Fae and Familiars recap

Fi's planned Cornwall holiday with Mort and Cressida becomes a Magical Liaison Office investigation when enchanted fairy stones drive protected piskies into lethal attacks. After stopping swarms at Tintagel Castle and Land's End, Fi learns that the Pisky Queen is trying to regain territory. She enters the Fae realm with Tamsin and Tamsin's father, discovers that the magic-shop proprietor placed the stones after being deceived, and is forced into a deadly contest. Fi kills the queen's giant toad champion, but the queen breaks the bargain. The proprietor stays behind to block pursuit while Fi escapes. Fi then channels storm lightning into the portal stone and destroys it, ending the attacks and preserving the piskies' protected status. The proprietor's fate remains unknown. Fi survives with burns and guilt, while she and Mort finally declare their love. Cressida recovers from scale rot, Fi later passes her driving test, and Effie warns that a troublesome gift is on its way.

Previously: Fi is an electrical witch working for the Magical Liaison Office, with the golden, dragon-like worm Cressida as her familiar. Their bond allows mental communication and carries strong emotions between them. Fi and Mort are now partners, although past hurt still makes Fi reluctant to say that she loves him. Mort is a doctor and has inherited a death-guardian responsibility once held by his father, Hades. Fi lives at her mother Nell's bed and breakfast, where a semi-sentient house can respond to its residents. A hostile demonic essence remains confined there after earlier events. Fi's sister Agatha is part of the household's practical support network, while Effie is an older friend. Fi has struggled to control her electrical power in the past, and the prospect of greater independence carries its own anxiety. As this book begins, Mort's inherited duty and the captive demon remain unresolved, but Fi is focused on a more ordinary step toward independence: learning to drive.

Fi begins the book preparing for a driving test and a week in Cornwall with Mort and Cressida. She is comfortable with Mort but remains unable to name her feelings as love because of damage from an earlier relationship. Her anxiety affects Cressida through their familiar bond. Driving Agatha's unfamiliar pickup, Fi makes several serious mistakes and fails the test. Agatha and Mort both respond with reassurance rather than criticism. Before leaving, Fi checks on Nell and asks the family's responsive house to watch over her mother. Mort then drives the group to their holiday cottage. There they meet Tamsin and her father, who run the property. The family is losing bookings because piskies have become unusually troublesome. Tamsin's father catches one of the small blue Fae and continues the local custom of leaving milk for them. The holiday therefore begins with Fi disappointed about the test but supported by those around her, while an unexplained disturbance among Cornwall's piskies is already affecting the area.

The pisky problem interrupts Fi's holiday when Agent Jones reports that a tourist has died and asks her to investigate before the protected creatures are treated as pests. Mort volunteers to help. Their research points them toward the fatal attack at Tintagel Castle, where they sense oppressive magic and find unusually aggressive piskies. A swarm attacks Fi, Mort and Cressida. Fi uses an electrical shield, Mort summons a magical sword and Cressida fights with fire and electricity channelled through her bond with Fi. Beneath a statue, Fi discovers a circular stone carrying unhealthy Fae magic. She throws it toward the sea, where a pale hand catches it. The swarm immediately returns to normal. Fi now knows that an enchanted fairy stone can force piskies into violence and that salt water can neutralise its magic. The person placing the stones, however, remains unknown. Fi has stopped one attack and found the mechanism behind it, but the wider threat and the death that prompted the investigation are still unresolved.

After the fight at Tintagel Castle, Fi learns that Nell has broken her leg. Agatha and her household move in to help, allowing Fi to remain in Cornwall despite Nell's private wish that she return. Mort treats Fi's injuries and helps arrange interviews with surviving victims. The couple at the hospital confirm that fearless piskies swarmed visitors near the statue, but they cannot identify a nest, stone or attacker. Fi also requests information about the person killed. Meanwhile, a sleeping photograph of Cressida attracts widespread online attention without her prior consent. Fi's strain spills into her relationship with Mort during dinner. She admits that she feels inadequate as a partner and recalls destructive episodes from the early years of her electrical magic. Mort firmly reassures her of his commitment. Back at the cottage, a new concern replaces the immediate tension: Cressida has shed scales throughout the room and is suffering severe itching. The pisky investigation still lacks a culprit, and Fi must now find suitable care for a magical familiar whom ordinary vets will not treat.

A local magic-shop proprietor diagnoses Cressida with scale rot and supplies a week of treatment. She is also the pisky authority quoted in Fi's research. Fi senses Fae magic on a holed stone in the shop, which the proprietor says came from a Fae in payment for an undisclosed service. The proprietor directs Fi toward coastal merfolk, who may know more about local Fae activity. The coroner identifies the dead tourist as Brian Russell and confirms that a pisky swarm caused his fatal injuries. At a secluded cove, Fi uses controlled electricity to attract a mermaid. The mermaid confirms that she caught the Tintagel stone and that salt water made it harmless. She identifies the Pisky Queen as the force placing stones to recover a foothold in Cornwall, with other supernatural communities endangered by the likely human response. The queen lives in the Fae realm and can be reached through an unknown portal. The mermaid warns Fi about bargains and illusions. Before Fi can pursue that lead, an alert reports another active attack at Land's End.

