirt isn’t going to hurt me.