Jamie Davis's Blog

Chapter 3 delivers on every bit of tension the book has been building, and it’s one of the most memorable set pieces in the series so far. Sadie’s game-winning goal turns into chaos in an instant when a mid-air head collision triggers a flash of magic, and suddenly the entire stadium, players, coaches, and referees alike, is caught in a violent, unexplained brawl while the ground shakes beneath the bleachers.

What makes the chapter so effective is how quickly readers, and Rose, realize this is the oracle’s prophecy playing out in real time: a cursed soccer ball radiating a crimson magical aura is the “great, round evil” from Chapter 1’s warning. Rose’s fast instincts, guiding a dazed, bleeding Sadie toward the ball to see if her own magic can counter its effect, makes for a genuinely tense sequence, and the moment Sadie’s touch neutralizes the glow is a satisfying payoff to the setup.

The aftermath is handled with the same grounded practicality the series does so well: an urgent care visit, a believable cover story about a game ball, and a doctor’s concussion diagnosis that benches Sadie from the sport she loves. It’s a chapter that blends real emotional stakes, both magical and painfully human, into one tightly plotted, high-tension sequence that completely earns its place as the book’s centerpiece.

📖 Catch up with Sadie’s sophomore year — get Sophomore Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/sophomore-fae/

“Go, Sadie\!” I leaped to my feet as my niece broke through the defenders, catching the crossing pass with perfect timing.

Beside me, Chip let out a piercing whistle, his fingers to his mouth.

Around us, the crowd cheered while Sadie dribbled the ball around the last defender and approached the Liberty goalie. She feinted left and kicked the ball into the right corner of the goal.

Up in the booth, the boy calling out the game over the PA said, “That’s Sadie Proctor with the goal, putting the Tigers up one to nothing.”

I turned to Chip, who held up both hands to high-five me. Our hands met, and before I knew it, he’d pulled me into a tight hug. I stiffened at first. Then I thought, what the heck? It was worth it to celebrate our girl’s success.

Chip let go of the embrace as quickly as it started. His expression exposed mixed emotions I couldn’t read. I hoped he wasn’t letting his lascivious mind wander in directions it shouldn’t.

I elbowed him in the ribs a little harder than necessary and pointed at Sadie, surrounded by all her teammates on the field. They ran back to midfield to reset for the game’s continuation. “All that hard work to make the varsity squad paid off, Chip. You helped her get here.”

“You did it, too. She’s that agile because of all the weapons and martial arts training you’ve given her.”

I didn’t argue with him. He was right.

On the field, the cheerleaders began a rhythmic chant, spelling out T-I-G-E-R while the referee placed the game ball back in the center of the field. The Liberty front line set up to try to even up the score with barely ten minutes left in the game. They began moving the ball downfield, where one of the Liberty players took a long shot on the Tiger’s goal.

The goalie intercepted the incoming ball easily and scooped it up. She pointed downfield, directing the offense to set up, then kicked a long shot downfield.

It arced right to where Sadie waited. She jumped up to head the ball into Liberty territory.

A Liberty defender sprang to head the ball in the opposite direction at the same time.

Their skulls collided and bounced apart. A flash of white-hot power surrounded the pair, invisible to most spectators since it was in the magical spectrum.

Both girls collapsed on the grass, unmoving. The crowd’s gasp cut short as the referee’s whistle shrieked.

Then the ground rumbled—a shockwave radiating out from the field’s center.

Screams echoed as the quake rippled through the bleachers, punctuated by a few shouts of alarm.

After a few seconds, the shaking ended.

A hush fell over the crowd.

Chip had already left his seat beside me, moving down the row to the aisle so he could exit the bleachers and go to the field. I followed him, keeping my eyes on our girl. She’d started moving.

Sadie sat up, her hand pressed against her forehead. My sigh of relief only lasted a second. A flash of red around her palm told me she was bleeding.

That was when the bench-clearing brawl started. Players on the field swung at each other wildly, pummeling members of the opposing team. Even the refs and coaches exchanged blows. A deep red aura outlined all of them, indicating a spell or magical cause. Could Sadie somehow be involved? I had to get to her.

I vaulted the waist-high fence that surrounded the field and raced toward Sadie. She and the girl she’d collided with both remained out of the fighting happening around them. I wondered why the other girl wasn’t outlined in red like all the other human players were.

Chip had taken the stairs and caught up behind me. I worried that he might succumb to the magical effect, so I glanced back to check on him.

His hand pressed against his chest where his Guardian shark’s-tooth charm hung around his neck. Good. Its magic protected him from whatever was happening.

I reached Sadie and knelt next to her. “Are you okay? Move your hand so I can see.”

She lifted her hand away from her forehead. The collision with the other player had caused an inch-long split in the skin above her left eyebrow. Blood oozed down the side of her face as soon as it was uncovered.

I pressed her hand back over the wound. “Sadie, listen to me. Something is happening. Are you doing this? Reach inside and try to stop it.”

“It’s not me, Aunt Rose. I swear. I don’t know what happened.”

Chip gripped my shoulder and pointed. I followed his finger to the soccer ball lying on the ground about ten feet away.

The same red nimbus of power surrounded the ball, which quivered and spun in place on the ground. A deep hum emanated from the surrounding area.

One of the Liberty players ran at us, her fist raised over her head. She skidded to a stop a few feet from us. The red magical aura had disappeared from her, and she stared blankly around, confused and disoriented.

Another player got knocked to the ground beside us, and she, too, lost the nimbus of the spell’s effects when she landed.

“Sadie,” I said. “You may not be causing it, but you’re the solution. The power within you is canceling the magic. Can you extend your personal aura outward? Draw upon your mana and try.”

She closed her eyes, squeezing them shut while she tried to concentrate. I watched around us for a sign she was expanding her circle of calm. Parents and other spectators had come down to the field. As soon as they stepped onto the pitch, their eyes glazed over, and the red aura took them, drawing them into the brawl.

Chip said, “The ball is causing the spell. It has to be.”

I helped Sadie stand. “Come on, we have to stop this before someone is seriously injured.” She wobbled a little, and I pulled her arm over my shoulder and walked her toward the quivering soccer ball. I didn’t understand why it was the locus of this powerful magic, but I knew it had to be stopped.

The ball’s shaking increased as we neared, its outline blurring. When we stood beside it, the red aura faded from the brawling humans all around me. The ball still radiated evil energy, but Sadie’s magical power countered it.

“Pick it up. Hold it close and see if you can stop it entirely.”

Sadie swayed as she bent, her hands trembling as they gripped the ball. The moment she touched it, the red glow flared one last time before vanishing.

Sadie straightened, holding the ball in front of her. “What do I do?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Give me a second to figure it out. Just don’t let go of that ball.”

She staggered, and I steadied her.

Chip stood on her other side. “She needs to get to the hospital. At the very least, she needs some stitches for that cut. I’m worried she might have a concussion, too.”

“Agreed.” I nodded at the far end of the field and the parking lot beyond. “Let’s go. Things will settle out here now that we’ve contained the ball’s magic effect. We’ll take it with us.”

We passed Addy and Clayton. Their eyes were wide as they stared at the field.

“Is Sadie okay?” Addy asked.

“She is.” Chip pointed back at the stands. “You stay with Clayton and go home with Miss Patty. We have to take Sadie to get some stitches, that’s all. I’ll text you and Miss Patty when I’m coming to pick you up.”

Addy nodded and went with Clayton to find his mom. I didn’t like that Chip had gotten Patty involved in this, but it couldn’t be helped. We’d deal with any fallout from that later.

Chip and I got Sadie loaded up in the SUV. She sat in the front passenger seat with the soccer ball on her lap. I closed the door. “Where are you taking her? I’ll follow in my car.”

“I think University of Maryland Urgent Care is good enough. She needs a few stitches for that cut, and they can let us know if we need to go to the emergency room.”

“Good.” I fished the keys out of my coat pocket. “I’ll see you there. Have her take the ball in with her. Make an excuse if you have to for the staff. I’m afraid of what could happen if that thing acts up again while we’re inside with the doctor.”

Chip nodded and got in the SUV. I went to the Firebird, questions swirling around my mind. Had Sadie caused what happened, or prevented it from getting worse? I didn’t blame her, but there was a great deal of power locked up inside her, and it continued to grow as she got closer to her coronation day. This had to be the “round evil” the oracle had warned about.

I got caught at a traffic light, so Chip and Sadie got to the urgent care center first. By the time I got to the parking lot, they had gone inside.

I jogged up and went into the urgent care lobby. A nurse was examining Sadie and taking her vital signs in a small room beside the registration desk. Chip stood nearby.

The nurse held out her hand. “Here, honey, give me the ball so I can take your blood pressure.”

“She was awarded the game ball,” Chip said. “It’s very special to her. I’m sure you can work around it.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. Just hold it with one hand on your lap while I take this other arm for the blood pressure cuff.”

I nodded my approval at Chip’s explanation. He smiled and winked. I guess he thought he had all this easily in hand. Given the powerful magic involved, he was in way over his head and didn’t even know it.

After the nurse used some gauze and adhesive tape to cover the cut and control the bleeding, she sent us out into the waiting area again. It wasn’t very busy. Only a few people were ahead of us. I guided Chip and Sadie over to chairs in the far corner where we could talk in relative privacy.

Keeping my voice low, I said, “Let’s try something before we get called back. Sadie, hand me the ball while we watch the others here in the waiting room. Maybe if you’re close by, it will dampen any side effects, too. That way, you don’t have to hold it.”

Sadie handed me the ball. It no longer glowed with any visible power, and when I held it, I noticed nothing odd about it. It felt like a normal soccer ball to me. I switched to my Fae senses and delved into the magical spectrum. There might have been a hint of a crimson glow around the ball, but I couldn’t be sure.

“It looks normal now, for the most part. Chip, use your Guardian charm and see if you sense any danger.”

He touched the shark’s tooth beneath his shirt. “Nope, I don’t feel anything unusual at all about it. Certainly nothing like what we both sensed at the soccer game.”

“Sadie, hon, what about you? Do you sense anything or feel any connection to it?”

She stared at the ball for a second and shrugged. “There’s something there. It’s almost like I can hear a sound or a distant voice coming from it. Is that weird?”

“This whole thing is weird, and I’ve seen my share of strange and arcane things in my day.” I handed the ball back to her. No one in the waiting room had attacked each other like they had at the game earlier. Whatever had happened had passed for now. I pulled out my phone and settled back in my chair while we waited for Sadie’s turn with the doctor. I’d put in a little time with Google and some paranormal websites to see if I could turn up anything like this happening before. Wackos and conspiracy theorists ran the sites, but they did a fair job of tracking these kinds of things.

We waited a half hour and then went back to get Sadie checked out. The doctor pronounced a mild concussion. He used super glue, of all things, to close up the cut over Sadie’s eye and told us to see her pediatrician within the next week about the concussion. He said she was done with soccer until her regular doctor cleared her.

That news deflated Sadie more than everything else that had happened. When we walked out to the parking lot, she said, “I have to finish the season. I don’t want people to think I gave up.”

“No one is going to think that,” Chip said. “Besides, we don’t know how long you’ll have to sit out. We’ll see Dr. V and get her opinion on what to do next. I’ll call her office first thing in the morning. You’re not going to school tomorrow until we figure out what happened, anyway.” He caught my eye, searching for input.

I nodded. “Good idea. I’ll do some more research and check in with a few resources. I’ll be at the house in the morning for breakfast. How about I pick up Dunkin’ frozen lattes for everyone, along with some donuts?”

“I won’t say no to that. What do you think, Sadie?”

“I’d like that.” She held up the soccer ball. “What about this? Do I have to sleep with this thing?”