Fi, Mort and Cressida hurry to Land's End, where a huge pisky swarm has endangered tourists. Fi shields civilians and pulls a teenager back from a cliff, suffering injuries and nearly being carried away herself. Cressida locates another holed fairy stone at the signpost. With her reserves failing, Fi drains electricity from dozens of vehicle batteries, restores her power and throws the stone into the sea before the piskies can recover it. The swarm calms at once. Mort, however, has received many cuts while protecting Fi and develops blurred vision and other signs of a head injury. He treats the immediate wounds and refuses hospital care. Fi takes over the driving despite having failed her test, first restoring enough charge to Mort's car. They make it back to the cottage, where Fi monitors him. Two attack sites have now been cleared and Cressida's medical treatment is helping, but neither the Pisky Queen nor the portal to her realm has been found. The investigation has also turned their holiday into a direct physical danger for everyone involved.

While Mort recovers from his head injury, Fi looks for a route to the Pisky Queen. Tamsin explains that her father is caring for an injured pisky and believes the queen is associated with the moors. Fi maps the attacks and sees them spreading from an earlier cluster. Agent Jones warns that Parliament may approve extermination if the deaths continue, and another fatal attack is reported near a holed standing stone. Fi identifies the site as the probable portal. Cressida compares the piskies' danger to the historic persecution of her own species and supports protecting them from collective punishment. Fi leaves Cressida with Mort and travels to the moor with Tamsin and her father. A swarm allows them through after the rescued pisky recognises the man who cared for it. The pisky then guides them around illusory bogs. When Fi throws a pebble through the standing stone's opening, it vanishes in violet light. The gateway is confirmed, and Fi prepares to cross it with her two local companions in an effort to stop the queen directly.

A royal guard admits Fi, Tamsin and Tamsin's father into the Fae realm. They discover an organised pisky society with families and children, then enter the Pisky Queen's underground court. The queen refuses Fi's demand to stop the attacks. She argues that human development has displaced piskies while other Fae courts restrict their territory, and she orders the campaign expanded. A gray-haired adviser urges negotiation. Fi then recognises the magic-shop proprietor among the queen's human collaborators. The queen punishes the proprietor for permitting the intrusion and objecting to the deaths. To protect her, Fi accepts a proposed contest in exchange for an end to the attacks and freedom for the others. Only afterward does Fi learn that the match is compulsory and must end in death. The queen also tries to exploit the wording of the agreement to force Tamsin's father into danger. Fi has reached the source of the crisis, but the attempt at negotiation has become a Fae bargain whose concealed terms put her and her companions at immediate risk.

Fi uses the queen's wording against her long enough to secure the release of Tamsin and her father, then remains to face a true champion alone. The opponent is a giant toad capable of killing piskies and crossing the arena in a leap. The gray-haired adviser helps Fi understand the court's speech and signals when the queen creates false copies of the creature. Fi wounds the toad, dispels the illusions by touch and knocks the real animal unconscious. The queen heals it and insists that only death can satisfy the bargain, then forces the injured shopkeeper into the arena. The proprietor admits that she placed the enchanted stones and protective wards after the queen claimed the plan was only to reclaim land. She did not expect anyone to die. Using earth magic, she raises a barrier while Fi draws electricity from devices around the court. Fi kills the toad with a concentrated blast. She has won the stated contest at severe personal cost, but the queen still refuses to carry out her promise immediately.

The Pisky Queen claims that the bargain never specified when she must release Fi and the proprietor or stop the attacks. Warned by the gray-haired adviser, the two women flee toward the portal. The proprietor uses earth magic to collapse the tunnel behind Fi, holding back pursuit and apparently sacrificing herself. Fi reaches the human side alone, where Tamsin and her father are waiting, but the piskies are already breaking through the obstruction. Almost emptied of power, Fi draws lightning from the storm into her own body. She releases the accumulated electricity into the standing stone, cracking it and extinguishing the portal's Fae magic. The queen's illusions disappear from the moor and the pursuing court is cut off from Cornwall. Fi survives, but the discharge leaves her burned, damages her phone and consumes her remaining strength. The immediate invasion has ended and the enchanted-stone network has lost its connection to the Fae realm. The proprietor remains behind the collapsed passage, and Fi does not know whether she survived.

Mort treats Fi's burns and confronts her about leaving while he was injured. Under pain medication, Fi tells him that she loves him, and he says the same. They spend the last day of the holiday quietly while Fi postpones a full account of the court. On the journey home, Mort explains that destroying the portal made the remaining stones powerless. The attacks have stopped, Agent Jones has kept piskies protected and Tamsin and her father are helping the Magical Liaison Office inspect affected sites. The Pisky Queen has been reported to a Fae representative whose response is hostile, although her eventual fate is unknown. Fi remains troubled by killing the toad and by the deaths connected to her escape, despite Mort's belief that her actions were necessary. Cressida's scale rot clears, and her online popularity leads her to request a social-media account. Back with her family, Fi passes her next driving test and celebrates gaining her licence. A card from Effie congratulates her but warns that a future gift will cause trouble, leaving the next disruption unresolved.

Fi escapes the Pisky Queen's court after the magic-shop proprietor collapses the tunnel behind them, leaving the proprietor's survival unknown. With the court close to breaking through, Fi draws power from a storm and destroys the portal stone. The severed connection disables the remaining enchanted stones, stops the attacks and preserves legal protection for piskies. Agent Jones reports the queen to a Fae representative, but the queen's ultimate fate and the wider territorial dispute remain open. Fi returns from Cornwall burned and troubled by having killed the queen's champion. Mort treats her, and they openly confirm their love. Cressida recovers from scale rot and asks for her own social-media presence. Nell continues recovering at home, supported by the family. Fi passes her driving test on a later attempt. Effie's congratulatory card warns that a future gift will bring trouble. Mort's inherited death-guardian duty and the hostile demon confined at Fi's home also remain unresolved.