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/

 

Sophomore Fae — Chapter 3

“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/