I shook my head. “No, just keep it close by for now. We don’t need a random riot starting in the neighborhood while you’re sleeping. Hopefully, I’ll turn up some answers by morning.”

Chip stopped at my Firebird. “Why don’t you take Sadie home and sit with her there until I get back from picking up Addy? I’ll let Patty know I’m on my way to get him. Unless you want to pick him up?”

Given the wry grin on his face, he already knew my answer. Patty would have a million questions, and every one of them would insinuate it was Sadie’s fault. If I had to face her tonight, I might throttle her. Better let Chip handle it.

“Get in, Sadie. We’ll get you home, and then I’ll start my research.”

Sadie climbed into the passenger seat, and I waved at Chip as he headed off. I pulled out of the parking lot and started back to our quiet little corner of the world. Answers about the night’s events would have to come later.

📖 Loved Chapter 3? Keep going — get Sophomore Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/sophomore-fae/

Chapter 2 shifts to Chip’s perspective for a warm, grounding slice of ordinary family life, following the household’s chaotic prep for Sadie’s big varsity soccer game against their school’s biggest rival. Sadie making varsity as a sophomore, with nine-year-old Addy tagging along just to be near her older teammates, is exactly the kind of lived-in domestic detail that makes this series’ found family feel so real between its bigger magical threats.

The chapter does smart work layering the mundane sports-parent chaos with the series’ ongoing emotional undercurrents, particularly Chip and Rose’s unresolved history with Patty Peyton, whose daughter Astrid still believes she might be the one destined for the Fae throne. Rose’s visible irritation at spotting Patty among the cheer moms, and Chip’s gentle effort to keep the peace, lands as a nicely understated reminder of how much tension still simmers beneath the family’s carefully maintained cover story.

It’s a chapter built almost entirely on anticipation, ending right as the big game is about to start, and that’s exactly the point. After the high-stakes heist of Chapter 1, this quieter, character-focused interlude lets readers settle back into the family’s everyday rhythms, which makes the explosive turn the next chapter takes land that much harder.

📖 Catch up with Sadie’s sophomore year — get Sophomore Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/sophomore-fae/

“Sadie, come on. You promised to help cut the oranges for the soccer match tonight. You know it’s my turn to bring the team snacks and drinks.”

Addy bounced into the room, all nine-year-old energy. “I can help, Uncle Chip\! It’s fun helping Sadie’s soccer team.”

I smiled. Addy never missed a chance to hang around Sadie’s varsity friends. He didn’t know why he enjoyed their company yet—but he’d figure it out soon enough.

Sadie had made the high-school varsity team as a sophomore. It was a great honor for a tenth grader, and a testament to her raw athleticism and ball-handling skills. She took well to being around the mostly older girls on the team. They appreciated her ability and commitment to hard work at practices.

I motioned for Addy to follow me into the kitchen. A large mesh bag of oranges lay on the counter. “Here’s a knife. Slice them into quarters and don’t cut yourself. That thing is sharp.”

Addy laughed. He flipped the kitchen knife in the air and deftly caught it by the handle on the way down. “I know my way around a knife. You and Aunt Rose taught me that much.”

“That we did. Just pay attention. I don’t want to explain stitches to your aunt when we see her tonight.”

Addy pulled out the first orange. “It’s exciting. The team is playing under the lights on the main field. We can sit in the stadium bleachers.”

“Liberty High’s their biggest rival. The coach expects a crowd, so we’ll have to out-cheer them.” I grabbed another orange and started slicing a pile of my own, trying to keep up with my nephew’s unnatural Fae reflexes.

We were halfway finished with the bag of oranges by the time Sadie came into the kitchen. “Sorry, Uncle Chip. I was in the middle of a pre-calc homework problem. I needed to figure it out while it was fresh, you know?”

“It’s okay. Grab a plastic zipper bag and gather up the sections. Then get the ice packs for the sports drinks in the cooler.”

Sadie did as she was told, scooping up the sliced oranges into a plastic bag. I stood back for a second and watched the two of them work. Mostly, the pair were inseparable. They watched out for each other and usually enjoyed being together. I hoped it never changed. Someday, Addy would become queen Sadie’s arms-master and chief champion. I would be out of the job I’d had for the last eleven years, but I didn’t care. It would mean I’d fulfilled the vital task my brother and his wife had left for me.

“Hey, where are you guys?” Rose called from the front of the house.

“We’re back here,” Sadie and Addy answered in unison.

Rose pushed open the kitchen door and came in from the dining room. “Hey, kids. All set for the big game tonight?”

“You bet,” Addy said. “We’re gonna crush them. Right, Sadie?”

“A hundred percent right,” she replied. “I need to go finish packing my bag and change into my uniform.”

“Go,” I said. “Addy, you put on a sweater. It’s going to be chilly tonight. Aunt Rose and I will finish packing up the snacks.”

Rose watched the kids leave, then turned to me. “That job I mentioned? It’s done.”

“The one with the oracle? You got her free?”

“More or less. Turns out she didn’t know as much as I feared. We made a deal. She’ll keep quiet in exchange for a heads up and an invite to the coronation in three years.”

“That’s easy, I guess.” I stopped for a second before saying, “A coronation, huh? I guess we have to plan a whole reception and party, then?”

Rose grinned. “Don’t worry, Chip. Aunt Allura will force us to let her handle the details. We’ll protest the appropriate amount and then let her take care of it.”

“You think of everything.” I pushed the cooler full of fruit slices across the counter. “Finish putting the ice packs in here. I’ll make sure the big water cooler and the rest are loaded up in the SUV.”

I had just put the other things in the rear of the truck when Rose carried out the cooler full of oranges. She set it down beside the big five-gallon water jug and stepped back while I closed the liftgate.

“You want to ride over with us? The kids would love to have you along.”

Rose shook her head. “I’ll take my car. I have some late-night errands to run after the game, and it will be easier to leave right from the school.”

Sadie came into the garage, followed by Addy in a brightly patterned Christmas sweater. I didn’t have the heart to tell him to go into the house and change into something more seasonal for the fall. While he had a lot of things going in his favor, a sense of fashion wasn’t one of them.

Sadie caught me staring and leaned in. “I told him to change upstairs, but he insists it’ll help him stand out for my friends.”

I hid a grin behind one hand and walked around to the driver’s side. Rose opened the garage door with the button on the wall and walked out ahead of us to her Firebird parked on the street.

I started the SUV and waited for her to move off the driveway before I pulled out to the road that led into our little corner of the neighborhood. A quick check over my shoulder to make sure the garage door had closed, and we were on our way to the big game.

The parking lot was already half full when we arrived. I was surprised and also proud. The ladies were making a run at the state championship this year. They’d fallen just short of it the previous year, so everyone expected great things from them. Add in the rivalry with Liberty, and the student body and parents in the community had turned out to root them on.

I parked, and Sadie grabbed her backpack as she jumped out. I called out, “Go get some, Sadie.”

She responded with a wave over her shoulder without turning around. Rose had parked a few cars down the line from me and walked over to join me and Addy while we unloaded the coolers from the back.

“Where do these go?” Rose asked.

“We’ll take them onto the field and stack them near the home team’s bench. Then we have to fill up the large insulated jug with ice and water from the concession stand over at the far end of the field.”

Rose hefted the five-gallon plastic jug. “I’ll do that while you and Addy wrestle with the chests full of goodies.”

I chose not to mention how heavy it would be once it was full. Rose was up to hefting a fifty-pound water cooler on her own if she wanted to. She had muscles on muscles hidden in that lithe Fae warrior princess frame.

Addy called for help, distracting me from watching Rose walk away. No matter how things had worked out between us, she still caught my eye at times.

“Come on, buddy. We’ll make a couple of trips over and carry each cooler between us.”

Addy nodded and helped me haul out the first cooler. I had just closed the liftgate when Clayton Heraty walked past, pushing a wheeled cart.

“Hey, Mr. Proctor. Need a hand with that?”

“Sure.” I opened the liftgate again. With the flat cart, we could carry all the ice chests in one go. “What are you doing here? Supporting the ladies in their bid for states?”

“Sort of. The principal asked the cheerleaders to come out and root them on, so Mom’s here with Astrid. I just hauled their gear over to the field and was putting this back in the car for Mom.”

I hadn’t expected to see Patty Peyton here. We’d fallen out ever since our trip to Myrtle Beach a few years back. Her belief that Astrid was in actuality the future Fae queen, coupled with the way she’d talked about Sadie’s half-Fae background, had sealed our fate as a couple. We couldn’t reveal the truth of Sadie’s destiny, so we’d had to put up with her announcing it to everyone in the Unusual community who’d listen.

Even though the mundanes in the school were unaware of the existence of Fae and other Unusuals living alongside them, they’d picked up on something special going on. It had catapulted Patty and Astrid to the top of the high school social food chain. I’d shrugged it off for the most part. But I still didn’t look forward to those occasions when our paths crossed. I wondered what Rose’s reaction was going to be when she saw that Patty and Astrid were here.

Of all of us, Sadie seemed to have recovered the best from the incidents in Myrtle. Everything from our beach trip—and Astrid’s reaction to it all—had removed whatever attachment Sadie had for the other Fae girl. She almost never mentioned Astrid now, except in passing. I wondered if there was animosity there. Come to think of it, maybe I needed to keep an eye on both Rose and Sadie tonight.

“We’re loaded up,” Addy said. He and Clayton had moved the three coolers onto the cart while I was staring at the playing field.

“Good. Let’s roll this over and get the team snacks in place for the game and after party.”

“When we’re done, can I hang out with Clayton for a while?”

“Sure. Just don’t wander away from the game.” While their sisters had drifted apart, the two boys had remained friends.

The three of us made quick work of the load, and Addy and Clayton took the cart back to the parking lot to return it to Patty’s car. The cheerleaders warmed up in a group not far away, and Patty held court with some of the other cheer moms nearby.

I searched for Rose and spotted her at the same time she noticed Patty. Her eyes narrowed, and her back stiffened while she walked over, lugging the insulated jug full of water.

“I see the cheerios are here.” She put the orange jug down on the edge of the wooden bench.

“Careful, Rose. Not here. Don’t let Patty get to you.”

“That’s easy for you to say. I’m counting down to Sadie’s coronation, just so I can watch Patty’s smug face crumble.”

“Hey,” I said. “Patty and I had a falling out, too. I don’t like the way she’s been acting, either. There’s nothing we can do about it, and you said it would take some of the pressure off of us. There are plenty in the Unusual community who want to believe she’s right about Astrid becoming Queen. They’re happy to curry favor, and that helps us keep Sadie safe, right?”

“It does, but the information is there if you look. It’s easy to see that the clues suggest other possibilities. We can’t let our guard down.”

“That’s why we have you watching our backs.” I smiled. “Come on. Let’s find our seats in the stands. The game will start soon, and I want to be where I can see everything. I think Sadie’s in for a big game tonight. She’s been going in as an early sub for the last few games.”

Rose glowered one more time in Patty’s direction before she jogged over to catch up with me.

📖 Loved Chapter 2? Keep going — get Sophomore Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/sophomore-fae/

Book 5 of the Unlikely Guardian series opens with Rose at her most competent and most fun to watch, quietly breaking into a South Baltimore mob warehouse with Warren’s help to track down an oracle whose public vision hit uncomfortably close to home. The heist itself is tightly plotted and satisfying, full of Rose’s trademark efficiency with a borrowed Fae shillelagh, and it’s a great reminder of just how capable she is operating entirely on her own.

The chapter’s real surprise comes when Rose finally finds her target: the supposed oracle isn’t a captive at all, but the gang’s actual boss, a sharp-tongued, entirely unbothered woman running an information and sports-betting racket on the side. Their resulting negotiation is a clever, character-driven scene that lets Rose flex a different kind of skill than usual, striking a wary bargain instead of simply fighting her way to an answer.

