Page 25 of Spring L.A.W.
“Shit,” Joell hissed. “They’re cloaking again.”
From behind the SUV’s former location, a figure stepped into view. No gear. No weapons. No shadow. And no face.Just a smooth void, like something wearing human skin as a suggestion.
Lioness made a sound halfway between a softened scream and a choke.
Joell raised both hands. “Fall back. Now. Don’t run. Don’t cast. Don’t look it in the eye, if it has one.” Then her voice disappeared.
7
The silence had weight. Not just an absence of sound, but a silent presence. A hum that wasn’t human, thick and invisible, pressing against their ears, their skin, and their bones.
Joell tried to speak, to give the command, but her mouth opened to nothing. No voice. No sound. Just the look in her eyes, wide and alarmed, as she slashed one arm in a wide “fallback” motion.
Rayna’s sparks leapt to life by instinct, dancing down her arms like eager fireflies. But instead of launching toward anything, most of thempopped. One flared and sprang from her palm, then ricocheted off a crumpled street sign.
The sign exploded. So did a nearby lamppost. And a tree. A family of squirrels shot out of the wreckage, tails ablaze, screaming tiny, high-pitched squirrel obscenities that were immediately swallowed by the dampened field.
Next to Rayna, Lioness’s eyes rolled back. Her hand jerked, her fingers spasming like they were drawing in midair. She pulled her sketchpad free without thinking and scribbled in thick, jagged strokes with wild eyes.
“Oh no,” Brianna mouthed, watching the pencil fly. The paper glowed. Lines curled and bled outward. Then athud. “Wait… Sound is back!”
Something materialized behind them, making a squeaking noise. They turned in unison.
A raccoon. But not just any raccoon. This one had battle armor. A sparkly pink hammer. And murder in its eyes.
Joell stared. “Okay. That’s new.”
“Looks like it’s ready for a little chaos,” Rayna muttered at Lioness. “You summoned a weaponized trash panda?”
The raccoon bared its teeth.
Joell grabbed Rayna’s arm and pointed toward the edge of the lot. “Send it over there!” she said, pointing at the faceless wonder.
Brianna moved first, skimming the perimeter, eyes scanning like sonar, ready to reset time, if needed. Then she stopped cold.
The faceless figure was shifting. Flickering in and out, like a film reel out of sync. It took on a woman’s shape, then a man’s, then something in between. At one point, it had Rayna’s red hair and Lioness’s face and Joell’s body. None of them aligned.
And then it smiled, and the face, hair, and female body disappeared, leaving Jeff the barista in its wake.
Rayna raised a hand to strike, but the raccoon launched itself like a fuzzy missile and tore at the thing’s face until it retreated and disappeared.
Back at the L.A.W. mansion,Victoria had been in full crisis mode. Then the faceless ‘thing’ reappeared.
She hovered over a glowing crystal console, her brows knit, her elegant topknot now a frazzled mess. A 3D projection of thelot flickered in the air before her, glitching every few seconds. Static crawled across the witches’ outlines.
“They’re inside a null field,” she said to no one. “Their magic’s degraded, sound’s gone, and Lioness summoned my raccoon familiar? Why the hell is he glowing?”
She twisted a dial. “Give me psychic channel two, bypass the main grid, and patch me straight through on the shortwave.”
The console flared, then hissed. The screen sparked, and Victoria slammed her hand down. “Come on, you magnificent weirdos.Listen to me.”
She reached for the glowing rune on the side of the console and touched a symbol. In the lot, Joell’s head jerked. A shimmer of a protection rune scrolled across her vision, then Victoria’s elegant handwriting etched the air in light.
Overload shields simultaneously. Trust me. GO.
Joell spun. Her hands moved fast, and then she yelled clearly,Chaos spell, now!”
They moved as one. Rayna flared her palms wide. Brianna focused her entire being into a single pulse. Lioness drew a giant bird for no apparent reason.
