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/

 

Summer Break Fae — Chapter 3

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:

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