What makes the chapter such a strong opener is the ominous bonus prophecy the oracle offers as a sweetener: a vision of Rose and the future queen encountering “a great, round evil from the netherworld.” It’s a deliciously vague, unsettling hook dropped in the book’s very first pages, and knowing this series, readers can be confident it won’t stay vague for long.

📖 Catch up with Sadie’s sophomore year — get Sophomore Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/sophomore-fae/

I leaned over the steering wheel, glaring up through the windshield of my red Firebird. The full moon gleamed in a cloudless sky, bright enough to spotlight my every move. “Damn moon. Perfect night for a heist, isn’t it?”

Warren barked out a brief chuckle. “You’re worried about getting seen in the moonlight, and yet you drove here in this bright red antique.”

“Oh, shut it, Warren. If I wanted your opinion, I’d have asked. I parked a block away for a reason. Your job’s simple: kill the power. I’ll handle everything else inside.”

Warren pulled a soft-sided tool kit from between his knees. “I can kill the power and the alarm system, sure. But we still don’t know how many goons are inside. All this over a vague prophecy from some obscure oracle? Are you sure this is worth it?”

I shook my head. “There’s no such thing as too much risk when it comes to protecting Sadie. This one’s supposed prediction is a little too on point for my taste. I have to know what else she saw in her vision.”

“You didn’t worry about the vision that seer in Myrtle Beach had a few years back. You told me it took care of itself.”

I glared at him. I hated when he brought my own words back to correct me. “That was different. The prophecy fit Astrid as much as it did Sadie. After Patty made the leap first, it was just a matter of standing back and letting everyone assume it was Astrid while we went our way alone. But this is in our own backyard. Baltimore is way too close to us, and people could start asking questions. I have to know exactly what she saw. The oracle is a prisoner inside, so that’s where I’m going.”

“Suit yourself.” Warren popped open his door. “I’ll be in position at the transformer in five minutes. When the lights go out, do your thing. I’ll meet you back here.”

“Go. And be careful.”

“You, too.” Warren shut the passenger door and slipped into one of the few shadows on this side of the street.

Reaching into the back seat, I pulled out a knotted, weathered club—the shillelagh I’d borrowed from Aunt Allura. A sword was too risky tonight, so the Fae club’s magic was perfect. One sharp rap, and any human would be out cold.

According to Warren’s research, the mob hideout in South Baltimore only contained mundanes, with no Unusuals. They were a local gang who’d cornered the illegal local sports betting market. With a captured oracle in their custody, I had no doubts how they’d managed that. They could back only sure bets and ignore those not to their advantage.

I hopped out of the car and crossed the street with my club hidden, held straight down alongside my leg. I needed to hurry to get into position before Warren knocked out the power to the building. On the next narrow street, the tall buildings spread longer shadows, and I took advantage of that to cast a simple spell. The shadows wrapped around me as I moved from one hiding place to the next.

Once I reached a vantage point where I could see the side of the warehouse, I stopped and crouched beside a set of metal stairs.

A lone guard stood at the single metal door, his cigar glowing like a signal in the dark. He scanned the street with a little too much attention for my liking. Even once the streetlights were knocked out, the bright moonlight would make the approach too risky.

The dumpster on the opposite side of the street would be a closer hiding place if I could make it there without being spotted. But I didn’t have time to wait for the guard to turn and look the opposite way.

I flicked a finger, releasing a thread of mana. Down the street, a rusted trash can toppled with a satisfying clatter.

The guard stiffened, then took a cautious step toward the noise.

I sprinted from the shadows and darted behind the dumpster right before he returned to his former position beside the entrance.

Warren was right on time. Barely thirty seconds later, the overhead streetlights flickered and then went dark. The lights inside the warehouse blinked out too, as did all the lights up and down the street on both sides.

Shit. I didn’t want Warren to knock out the entire block. Now local authorities might come to investigate. But I didn’t have time to mess with it now. I had a limited amount of time to reach the guard before his human eyes adjusted to the darkness.

I raced from behind the dumpster and charged directly at the guard, who was blinking up at the extinguished streetlight overhead.

He must have heard my boots scuffing on the pavement as I ran at him. He lowered his gaze to me.

“Hey\!” he shouted. His hand fumbled at the pistol in the holster beneath his jacket.

I got there before he drew the weapon. I didn’t need a gunshot to hurry the authorities along in their response to the broad blackout.

Swinging the club up from my side, I smacked it against the side of his head. A pale green light flared for an instant.

The goon collapsed in a heap on the sidewalk. His soft snoring breaths told me the magic had worked as planned.

I shoved the end of the shillelagh in my belt and dragged him over to lie in the deeper shadows by the building. It was the best I could do to conceal him. Right now, speed was my best ally. I had to get inside and find where they held the oracle. Once I freed her, we could make a run back to the Firebird and question her in another location.

With the guard out of the way, I pulled open the heavy metal door and relied on my Fae dark vision to see in the near total blackness. Down the long hallway ahead of me, a figure walked in my direction with his cellphone flashlight shining.

I picked up speed and ducked low, swinging the club at the back of his knees before he could react. He dropped to the floor flat on his back and let out an oof as the wind was knocked from his lungs.

A quick forehead tap with the shillelagh did the trick. I left him snoring in the middle of the hall.

“Vinnie, is that you?”

The voice came from the open doorway on my right. I flattened myself against the wall and waited.

The guy inside led with a pistol in one hand and his cellphone light in the other.

I smashed the wooden club down on his extended wrist, and he dropped the gun to the floor. Pivoting on one foot, I kicked him in the forehead with the heel of my boot as he reached for the dropped gun.

He slumped to the floor, knocked out the old-fashioned way.

I shrugged. Whatever worked.

I passed several more open doors. The ones on the right went into a large, empty warehouse. The one on the left was a storeroom with janitorial supplies inside. I randomly wondered if there were gangster janitors, or if they hired the regular kind.

At the end of the hallway, a stairway led up. I bounded up the steps two at a time and reached a catwalk around a second-floor office space. It opened with a railing on the right that looked out over the warehouse. A few emergency lamps shed glowing pools of light inside the broad open space below, illuminating a few vehicles parked near a closed overhead garage door and some random crates and boxes.

The left side of the catwalk was a large glassed-in room that looked out over the warehouse floor. I crouched down. There were two figures inside. One was smaller than the other and might have been a woman or a small man. I hoped the smaller one was my oracle. Otherwise, I was going to have to leave one conscious so I could question them.

Still squatting, I waddled below the line of windows toward the door at the far end of the catwalk.

“I’ll go and see if the lights are out everywhere,” a male voice said. “You stay here, boss.”

I couldn’t make out the grunted reply, but I clearly wasn’t going to find my oracle inside. The two figures were the boss and another gangster. I decided to take out the goon and question the leader for information on how to find the oracle.

The door swung in right before I reached it. A tall man walked out onto the catwalk and almost stumbled over me.

I had little time to react. I punched the club’s butt end up into his midsection as hard as I could.

He doubled over and clutched at his belly. I stood and swung the club down at the back of his head. A flash of pale green finished the job. Just one more bad guy to take on, and I’d be able to rescue the oracle and finish this mission.

The dim light of the emergency lamps in the warehouse behind me would outline my body in the doorway, so I didn’t enter the room. That would a good way to get myself shot full of holes.

Instead, I dropped to the floor and crawled through the opening.

“Get up, princess. I didn’t expect you to crawl your way in here.” The woman’s voice was gravelly, sharp, and entirely unimpressed. It sounded like she’d smoked a few too many packs of cigarettes in her day.

I craned my neck to look up.

A short woman stood beside a metal desk in the center of the room. She wore a man’s suit, tailored to her form. Her hands hung empty at her sides. We were alone, so this was the one the other goon had referred to as “boss.”

I stood and brushed the dust off my jeans. A faint aura tinted the edges of the woman’s body in the magical spectrum. This was the oracle.

My eyebrows shot up as I realized the boss was the object of my search.

“You didn’t know, did you, dearie?”

I shook my head, trying to mask my surprise. The so-called oracle didn’t need saving; she was running the show. That made her leverage—and a problem.

“It’s okay,” the woman replied. “I’m used to being underestimated. I don’t advertise that a woman runs our group. I let them assume my big brother is the real boss.” She nodded her head at the body outside the doorway. “He’ll be all right, yes?”

I lifted the shillelagh. “Its magic will wear off in an hour or so. He’ll be fine, but he won’t remember much of what happened.”

The woman snorted a laugh. “He’s not that bright on most days, so it’s not a great loss if he’s missing a few brain cells. What about the rest of my guys?”

“Two others are the same as him. There’s one more who’s going to have an old-fashioned concussion from a boot to the head.” I shrugged.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, then. Let’s get down to business.” She gestured to a rusty chair by the door and moved to sit in a wheeled clerk’s chair beside the metal desk. “I assume you’re here about the recent vision I had.”

“Yes,” I answered. “I really wish you hadn’t made it so public. That bit about the half-blood princess of old coming of age soon struck a little too close to home.”

The woman cocked her head to one side. “So you came here because I made the pronouncement public? Sorry about that. I don’t have control over when visions of that nature strike me. Everyone in the bar overheard me when it hit. So what now? You find out how much I know before you decide what to do next?” She showed her teeth. “I’m not so easy to kill, I assure you.”

Her bluntness was refreshing. I was so tired of dancing around the family secret. Part of me longed for it all to be over and for Sadie to come into her own as the Fae queen. At fifteen, she only had a few more years before she ascended to the throne.

“I’d rather not kill anyone. I have to protect what’s mine, though. You understand.”

“I don’t know who you are, aside from your royal aura. You could just leave. I don’t know any more than what I said during the vision. I saw the next Fae queen. It’s a half-human, half-Fae girl with dark hair. That’s it.”

“If I don’t kill you, how do I know you won’t keep digging until you discover everything about her?”

The woman pursed her lips for a second. “You don’t. But understand, I’m in the business of sports book, as well as wagers on other pieces of information. I want nothing to do with you or your family. Maybe we can come to an agreement of sorts.”

“What kind of agreement?”

“You agree to give me a heads up before the announcement goes public, and I’ll hold on to what I know until after the big event. We’ve still got a few years, right?”

“Yes.” My mind whirled through the possibilities and whether I could trust this woman to keep her word. I decided that in her line of work, her word was all she had. If she didn’t pay off on bets that were owed on time, she wouldn’t stay in business long.

“I’ll sweeten the pot with a foretelling I can see that involves you.”

“What kind of foretelling?” I asked.

“You and the future Queen are about to encounter a great, round evil from the netherworld.”

I blinked at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She shrugged. “That’s all I can tell you. All I see is you, the girl, and a ball full of evil.” She crossed her arms. “Do we have a deal with the other part?”

The new information alarmed me, but I couldn’t do anything about it now. “I think that’s something I can live with. I’ll send you the details a few weeks before the ascension to the throne. I suppose you’ll use it to lay some bets of your own on the outcome?”

A broad grin creased the gangster’s face. “Of course, dearie. I’m all about parlaying information into money. You do that, and I’ll be fine keeping what little I know to myself for the time being.”

“Fair enough.” It wasn’t what I’d thought would happen here tonight. But it was a decent enough outcome. Besides, if I found out later she couldn’t be trusted, I could come back and finish the job with lethal force. I’d put Warren on keeping tabs on this gang’s actions for the next few years. It would probably mean I’d have to increase what I was paying him, but that would be worth it.

I got up from the chair, nodded once at the woman, and exited the glass room. Three minutes later, I was back at the Firebird.

Warren slipped from the shadows nearby to join me as I reached the car. “Everything good? Where’s the oracle?”

“She’s not coming. I made a deal with her, though. I’ll fill you in on our way back to Westminster. There’s some additional work for you in it.”

