Page 59 of Spring L.A.W.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I think I’m late.”
The wind picked up sharply, scattering petals and pine needles. Several of the candles flickered.
Bubbles swam in a tight loop above Katie’s head. “Late is relative,” it said, almost solemn for once. “But the message is still waiting.”
Rayna broke the chant. “Did your fish just ominously comment on a message?”
“He does stuff like that,” Katie said grimly.
Joell glanced between Katie and Eli, her expression sharpening. “What message?”
Eli opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could, one of the painted runes on his arm flared white-hot.
He hissed and staggered back. Joell grabbed his elbow to keep him within the circle. The rune faded a second later, dimming to nothing.
Everyone went still.
Rayna stepped forward slowly, voice calm but commanding. “Okay, kid. You're not just here for decoration. Let’s figure out what’s written on you.”
Joell moved first, pulling a quartz pendulum from her belt and kneeling beside Eli. “Don’t touch the markings directly,” she warned the others. “If they’re reactive, we could trigger something.”
“Iam something,” Bubbles said loftily.
“Not helping,” Katie muttered.
Rayna crouched on Eli’s other side. “You said someone was supposed to read them. Did they say how?”
Eli shook his head. “Only that they’dknow. That the symbols would make sense when the time was right.” He looked up, suddenly afraid. “It was supposed to be a woman, but I don’t know who. I dreamed she had pale eyes. Like frost. She said the paint wasn’t paint at all. That it camefromme, notonme.”
Victoria blinked. “You made the graffiti?”
Eli nodded. “Sometimes I wake up, and there’s a new one.”
Katie’s throat tightened. “That’s like my dreams.” Her voice lowered. “I see it as I wake up, and then I walk past it in Brooklyn like it’s always been there—but it hasn’t.”
Crystal stepped closer, eyes narrowed as she studied the patterns across Eli’s skin. “Some of this looks like sigil fragments. Not our witch sigils. Something olderor not human.”
Sahara knelt to examine the boy’s arm. “That symbol there,” she said, pointing to a jagged spiral near his wrist. “I saw it on a scroll once and again carved into a stone wall near an ancient desert site. A warning. Something about a ‘threshold that could not be crossed.’”
Victoria’s face paled. “The ancient Egyptians may have come from an alien race. Do you think it could be written intheirlanguage?”
Bubbles floated lower, his voice a melodic echo. “He borrowed eyes. Borrowed ears. But he cannot borrowintent.”
Everyone turned to stare at the fish.
Bubbles blinked. “Also, we’re out of gummies. Just saying.”
Rayna didn’t blink. “Back to the part where he can’t borrow intent. What does that mean?”
“He can look like a friend,” Bubbles replied. “But he’s still justwearingthat shape. Like pants. He doesn’t understand what it means tobe.”
Joell looked at Eli. “These markings... Are they instructions? A message for someone? Are youreal?”
Eli was quiet for a long time. The wind had dropped away again. The trees seemed to be listening. Then, softly, he said, “They’re a map. For him. The mimic. I think they tell him what he’s supposed to do. I think I’m real, buthe isn’t.”
The clearing seemed to hold its breath.
Rayna stood abruptly. “Okay. New plan. No more low-key circle chanting. Let’s break out the big protection wards.”