“Good. I’m saving for a new motorcycle.”

I rolled my eyes, but inside I knew Warren was worth it. He had that special loyalty you only found once in a while. He’d work for that new bike, and I could put this part of protecting Sadie out of mind for the time being.

We headed back home while I mentally checked over the multitude of threat assessments that always floated through my brain. I was the family arms-mistress. It was my job to keep Sadie alive and well until she attained the throne.

📖 Loved Chapter 1? Keep going — get Sophomore Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

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Chapter 4 delivers the book’s most unsettling turn yet on what should be a happy occasion: the last day of school. An uncomfortable run-in with Chip’s ex, Patty Peyton, in the parking lot (complete with an offhand mention of her family’s Myrtle Beach rental property) sets an already tense scene before the real crisis even begins, a small but sharp piece of foreshadowing for where the summer is headed.

The chapter’s core sequence, Sadie’s uncontrolled magical outburst injuring a boy at the skate park after a humiliating social slight, is genuinely tense and well-executed. Chip’s Guardian instincts flare with real danger before he realizes the threat is coming from Sadie herself rather than at her, a chilling reversal of his usual protective role that raises the stakes of her wild teenage magic in a way training montages alone hadn’t.

What makes the chapter so effective is how human the aftermath feels. Sadie’s guilt and confusion, and Chip’s own uncertainty about whether his job is to protect people from his niece rather than protect her, gives real emotional weight to what could have been a simple action beat. The chapter ends on exactly the urgency readers need, both kids and readers alike bracing for what Rose will say when she gets the call, and confirming the sorcerer’s fears from Chapter 1 were entirely justified.

📖 Join the family’s Myrtle Beach summer — get Summer Break Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

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The last day of the school year arrived. Sadie had several art projects to bring home, so I parked the SUV in the middle school lot rather than getting in the usual pickup line. A deep blue sedan backed in right next to my driver’s door. I waited to let the other person get out first since I wasn’t in a huge hurry. School hadn’t been dismissed yet.

I jumped when someone tapped on my window. I turned and pressed the button to lower it.

“Hey, Chip,” Patty Peyton said. “I feel like you’ve been avoiding me.”

I forced my eyes to remain up away from the low-cut blouse as she leaned in. “I’m giving you your space. You asked for that after we agreed to take a break the last time we were together.”

“That was over a year ago,” she said. “I hoped we would still stay friends.”

I thought about Sadie and her recent troubles with Patty’s daughter, Astrid. It wouldn’t do for her to see me out here talking to Astrid’s mom.

“Patty, you’re aware our girls aren’t getting along right now, right?”

“Astrid mentioned something about hanging with another group of girls. Maybe your Sadie should try harder to fit in with a more popular crowd.”

Her matter-of-fact tone annoyed the hell out of me. I reached for the door latch to get out and go inside the school.

Patty stepped back to make room for me. “Why, Chip, have you been working out?” She reached up and brushed her fingers across my shoulder and down my arm.

Her touch revived some pleasant memories of past trysts and a few goosebumps along my forearm. The part of my mind that always geolocated Sadie bounced back to the front, though. I remembered where my true priority lay.

“I think we should stay where we are now, Patty. Things are difficult for Sadie, and I don’t want to confuse her even more with a relationship between us. You understand.”

“Oh, I suppose so.” Patty pushed out her lower lip in a pout. “If you change your mind, you know how to reach me.” Her phone chirped and interrupted us. She pulled it up as she checked her messages. “Damn, I just lost a long-term tenant at our beach duplex in Myrtle Beach. You don’t know of anyone who wants to rent a place for a week or even the entire summer, do you?”

“I don’t know of anyone off the top of my mind. I’ll keep my eyes open, though.”

“Thank you, Chip. You have my number if anyone comes to mind, or for any other reason.” She blew me a kiss and walked around the back of the SUV toward the school entrance.

The bell rang, and within a minute, the doors burst open with happy middle schoolers rushing out to begin their summer vacation. I walked to the entrance and waited patiently for a lag in the flow of kids so I could enter. Sadie told me I could meet her at the art studio. I signed in with the guard by the door and slapped on my sticky visitor badge.

The crowds of enthusiastic students thinned out. I walked down the stairs to the lower level, where the art studio was located. Mrs. Phelps, the art teacher, waited with Sadie and a few other students who were picking up their projects.

Sadie waited by a rolling media cart loaded with her various sculptures and painted display items. “Hi, Uncle Chip. I loaded up all my things. Mrs. Phelps said she can unlock the elevator and we can go up to the first floor that way.”

“Would it make more sense for me to drive the truck around back and we can go right out the doors on this level?”

The teacher came over. “Hi, Mr. Proctor. Yes, that will be easier. Otherwise, I have to ring the custodian to run the elevator.”

“Great, I’ll be right back. Sadie, bring your cart down to the rear double doors.”

Mrs. Phelps said, “Do you need me to come out and wave so you know which entrance it is?”

“No, I know where the double doors are. Right across from the athletic fields.” I smiled a thank you and glanced over at Sadie. “I’ll be right there. Wait for me inside the doors, okay?”

“Okay.”

I went back out front to my SUV and drove around the building to the rear of the school, making a wide circle around a group of kids next to the small skateboard park attached to the athletic fields.

Sadie opened the doors when I pulled up and wheeled out the cart with her art projects. It took a few minutes to load them in the back. When we finished, I lowered the hatch.

“Sadie, hon, take the cart back inside to Mrs. Phelps.” I turned and bumped into the unattended cart. Sadie wasn’t with it.

I looked around and spotted her halfway across the parking lot. She stared over at the kids by the skate park, her arms stiff at her sides and her hands clenched.

An icy chill stung my chest. I touched my gold shark’s tooth necklace, which had been a gift from my dead brother. It pulsed with freezing power, a sign only activated when it protected me from powerful magic nearby. There was a threat close, and that put Sadie in danger.

My hand dropped to the six-inch leather-wrapped cylinder clipped to my belt. I never went anywhere without my Guardian weapon. I didn’t want to deploy the magical sword just yet. It was best to keep it hidden until I identified the threat.

A visual search of the area revealed nothing I could see. The only people in view were the stationary Sadie and the kids with their skateboards across the parking lot.

“Sadie, come here. There’s something wrong.” I reached toward her. “Come on back to the truck, hon. We need to go. Now.”

She remained there, her attention locked on the kids.

The hair on my arms stood at attention. Magical energy crackled around me. Whatever was coming was close.

I craned my neck, searching all around us. Nothing leaped out at me as dangerous. I rushed over to Sadie. When I stopped beside her, the goosebumps on my closest arm went all the way to eleven. A shiver passed up that side of my body.

I rubbed at the chill coursing up my arm. The icy cold of my shark’s tooth amulet had grown even sharper, as if it were burning my skin. “Sadie, come on. It’s time to leave.”

She didn’t respond. The air around her shimmered with power, like the waves of heat coming off summer asphalt. The effect extended several inches around her entire body. Tears streamed down her face as she stared at the group of kids over by the skate park.

Had she identified a threat I couldn’t see?

I scanned the park to see what or who she looked at. Then I spotted Patty Peyton and her daughter, Astrid. Astrid stood next to a tall, blond boy with shoulder-length hair and a skateboard leaning up against his leg.

Astrid gazed up at the boy and twirled her long, blonde locks around one finger. With her other hand, she pointed at the halfpipe.

The boy nodded and climbed the steps at the rear of the half-pipe. He set his skateboard down at the top of the halfpipe and waved at Astrid. Then he jumped on the board and rode it down one side, across the bottom, and up the far side where he leaped up into the air.

Beside me, Sadie sobbed and let out the faintest of whispers, “Why?”

I felt, rather than saw, the wave of power blasting away from her toward the skate park. It didn’t even occur to me to shout a warning.

A second later, the board flipped away from the boy’s feet right before he came down to descend the halfpipe again. His leg hit the edge.

Even across the parking lot, I imagined I heard the crack as the bone broke.

Sadie’s hands came up to her face. Horror filled her eyes. The tears flowed even faster. She whirled around and raced to the passenger side of the SUV. Her hands worked to lift the handle, but the door was still locked.

I looked back over at the skate park. Everyone had clustered around the collapsed kid.

Everyone except Patty Peyton. Her brows lowered as she stared in my direction. Then she pulled out her phone and returned her attention to the circle of kids around the injured skater.

Back at the SUV, Sadie waited until I returned. I unlocked the passenger door with my key fob. She jumped into the front seat.

I pushed the empty media cart over to the open double doors. I didn’t want to leave Sadie alone outside, so I didn’t return it all the way to Mrs. Phelps. I left it in the hallway and returned to my vehicle.

I climbed into the driver’s seat.

Before I glanced her way, Sadie said, “We have to leave, Uncle Chip. We have to go. Now.”

“Sadie, honey, what happened back there?”

“I-I-I don’t know.” She twisted in her seatbelt to face me. Her face screwed up in pain, and tears streamed down her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to hurt him. I swear.”

“You did that?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t mean for anything bad to happen. Maybe?”

“Okay, but we should talk about this. Has this happened before?”

Sadie went rigid as if trying to control something inside. “I don’t think so. We have to go home. Please, before anyone sees me crying like this.”

I shifted into drive and pulled away. A siren sounded in the distance. Patty must’ve called for an ambulance. I put on a smile and directed it at Sadie. “Aunt Rose will know what to do.”

“I know. I have to call her, but not until we get home. This is awful.” Her words choked out between sobs. “Please, Uncle Chip. Take me home.”

There was nothing else to do. Patty was here, so there was an adult with the injured boy, and the authorities were on the way. There was no need to remain. My foot pressed down, and the SUV sped away from the action at the far end of the lot. I wasn’t sure what had happened back there, but it seemed Sadie had something to do with it. It was clear she thought so, too.

If the threat I’d detected had come from her somehow, I needed to understand it. I was supposed to protect her, not protect people from her. This added a whole new wrinkle to being her Guardian. Once again, things in the family had become all too confusing.

We drove home in silence. My mind spun through the possibilities based on my limited knowledge of Fae magic and what little Fae girls could do with it. The only thing I could think of was we needed to call Rose and figure out what had happened right away. I hoped my parenting counterpart would know the answer to what I’d just witnessed.

📖 Loved Chapter 4? Get the full story — get Summer Break Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

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Chapter 3 brings Rose straight from the airport to Aunt Allura’s mansion, and the resulting conversation does terrific worldbuilding work for the series while giving readers a satisfying strategy session between two of its sharpest characters. Allura’s calm, calculating response to the news of a resurgent enemy, deciding to hide Sadie’s growing magic in plain sight rather than continue suppressing it, is a great showcase of just how many moves ahead the family matriarch is always thinking.

The reveal of the Mer King’s invitation, and the long-standing alliance between the Fae royal line and the Atlantic’s Sea Fae court, adds real depth to the series’ mythology. Allura’s plan to expand a simple debutante party into a larger gathering of young Unusuals, using the Gulf Stream’s wild magic and the crowd itself to mask Sadie’s power, is clever, plausible, and sets up exactly the kind of high-society, high-stakes event this series does so well.

The chapter’s warmest surprise comes from the brief glimpse of Allura’s own youth, hinting at old romantic history with the Mer King that softens her usually icy demeanor. It’s a small character beat that pays off nicely, and it leaves the summer beach trip to Myrtle Beach feeling like both a clever cover story and a genuine adventure the whole family is about to be pulled into.

📖 Join the family’s Myrtle Beach summer — get Summer Break Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/summer-break-fae/

Reston, my Aunt Allura’s butler, pulled open the door of the family mansion and stepped back to let me in. “Good day, Mistress Rose. I passed along the message you sent to your aunt from the airport. She’s waiting upstairs in her drawing room.”

“Thanks, Reston. I know it’s close to dinner. Tell Mrs. McGarry this might take a while and interfere with Aunt Allura’s dinner.”

“I’ll let the cook know. Thank you for the warning. Of course, you could stay for dinner and discuss what you need over the evening meal.”

I laughed and gestured to my denim jacket, T-shirt, and blue jeans. “I’m not dressed for dinner with my aunt. I’d never get a word in edgewise around her comments about my attire for the meal.”

Reston hid the barest hint of a grin behind a small cough. “Very well. I’ll tell the cook to keep things warm until you come down.”

“Thank you.” There was also the way dinner conversation always turned to many other family matters. If I went up to the drawing room, I could keep the discussion targeted on my original topic and use the impending dinner hour to keep it from devolving into other items.

I headed up the broad main stairs off the entry hall to the second floor. Aunt Allura’s drawing room was to the right at the top of the stairs. I had barely stepped off the staircase when my aunt’s voice echoed down the hallway.

“Do hurry up, Rose. It’s almost dinnertime.”

My shoulders drooped. I had to stop for a beat and compose myself. Whenever I faced my aunt, I felt like I was a little girl who had gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar again. It didn’t matter that I was well over thirty years old and was the family’s battle mistress.

Resetting my shoulders, I raised my head and strode down the hallway to the drawing room entrance.

Allura lounged on a long velvet divan. She held a hardcover, leather-bound book, though I couldn’t make out the title before she closed it and set it on the seat beside her.

“Hello, Rose. How did your jaunt to Scotland work out? I recall you were most anxious about what you hoped to discover there.”

“Hello, Aunt Allura. That is the reason I’m here. I came straight from the airport.”

The elder Fae matriarch pursed her lips. “Am I to assume you discovered that which you sought when you left us so suddenly last week?”

“I did.” I left out the part about how I wasn’t exactly sure what or who it was I’d found.

Allura leaned forward and lifted her china teacup. “Do start at the beginning, my dear. You left so suddenly, none of us knew what it was you were after exactly.”

“Right,” I replied, feeling just like the little schoolgirl again. “Okay, ever since Lili and Bobby died, I’ve had some routine searches out there with a few trusted investigators. Warren has handled coordinating their regular reports, though most have turned up very little that is helpful. It’s been almost ten years. I was sure we’d have someone make an attempt on Sadie again after we defeated the witch and the weretigers.”

“It has been strangely quiet since that incident. Perhaps you really didn’t nip out the entire plot in one swoop?”

I shook my head. “I never thought that. That’s why I kept the investigations open. Last week, Warren got a report from a source in the U.K. about a release of great magical power up along the northeastern coast of Scotland.”

Allura leaned forward. “Where exactly was this?”

“Stonehaven.”

My aunt frowned. “I see. The whole Dunnottar debacle has come back to haunt us, I see.”

“That’s what I thought, too. The only way to be sure was to go there and put eyes on the person behind all the power and find out why it was focused there. It could have been a coincidence. After all, it’s been five centuries since the family went into hiding and left that castle for the New World.”

Aunt Allura sipped from her cup. “Since you’re here, it obviously wasn’t a coincidence at all, was it?”

“No, though I wasn’t able to pin down exactly who was behind the source of power. I encountered… someone. But I’m not sure who, or what, they were. Only that they were searching for the lost Fae royal line that disappeared from that area years before.”

“And you think this person figured it out?”

I nodded. “I exchanged—well, let’s call it—words with them, and they have sensed a corresponding surge of power here on the east coast of the United States.”

Allura shook her head and gave a little smile. “But they haven’t pinpointed it yet.”

“No, but it will only be a matter of time. Sadie has reached that age where the wild magic within her has started bubbling to the surface at awkward times. I’ve tried to instill the necessary will to impose some control over her feelings, but…”

Allura sighed and set the teacup down. “But her emotional human half is not as easy to get a handle on.”

“Exactly.” I searched for an excuse that would explain how I’d let this get out of hand. “I remember when I was that age, and Lili, too. You weren’t exactly great at keeping us in check when it came to our stronger emotions and magical energy.”

“It’s not the same, Rose, and you know it. Sadie has much more raw energy available to her as she comes into the full power of the Fae throne. Her abilities will soon eclipse yours, and she must be ready to exert complete control over them.”

“I know. The problem is she’s not ready to face anyone who challenges her claim to the throne. Especially not a sorcerer of this kind of power. He easily countered me when I tried to stop him.”

Allura stood beside the divan. “Get ahold of yourself, Rose. We always knew there would be powerful forces who’d come after our girl. We can’t afford to let a random escape of her wild magic expose her this soon. This place must remain a haven for a little bit longer.”

“I agree. But what do we do to keep her hidden?”

Allura’s grin chilled me to the bone. “We don’t. In fact, we let it out for the world to see. Just not here.”

“But anywhere she goes, they’ll track her signature. Nowhere is as safe as it is here. We’ve taken too much time to set up the wards to protect the family.”

“There are other things afoot that may help us kill two birds with one spell.” Allura crossed to a rolltop desk against the far wall. She lifted the top and pulled out an ornate golden envelope with deep blue ribbon impressed under an azure wax seal. “This came for us the other day. I had thought to put it off to another time, but perhaps now is the time, after all.”

“Time for what?” I asked. “Who is that from?”

“The Atlantic Shelf Mer King reached out and wishes to host a coming out party. It seems his granddaughter has just reached her thirteenth year, same as our Sadie. We could accept his invitation for Sadie to attend and present her to him at that time.”

My eyes widened. “The Mer King knows about Sadie?”

“Our family would never have made the crossing to this new world safely without the help of the Sea Fae and their royal line. They have kept our secret all these years on the promise of a pact of cooperation once the new queen ascended to the throne.”

The long game played by the Mer royal line in keeping that secret amazed me. “And we’re sure they’ve been loyal to us the whole time? Maybe they’re part of the problem we face.”

Allura shook her head. “Think, Rose. They know exactly who we are and where we live. If they’d turned on us, we’d have been fending off attacks continuously since Sadie’s birth. That is exactly why we must honor the King’s request to meet her in person. We cannot afford to give him an excuse to change allegiances.”

“We can’t just take her to him and announce her at this party. It will expose her identity to all who reside in his court. It would reveal her to too many who don’t know who we are. We cannot allow that.”

“No, I suppose that would be precipitous.” Allura paused and stared off into the distance. A smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “However, if the event were open to all young Unusual girls of that age, then we could attend in a group with others and arrange for a quick and private audience with His Majesty without letting anyone know who Sadie really is.”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “That’s taking a big chance on exposing her at a time when we know at least one enemy is tracking her.”

“That’s what makes this the perfect solution, my dear.” Aunt Allura fanned herself with the envelope. “All the powerful beings assembled for a big gathering event would mask our girl, and anyone lurking in the shadows won’t be able to pinpoint which of the many people present are the source of any potential wild magic released while she’s in attendance.”

I saw the possibilities in what my aunt proposed, if we could make such an important meeting happen. “What kind of pull do you have with the Mer King? We’d have to expand the initiation to include enough people of power to mask our girl’s nascent abilities rising to the surface.”

Allura tapped her chin with the edge of the gilded envelope. “The Mer King draws most of his power from the wild magic of the Gulf Stream, where it passes near the coast along the Carolinas. The power surging there should help to cover up any eruptions that get out of hand.”

I said, “That would work. Will he be amenable to expanding the invitation to so many others?”

Allura let out a laugh with a joyful tone I’d never heard before. “The Mer King and I go way back. I think he would be happy to offer me a favor if I were to ask, especially to show off his granddaughter.”

“Way back, huh?” I smiled, seeing a softer side of the stern elder aunt I’d always known.

“Leave it alone, Rose. Suffice it to say, I wasn’t always the grand family matriarch I am today. I was quite the catch in my day, often more in demand than my older sister was. I turned the eye of many a young prince.”

“What should I do?” I asked. “I’ll need to tell Chip about this eventually. He needs to know about the risk to Sadie and what we’re planning.”

“Hold off while I reach out to my old friend. The school year is only a week away from being over. Nudge the Guardian to take an extended summer vacation at the seashore.”

“I can do that. Any particular location? We’ll want to be close to wherever the Mer King is holding court.”

“I believe he summers off the region around Myrtle Beach. It was always among his favorites of the coastal settlements there, and the passage of the Gulf Stream nearby offers many opportunities for sport and adventure.”

I had my phone out and searched for places to stay in that city. There were many options available. “Okay, I’ll figure this out and work on getting Chip to go along with all of it. He doesn’t need to know all the reasons why for now.”

“Good girl.” Allura reached out and pulled a long satin bell cord hanging from the ceiling. A distant chime sounded elsewhere in the grand home. “Will you be staying for dinner? I’m sure Mrs. McGarry has enough to offer you a seat at the table.”

“No, I just got back into town. I need to unpack and check in with Warren and then Chip.” I followed Allura out and down the stairs to the front entry hall.

“Good evening to you, then, my dear. I’ll be in touch once I work out the details with my old friend on the coast.”

She left me there by the door with Reston standing beside me.

He watched her leave, then said, “Am I mistaken, or was there a slight twinkle in the Mistress’s eye?”

I kept my aunt’s confidence. “You’ll have to ask her. I’ve given up on trying to read her moods. Take it easy, Reston. I’ll see you again soon, I’m sure.”

“Good day, Mistress Rose.”

I left and climbed into my Firebird. I needed to get to my apartment and unpack. Then I needed a long, hot shower and some rest. I’d call Warren first in the morning and then Chip.

📖 Loved Chapter 3? Keep going — get Summer Break Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

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Hi reader,

Seven days.

The Paramedic’s Acolyte drops one week from today. Let’s make sure you’re ready.

If you’ve already preordered: you’re all set. It’ll arrive on your device automatically on November 12. No extra steps, no waiting.

If you haven’t preordered yet — now is the time:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0G...

Here’s what launch day looks like:

     📚  Ebook goes live on Amazon

     🎧  Audiobook releases later this month (free for VIP Team members on Ream)

     👥  We’ll be in the Facebook group all day reacting and celebrating

     📣  We’d love for you to share the launch post and help spread the word

     🎁  Something special in the FB group for readers who show up on launch day

One week. Dean Flynn. His daughter. The thing that’s been watching her.

Everything starts November 12.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0G...

See you on the other side.

— Jamie

Chapter 2 jumps forward to find Sadie firmly in the throes of seventh-grade moodiness, and Chip navigating unfamiliar territory as the uncle of a teenager rather than a little girl. Their dagger-and-buckler sparring session at the dojo is a genuinely fun action beat that also doubles as an emotional release valve, with Sadie’s inherited speed and Fae-enhanced reflexes making her a legitimately dangerous training partner even at thirteen.

The chapter’s real strength is how naturally it earns Sadie’s eventual opening up. Chip’s patient, if slightly bruised, insistence on getting to the bottom of her foul mood pays off when she finally admits a friend humiliated her in front of a boy at school. His well-meaning advice about middle school boys not being emotionally ready for relationships is a lovely, relatable parenting moment, made even funnier when Sadie completely misreads it and decides to start aiming for high schoolers at the bus stop instead.

It’s a chapter that balances real physical stakes with the universal, non-magical chaos of raising a teenager, and it does a great job reminding readers that even a future Fae Queen still has to deal with mean-girl drama and confusing advice from a well-intentioned but out-of-his-depth guardian. The comic misfire ending sets up a nice running thread of Chip trying, and often failing, to say the right thing.

📖 Join the family’s Myrtle Beach summer — get Summer Break Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/summer-break-fae/

The line of cars moved through the parking lot at a snail’s pace as students emerged from Westside Middle School. I resisted the urge to give in to my old New York sensibilities and blow the horn. Suburban parents frowned on such crass behavior. Besides, Sadie would be out of school soon enough.

My attention was so focused ahead in the line that I missed Sadie coming around behind the SUV. She popped open the door and climbed into the passenger side.

“Hey, kiddo. Ready for some sparring?”

Sadie crossed her arms and slumped down in her seat. “Do we have to go to the dojo? I don’t feel like sparring today.”

“You know your Aunt Rose made us both promise to keep up with our practice sessions while she was gone. I’m not getting on her bad side because we didn’t put in the time in the dojo together. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Sadie ducked down farther when Astrid Heraty and another girl walked past toward a car farther back in the line. I caught myself before I waved hello. I prided myself on reading Sadie’s moodiness of late. There was no telling what was going on between her and Astrid, another of the hidden Fae Unusuals attending this mundane school. I had to let her work things out on her own. My middle school memories were muddled, but I distinctly remembered experiencing personal doubts on the inside even though I was pretty popular. I’d keep an eye on her, but whatever was going on, Sadie would figure it out.

The line ahead moved forward, and I followed the other cars out through the parking lot and headed toward Main Street. The dojo had a private sparring area in addition to its lucrative after-school care and training program. Rose had it booked three days a week right after school.

“Perk up. We can hit the cafe on the way home for an iced latte if you want.” Sadie liked it when I let her get what Rose and I referred to as big girl drinks. We didn’t want her getting hooked on coffee quite this early, but the occasional order as a reward wasn’t out of bounds.

“Yeah, I guess that’s okay.” Sadie stared out the passenger window without glancing my way.

“I’ll even let you pick the weapons for sparring. You love it when I let you choose what we’ll work on.”

“That’s only because you always choose the sword. It’s soooo ordinary.”

Without glancing in her direction, I could picture her eyes rolling.

“Okay, so what’ll we work on today?” I pulled to a stop at an intersection and looked over at her. “Your pick.”

“Knife and buckler.” She didn’t even hesitate.

I suppressed a sigh. Sadie’s martial skills had grown as fast as she had. Her inherited human athleticism from the Proctor side, coupled with her Fae royal ancestry, gave her unexpected speed, strength, and grace throughout her combat drills.

She was crazy quick with her feet and hands. In close combat exercises such as knife and buckler, she was unmatched, even though she was only thirteen. Even Rose was hard-pressed to beat her when it came to raw speed and quickness.

I forced a smile onto my face. “Knife and buckler it is, sweetie. We’ll work out some of whatever is going on in your life.”

“Whatevs.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and ignored me the rest of the drive to the training dojo.

I wasn’t sure what to do with the new moody teen version of my niece. She used to be so cheerful and open with me when I picked her up at school. That had changed over the last year, as if seventh grade had infused her with angst and darkness.

The drive through town to the martial arts school took a long, silent ten minutes. At the strip mall, I pulled into a parking spot in front and got out. I opened the back of the SUV and grabbed both gym bags. I held the one I had packed for Sadie out for her.

Sadie stared at me. “I really don’t feel like doing this, Uncle Chip. Do we have to?”

“It’s only an hour.” I tried to find a silver lining for her to focus on. “Tell you what. When Miss Ellie drops off your brother in a half hour, I’ll let you stop and start on your homework while I work with him. Deal?”

“Yeah, okay.” She took the bag and slipped the strap over her shoulder.

We walked inside, and I waved at the owner, a retired army type from one of the special forces groups. He was also a half-minotaur, though I’d never seen him out of his human form.

“Hey, Chip,” Barry said. “The room downstairs is ready for you. Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be up here with the kids here for their regular lessons.”

“Thanks, dude.” I hooked a thumb at my niece. “Sadie can’t wait to get started.”

She rolled her eyes, grunted, and made a beeline for the women’s locker room. Barry and I shared a look before I went into the men’s side to change into my sweats and tank top.

I waited downstairs for almost five minutes before Sadie finally came down. Rather than comment on her making me wait, I pointed over at the practice weapons on the rack by the mirrored wall.

“I already picked mine. There’s another dagger and buckler combination over there for you.” I’d picked the lighter of the two sets, leaving her the weighted versions. It was my hope the extra workout would dig her out of the doldrums.

I stepped into the middle of the training mat and crouched in my ready pose. Sadie picked up the wooden dagger and dinner-plate sized metal buckler. She hefted them for a second and turned her head to stare at me. She knew I’d left her the heavier ones. Her brows lowered with a determined glare that left me wondering if I’d made the right decision.

Sadie twisted her wrist, twirling the wooden dagger around in a circle as she tested its weight and balance. She stopped a few feet away from me and squared off.

I nodded a bow, which she returned. Before I could blink, she lunged in, stretching to her full extension with the dagger’s tip aimed right at my midsection.

My buckler came across on instinct alone, honed from long hours practicing against Rose. I barely blocked the incoming blade.

I realized it was a feint too late to bring my dagger up to counter her buckler. She twisted her arm and punched the metal knob in the center of the shield into my shoulder.

I staggered back, grunting at the force behind the punching blow. My dagger batted away two more thrusts from her wooden dagger. Then the two bucklers smashed together. I used my greater strength and mass to stop her charge before she forced me off the edge of the practice mat.

As we came face to face, she drove her dagger in from the side. The blunted tip came in hard and slid across the ribs under my right arm.

The pain of the full-strength blow drove the air from my lung, and I oofed when the breath came out of my mouth. Rose had taught her well. Sadie fought in here like it was the real thing, and she was old enough now to leave big-girl bruises on her uncle.

I twisted around, using our locked bucklers to spin her with me until she had her back at the mat’s edge. With a yank, I disengaged and backpedaled to the center of the mat. It was time to think about landing a few hits of my own. I didn’t want to hurt her, but she needed to learn a lesson or two here as well.

“Nice shot.” I stretched my buckler up high in the air and leaned to the side to stretch out the sore spot along my side. “You won’t score another one that easily.”

“We’ll see.” Sadie charged in at me.

This time I thrust out with my mind, creating a knee-high barrier with my invisible Guardian’s shield.

The trick worked. She tripped and landed sprawled on the floor at my feet.

I leaned down to tap her back with my blade to prove I’d won the point.

Sadie rolled to the side while reaching out with her buckler hand. Two fingers extended from the shield’s handle to point up at me. Her sapphire-blue eyes flared with magic.

I was already leaning forward, and the spell-charged tug pulled me completely off balance. The yelp escaped my mouth right before she punched up with her dagger and caught me in the shoulder on my way down.

The wooden dagger dug into my muscle, sending a shooting pain down my entire arm. It failed to support my weight when I landed on it, and I collapsed to the floor on my face.

Sadie rolled up and straddled my back, jabbing me twice in the right kidney hard enough to make me see stars.

I groaned and bucked upward from my prone position. The sudden move knocked Sadie to the side and allowed me to climb up to my feet. I faced her across the mat as she stood.

“I just killed you three times, Uncle Chip. That should be enough.”

My bruised ribs and aching side agreed with her, but I would not give in. She still had a hint of snarky darkness in her tone. I needed to work that out of her and get her to talk to me.

“I don’t know what’s bugging you, Sadie Proctor, but if you think I’m going to go away just because of a few bruises, you don’t know me very well.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she huffed at me.

I charged in, then dodged to the left in a feint that drew her into stabbing at my exposed and injured side.

My feet twisted in place, pulling my body around so her strike slid right by me. I brought my buckler down on her extended wrist.

Sadie squawked, and her hand spasmed, sending the dagger spinning to the floor.

I used a move I had learned the hard way from Sadie’s Aunt Rose and buried my left knee in Sadie’s side. This time it was her turn to stagger backward. I followed with my wooden dagger. When she fell to the ground, I landed next to her on one knee with my dagger at her throat.

She hissed, breathing hard, and stared up at me. “That hurt.”

“It was supposed to. Your aunt always says to practice the way we’d have to fight. Would she have held back?”

Sadie’s eyes turned away for a second. “No. She’d have smacked me with the dagger, too.”

“Exactly. What’s the lesson here?” I stood and reached down to give her a hand up.

Instead of taking the offered help, she kicked up with her feet, rolling backward and coming up to stand well away from me.

“I wasn’t going to attack again,” I said. “I was helping you up.”

“Never trust an opponent until the fight is over. She says that, too.”

I smiled. “Fair enough. Okay, the fight is over. Now, will you please tell me what’s got you all twisted in a knot today?”

A devious half-grin crossed her face. Then, just as quickly, she frowned. “It’s Astrid. I asked her about this kid in our math section she’s been hanging out with.”

“Oh, a boy, then.”

She glared at me. “Do you want to know what’s bugging me or not, Uncle Chip?”

“Sorry, go ahead.”

Sadie kicked her foot at the ground. “Well, Astrid lied and told him I was asking about him. Then he turned my way and pretended to stick his finger down his throat. Like I made him sick.”

“Astrid’s your friend. Why did she do that to you?”

“Lately, she’s been acting weird and hanging out with girls we never liked before. They told her to do it. I’m so angry and… and…”

“Embarrassed? I think it’s time you and I had a talk about something important. About boys.”

“Ewww, no, Uncle Chip.” Sadie held up her hand and turned away from me. “Aunt Rose already had the talk with me. I don’t need you to do it, too.”

“This is a different talk about boys. You see, boys at your age aren’t as grown up as you are. They’re mostly still little kids inside and don’t know when they really like anyone, at least not that way. That and they’re just plain stupid. Wait until they’re a few years older and have some maturity. Eventually, they understand their emotions the same way you do. Does that make sense?”

“I think so. You’re saying I shouldn’t be interested in seventh grade boys. Don’t worry, there’s no danger in that, at least not now.”

“Good,” I said. “See, Uncle Chip has some useful advice after all.”

Sadie turned back to me and smiled. “So, I should aim higher and start looking for someone among the ninth graders who wait at the bus stop with us.” She nodded. “That makes so much more sense. Plus, it’ll avoid someone Astrid will know, so she can’t mess it up for me again.” Sadie skipped over, picked up her wooden dagger, and stretched up to give me a peck on the cheek. “Thanks, Uncle Chip, that was really helpful.”

She crossed the training room to replace the dagger and buckler. Then she picked up her gym bag and bounced up the steps to the locker rooms.

I realized my mouth was open, and I closed it before I said something that would make the situation any worse. How had she taken what I’d said and turned it into focusing on high school boys? Rose was going to have a fit when she heard about this. Sadie talked to her about everything, and I was sure she’d tell Aunt Rose all about Uncle Chip’s brilliant advice.

My phone alarm went off on the table by the door. It was time to go up and meet Ellie when she dropped off Addy from the elementary school. I returned my weapons to the rack and started up the stairs. I had to walk back what I’d said to Sadie, but I honestly did not know how.

📖 Loved Chapter 2? Keep going — get Summer Break Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

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Book 4 of the Unlikely Guardian series opens far from home, with Rose alone on a rain-lashed Scottish beach confronting a powerful dark sorcerer who once ordered the deaths of Sadie’s parents, Lili and Bobby. It’s a tense, atmospheric duel between two formidable magic users, and it does excellent work reestablishing just how dangerous Rose’s world really is outside the family’s carefully guarded suburban bubble.

The fight itself is a showcase of everything readers love about Rose as a character: quick thinking, ferocious skill with a blade, and a refusal to back down even when clearly outmatched. Her deception, pretending to be the heir the sorcerer seeks in order to draw him out, nearly costs her everything when he sees through the ruse and escapes before she can finish him. It’s a gripping, well-choreographed action sequence that raises real stakes right from the first page.

The chapter’s true gut-punch comes in its final beats, as Rose realizes her worst fear: this sorcerer has sensed a new surge of powerful magic on the American east coast, meaning Sadie’s wild, teenage magic has begun breaking through the family’s protective wards. With a dangerous enemy now hunting for the source, Rose scrambles to get home before he can find her niece first, setting the entire book in motion with real urgency.

📖 Join the family’s Myrtle Beach summer — get Summer Break Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/summer-break-fae/

Cold spray blew across the shingled beach stones, dampening my hair and plastering stray strands to my cheek where they escaped the hood of my raincoat. I suppressed a shiver and used a little of my precious magical mana to cast a charm against the chill coming off the North Sea.

As my eyes pierced the foggy night’s gloom, my Fae sight cut through the darkness. I stared at the stone seawall and the path behind it, tracking the shadowed figure coming toward the small patio where I crouched behind a picnic table. I pulled at the shadows around the back of the metal table. I didn’t want to be seen.

The approaching person was taller than I’d expected. My sources said they were a fairy or low Fae. Unlike the high Fae, who were sometimes named elves in the misguided lore of humans, the simpler fairy folk tended to be smaller and slight of build. If the information I had was correct, this particular fairy was a giant among their kind.

I shifted my crouched position to the side and caught the corner of the metal bench with my kneecap. Pain shot through my left knee and down my leg. Before I could stop myself, I drew in a hissing breath.

The figure paused only a dozen yards away, and the darkened shadows of their hood turned in my direction. A man’s voice, thick with a highland Scottish brogue, said, “Who’s there? Come out and show yourself.”

I held still, hoping my hold on the surrounding shadows was enough to keep me hidden. I wanted to follow this person, not challenge them on the beach of this coastal Scottish town.

The man pulled his right hand from his pocket and raised it up, palm outward in my direction. He snapped his fingers, and a glowing globe of white light about the size of a softball floated toward me. The magical energy of his casting pressed hard against my cloak of shadows, giving me a taste of his dark power. His mystical strength might have outmatched my own. On the plus side, at least it illuminated him so I could see better. The trimmed salt-and-pepper beard and mustache framed an older man’s face creased with age and concern.

The shadows around me melted back as the globe drifted closer and closer. Beads of sweat popped up on my forehead despite the cold sea winds blowing on my face. I was losing my hold on the magical shadows. Light magic almost always overpowered shadow magic, and his strength with the dark forces made it even easier for him.

I released the spell and stood, my hand gripping the hilt of my sword beneath my long, gray raincoat.

“Who are you?” the man asked. His floating light stopped six feet away from me, lighting up my face in the gloom. “What are you doing lurking out here in the night?”

“I’m waiting for you, actually.” Sometimes, simple honesty could disarm an opponent.

“You’re an American? I don’t know anyone from your country.” He paused and tilted his head back while he sniffed at the air. A wry grin twisted the corners of his mouth upward. “You’re Fae, not a human witch. What do you want with me?”

“I traced you from your posts on a dark web chatroom. You talked about having a vision that revealed the new Fae Queen to you.”

“Bah, that? I was just messing with the conspiracy types who hang out there. It wasn’t real.”

He was lying. Warren, my investigator, had a series of search queries scraping the web for keywords. This guy’s posts had come too close to be accidental. He’d either actually had a vision of my niece, Sadie, or knew someone who had. I didn’t fail to notice his left hand dipping into the cloak’s folds. What was he hiding?

“You said the new queen would be found in the minster of the west in the New World. That she’d appear ordinary and live amongst the mundanes. Where did you see or hear that description?”

The man barked a laugh. “I knew it.” He crowed at the moon before returning his gaze to me. “She’s real and in America, like I said.” His right hand pointed at me. “And you know who she is.”

I readied myself for the inevitable confrontation. There was just one piece of important information I needed before I dealt with him.

“So, it was you who had the vision? You saw the future queen?”

His mouth twitched in a frown. “I might have seen it, or I might have heard it from someone. That you’re here now tells me all I need to know. Her growing power is breaking through the veil that has hidden her from those who seek her. It’s only a matter of time before we narrow our search enough to identify her.”

I had worried this would come someday, though I’d wished for a few more years before Sadie was discovered. Her increased command of the powerful forces at her beck and call must have breached our family’s long-standing wards, put in place to hide her and our entire line.

The shadow man brought out his left hand from the cloak, gripping something in his fist. He held out his hands and cupped them together. A soft, deep-red glow leaked from between his fingers. “I sent a team to the States over ten years ago. They followed the clues in an obscure line I found in a forgotten prophecy. I put little faith in them discovering anything until they disappeared without a trace after reporting a successful hit on a minor noble family. I never followed up on it, assuming the Unusual community in America had snapped them up. I see now that was a mistake.”

I froze, quivering with anger. Had this man been the one who’d ordered Lili and Bobby’s deaths all those years ago? My teeth ground together. He had to be stopped.

No. He had to die\!

I snarled my battle cry and charged at him. My sword swung from its scabbard at my side. I lunged up and over the table, using my magic to propel my leap forward.

My blade clove through the space where he’d stood only a second before. I landed in a half crouch. He wasn’t there.

A booming laugh from the darkness to my left warned me he’d projected his image forward on the sea path. I had been a fool to fall for his illusion. Now I was going to pay.

With my free hand, I swept up the edge of the long raincoat. I’d imbued it with a charm of protection earlier. I hoped it would be enough.

The glowing ember of magical energy the man held in his cupped hands erupted outward in my direction. At this range, he couldn’t miss. It grew in size until it was as big as a grapefruit and impacted on my raised coat.

My impromptu shield crumbled into burning ash around me. The spell’s explosion blasted me off my feet, and I landed nearly ten feet away. Gravel beside the concrete path dug into my exposed and now-burned skin. Pain seared through me as I struggled to regain control. He’d easily pierced my protections.

I pushed past the pain and bounded to my feet, lucky to have kept a grip on my blade. I adjusted my path to his true location and charged back.

He laughed and sent another energy ball at me.

This time, I was ready. I swept my magical blade in an arc, intercepting the captured globe of heated plasma. My natural magic drew in power from the chill air and misting rain around me. I vented it out through the sword to dissipate the energy inside the spell.

It was my turn to laugh. “You won’t catch me unawares again. I’ve searched for you at least as long as you’ve searched for us.”

“Let me guess, my team killed someone you loved. A friend, a lover, perhaps?”

I growled. “She was my sister, my best friend. She didn’t deserve the end you sent after her. Know this. I’m the reason your acolyte never returned to you.”

He walked in an arc away from the seawall, keeping the distance between us constant. “You have genuine power, then. My resources in the States were formidable.”

I shifted to follow his movements. “A witch and a few weretigers weren’t much of a challenge. Though they took the secret of who paid them to the grave.”

“Well, now you know who to thank. If your sister was the one who died, then you should have risen to her place. That makes you the one I’ve been searching for.”

I almost missed a step. He thought I was the heir to the Fae Queen’s throne. That meant he didn’t know about Sadie. She was still hidden, at least for now. I needed to end him and the threat he posed before he discovered anything else. As she got older and more powerful, Sadie would eventually reveal herself to all, no matter what we did to hide her away.

“Yes,” I said, standing tall. “You’ve found me at last. Come and finish the job, if you dare.”

The man clapped his hands together. A thunderous blast lanced down from the sky.

I dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the called lightning and the crater it blasted in the gravel. My hand pushed down, and I completed my roll and regained my feet in time to counter the incoming blow from the ironshod club he produced from behind him.

My blade drew a shower of sparks from his magically charged weapon. I didn’t fear him. My sword had power, too.

I pushed aside the club, causing it to thump into the ground beside me. Then I recovered with a riposte and lunge at his midsection.

Somehow, he twisted to the side, and my sword met thin air, though I ripped through his black leather cloak as he whirled away from my attack.

“You are a challenge.” His tongue flicked out as if he were a snake tasting the air. He cocked his head to the side and chuckled. “No, you’re not the one I seek. Your magic doesn’t have the taste, the wild energy of the one I have sensed in the distance. Your ruse did not work.” He raised his hand in a gesture of runic traveling. “I will not be sidetracked.”

Realizing he’d discovered my lie, I drew in all my power and funneled it into a single thrust at his back. I was already overextended, but I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t let him get away.

My sword glowed, incandescent in the deep, rainy gloom by the seawall. The magic exploded out in a wave of crackling heat that should have seared through his protections. The sword’s tip passed by, striking nothing. There was no one there. I swung around searching for him, but he was gone, his runic spell taking him somewhere else.

I collapsed onto the sidewalk, gasping for breath. I’d spent physical power as well as my remaining mana stores in that attack. And it was all for nothing. The rain pelted down harder as I rolled onto my back. It didn’t matter. My raincoat was a tattered wreck of ash and singed fabric across my shoulders. Not enough remained of it to shield me from even a thin drizzle, let alone the North Sea’s storm-driven rain, now pressing in on the seaside town of Stonehaven.

I didn’t know how long I lay there on the concrete, soaking up the water through every inch of my clothing all the way to my skin. A shiver passed through me. *That’s enough, Rose. Get ahold of yourself.*

A dog barked in the distance, near the buildings along the strand of beach skirting the town’s old harbor. I had to get moving. Unlike my adversary, I couldn’t snap up a rune of traveling and disappear. If I wanted to get back to protect those I loved, I had to catch an early flight out of Aberdeen, get to London, and fly back to the United States.

I didn’t think the warlock—or whatever he was—could make the trip all the way across the Atlantic with a simple rune spell. There was still a chance I could catch up with him and make it home before he arrived to track down Sadie. I had to get her away from home for a little while until her magic dissipated some.

Puberty was hard enough without having to wrestle with wild Fae magic and everything that came with it at the same time. Thirteen-year-old Sadie had a lot to learn about controlling her burgeoning powers as well as reining in her headstrong pre-teen emotions. It would be best to deal with that away from home.

I sat up, ignoring the growing force of the wind and rain on my face. I leaned to the side, and my hand passed across something thin and round on the concrete beneath me. Holding the disc up, I peered at it in the deepening gloom. The wooden talisman coin was ringed in black iron, a black and red runic design carved on either side. I didn’t recognize the runes or the intricate way they interlocked inside the pattern. My adversary had dropped it when he escaped.

I slipped it into my pocket for later investigation and pulled out my phone. I looked up the contact I needed and tapped the icon to place the call.

The phone rang twice before they picked up on the other end.

“Mistress Rose,” Taren said. “I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon after your arrival in Scotland. Is there a problem with the accommodations I arranged for you?”

“No, Taren, the suite at the hotel is fine.” My dig-master had traveled the world with me on my many archeological adventures over the years. I often used him to make travel arrangements for me. “I’ve completed my business here earlier than expected and need to push up my flight arrangements to go home.”

“Oh, my. It’s late in the evening, but let me pull up the British Airways site and see what I can do.”

“Thank you. I’m headed back to the hotel to pack up now. Get me something leaving first thing in the morning if you can. I don’t care if I have to sit in the center seat. Speed is of the essence, not comfort.”

“Is everything all right, Mistress? If there’s something I can help with, you only have to ask.”

“No, I just need to get home. Text me the flight details once you’ve arranged everything.” I hung up and suppressed a shiver as a gust of icy wind off the North Sea whipped past me. I was a wet mess and had to get back to my rental car to get warm again. I used up the bit of reserves I had left to keep the dangerous chill at bay. A long shower and some food would go a long way to help me recover. I also needed to inspect the burns on my arm, though my Fae charm necklace’s fire protections had staved off the worst of that initial attack when the raincoat had failed.

There wasn’t much open all night in this part of the country, but I was sure I could find something on my way back to Aberdeen. If not, I had some energy bars back in my suite. They would do well enough in a pinch. I could always grab something at the airport in the morning.

📖 Loved Chapter 1? Keep going — get Summer Break Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/summer-break-fae/

Chapter 4 shifts back to Chip’s perspective for the series’ signature blend of the extraordinary and the utterly mundane, following him and Rose through an ordinary Saturday of back-to-back kids’ soccer games. Between prepping orange slices, scolding Addy for tracking mud through the kitchen, and playing peacekeeper between squabbling siblings, the chapter is a warm, funny reminder that being a magical Guardian doesn’t exempt anyone from normal parenting chaos.

The chapter also does quiet, effective work on Chip’s personal life, particularly his lingering, complicated friendship with his ex, Patty, whose daughter Astrid is Sadie’s best friend. Chip’s careful avoidance of any real reconciliation, paired with Sadie and Astrid’s not-so-subtle scheming to get the two adults back together, adds a light romantic thread without pulling focus from the family dynamics that anchor the book.

What makes the chapter work as more than pure slice-of-life is Rose’s pointed reminder that Chip’s Guardian instincts only flag real threats, meaning she herself, as someone not dangerous to the kids, can sneak up on him undetected. It’s a small, throwaway-sounding exchange, but it plants an important seed about the limits of Chip’s protective magic right as the family settles into the false sense of safety that a normal Saturday morning brings.

📖 Follow the Guardian family’s latest adventure — get Field Trip Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/field-trip-fae/

Saturday rolled around and I stood at the island in the kitchen prepping orange slices for both kids’ soccer games later that day. It was my week to bring the fruit for the teams. Other parents would fill up and bring the big orange water cooler, along with other snacks for after the day’s matches.

Addy and Sadie had both exhibited the quick and nimble footwork that made a child perfect for this sport. While I had grown up playing football most of my life and graduated high school as the star quarterback, I appreciated the other sports my classmates had played. Soccer had always intrigued me, and I marveled at the ball control my friends had shown using just their feet.

Now I was the parent of two talented soccer players. Some of it was undoubtedly their Fae abilities, but I was certain a big portion of it came from the Proctor side of the family. Though their father, Bobby, hadn’t been the star I had been in later years, he’d been quite the athlete in his younger days.

Addy walked into the kitchen, his cleats already on his feet. I glanced down and frowned. He’d left clumps of dried mud all across the floor. He obviously hadn’t cleaned off his cleats after his last game like he was supposed to. “Take those off and go get the broom, Addison Proctor. You know better than to put those on in the house.”

He stopped and looked behind him and then down at his shoes. “Awww, Uncle Chip, I like the sound they make on the hard floors when I walk. Plus, they make me taller.”

“I don’t care. Take them off now. And clean up this mess.”

Sadie looked up from her book where she sat at the kitchen table. “Addy’s in trou-ble.” She drew out the last word, mocking her chastised brother.

“Just for that, Sadie, you can get the dustpan and help him. He made a mistake. That isn’t reason to make fun of him. I don’t let him do that to you when you get corrected.”

“Uncle Chip,” she said. “That’s not fair.”

“We’re a family. We help each other all the time. That’s our rule. Now get up or I’ll take your book away for the rest of the day.”

She huffed and closed the book. She went into the garage with Addy and came back with the dustpan to hold while Addy handled the broom. It took the five-year-old a little time to complete the clean-up, which annoyed Sadie even more. But she wisely kept her annoyance in check and even encouraged him a few times with suggestions that helped him with the oversized-for-his-hands kitchen broom.

“Good,” I said. “Now get the rest of your gear packed up. We’re leaving for the rec league field complex in fifteen minutes.”

While the kids got their extra clothes and clean socks packed up in their duffle bags, I finished bagging up the orange slices. They both came down in their uniform jerseys. Addy’s team was sponsored by a pizza place in town that had been there when I was a kid growing up. Sadie’s team was sponsored by a local plumber. The businesses paid for the jerseys for their teams and helped cover the cost of field maintenance and other expenses to run the leagues each year.

We loaded up in the van and headed across town to the rec center where there were a half-dozen soccer fields in one centralized location. There were also walking trails, playground equipment for kids not participating in the matches, and even a half dozen pickle ball courts. Those courts were surprisingly popular and at least one was in use every time I was there.

The kids’ games overlapped a little, so Rose was supposed to meet me before Addy’s team started playing. She was usually there to watch them play, but today, I would need her there to stay with Addy while I walked over and watched Sadie’s game begin. I spotted the red Firebird in one of the parking spots in the far corner of the lot. I scanned the crowded fields nearby to see if I could spot her.

“Looking for me?”

The voice right behind me caused me to jump and turn around. “Rose, stop sneaking up on me like that. I get it. You’re a super-stealthy warrior princess.”

“The point is to get to where I don’t surprise you, Chip. You’re supposed to expect the unexpected. That’s the whole point of all of our training.”

“My Guardian skills and abilities alert me when there’s real danger to the kids. You aren’t a threat to them, so I don’t pick up on you sneaking up on me. You’re a loophole in the whole process.”

Rose put her hands on her hips and assumed that know-it-all look she got. “There are bad guys out there who can mask their intentions. That could spoof your abilities. Don’t become complacent. You need to always be on your guard.”

I resisted the urge to snap off a curt answer. We didn’t need to be fighting here in public. Sadie and Addy had to get to their teams. “You’re right, Rose. I’ll work harder. For now, though, the kids have games to play. You take Addy over to his team. They’re on field number three. I’ll walk Sadie over to number five to join her team, then come back for the start of Addy’s match.”

“I can walk over there by myself, Uncle Chip. I’m big enough to carry my bag and find the coach.” Sadie had pulled her soccer backpack on her shoulders and looked up at me with a hopeful expression.

Her request tempted me for just a moment and then I remembered Rose was here. “No, I’ll walk with you. I know you’re growing up fast but humor your old uncle for now.”

Rose gave a slight nod of approval and reached down for Addy’s hand. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s go and find your team.”

Addy waddled along beside his aunt under the weight of his own backpack. He insisted on carrying it himself, though. Anything Sadie could do, he tried to do as well. It was usually harmless and kind of cute how he looked up to his big sister.

Sadie bounced on the balls of her feet beside me, not bothering to hide her impatience.

“All right, I see you waiting. Let’s go and find your field and get you started warming up.”

Sadie skipped along beside me as I took long strides towards the far side of the complex. Her coach was the father of one of Sadie’s teammates, Joanie. She ran up to him, waving as she approached.

“Hi, Mr. Simpson.”

“Hiya, Sadie. Ready for a fun time?”

“You bet. We’re going to win for sure this morning.”

I caught up and smiled. “As long as you and the others try your hardest, that’s what counts.” I nodded at the coach. “Hey, Sam. How’re ya doing?”

“Fair to middling. I can’t complain and, hey, I get to coach these fine young ladies each week.”

I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or serious. He always had a smile on his face, so it was hard to say. I smiled and nodded, not knowing how else to respond.

Holding up the bag of orange sections, I looked around. “Where do you want me to put these?”

“Over by the orange water cooler is fine. Someone’s supposed to show up with a separate cooler full of ice. We’ll put them in there when they get here.” Sam pointed at the field. “Sadie, why don’t you grab a ball and start on some dribbling and passing drills just like we did in practice this week.”

Sadie ran to get one of the balls out of the nylon ball bag nearby. She dropped it on the ground and ran out onto the pitch, keeping the ball just in front of her. She was nimble anyway, and that lent to her footwork as she worked with the soccer ball. It was impressive to watch.

Several of the other girls, including Joanie, ran out to join her. I spotted Astrid in the mix and scanned the crowd until I found Patty talking with a few of the other mothers nearby. I left Sam to his coaching duties and walked over to join them.

“Hey, Chip,” one of the mom’s, Grace, said as I approached.

“Hello, ladies. Are we ready for a fun-filled morning of soccer?”

They all laughed. Patty met my eyes as she joined in the laughter. There was a little sparkle in them as always. I smiled back at her. We’d ended our last couple of dates on good terms and I was glad to see we could still be friends.

“I’m here to drop off the oranges before the game. I have to head over to Addy’s game which starts in a few minutes.”

Patty held out her hand. “Give the bag to me. I’ll hold onto them until Melvin Crow gets here with the ice and cooler.”

“Thanks, that’s a big help.”

Grace asked, “You will be back for the girls’ match, won’t you?”

“Yes, Sadie’s aunt is over with Addison. I’ll come back before the action starts.”

“Good,” she said. “We’ll need all the cheering we can get. This team today is going to be tough to beat. They’re very good.”

“The girls are up to it, I’m sure,” I said. “They’ve looked good in practices, plus they won the last two games they played.”

Patty shook her head. “The other team has won the championship for two years running.”

“Then they’re primed for defeat. Don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it.”

I waved to the ladies and left them to their conversation. I heard giggling a few seconds later and turned back to look their way. They were all looking at me. As soon as they saw me glancing back their way, they burst into gales of laughter. I didn’t know what was so funny, but clearly, I was the butt of the joke. I’m sure it was something to do with Patty and me dating. She did like to gossip and enjoyed her girl-talk.

Addy’s game was getting ready to start when I arrived back at his field. I took my spot beside Rose and watched as the players took the field. At this age, the coaches were allowed on the field, too, to help direct the players and try to keep them in some semblance of position on the pitch. If they didn’t, there’d just be a swarm of kids mobbing the ball.

I cheered them on while they chased the ball around the field. There were no goals, or even shots on goals while I was there, but the kids seemed to be having a great time and that was all that mattered at this age. I checked my watch and nudged Rose next to me with an elbow.

“Hey, I’m heading over to Sadie’s game now. I’ll see you there when you’re finished here.”

“Have fun. Don’t make all the soccer moms swoon too much.”

I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, Rose, they’re very over me by now. Patty is with them and the last time I saw them, they were all sharing a laugh at my expense.”

“Good, someone has to keep you humble.” She followed it up with a smile of her own and turned back to cheer as Addy broke from the pack with the ball. It was only for a few seconds before the mob caught up to him, but it was exciting.

I left her to continue cheering for Addy and I headed across the complex to watch Sadie’s game. It would be a more serious affair compared to the first graders. The competitive athlete inside me threatened to rise at moments like this, even though I tried to keep the focus on the kids. I didn’t want to become one of those hyper-serious parents who forgot it was a game. There were a few of those around and they tended to make their kids miserable on and off the pitch. I wanted Sadie to play because she enjoyed the game, not because I was pushing her to succeed and be a certain kind of player. She’d have enough on her plate learning all she’d need to become the future queen. She didn’t need an overbearing soccer uncle, too.

📖 Loved Chapter 4? Get the full story — get Field Trip Fae on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/field-trip-fae/

Hi reader,

Two weeks from today, The Paramedic’s Acolyte will be in your hands.

Here’s everything you need before November 12:

 THE BOOK

The Paramedic’s Acolyte — Extreme Medical Services Book 11. Something has targeted Dean Flynn’s three-year-old daughter through her own magic. And the person behind it is patient, deliberate, and already several steps ahead.

🛒  PREORDER ON AMAZON

Preorder now and it downloads automatically on November 12 — no extra steps needed.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0G266K72Q

🎧  AUDIOBOOK

The audio version of The Paramedic’s Acolyte releases alongside the ebook on November 12. VIP Team members on Ream get it FREE.

https://reamstories.com/jamiedavisbooks

FREE PREVIEW

Haven’t read the first two chapters yet? They’re free — no account needed:

https://reamstories.com/page/lh4wx6l560/story/mopr7f31dd52ea/chapter/mopr7m0c8d1a1c0

⭐  ONE REQUEST

If you’ve loved the Extreme Medical Services series, the single most helpful thing you can do for Book 11 is leave a review on Amazon after you read it. Even a sentence or two makes a real difference for indie authors.

Two weeks. Elk City is waiting.

— Jamie