Page 114 of Autumn L.A.W

It wasn’t one spell. It was a storm of storms.

Fire. Ice. Shards of something that looked like broken glass and felt like knives. The air itself was twisting, bending, trying to fold them in half.

The witches moved as one.

Barrier cast. Counter-offensive. Advance.

Again and again, and again

Every time the sorceress paused, just a fraction, someone fired back. But she was slippery.

One second there—the next gone. A flicker. A ripple.

Then she’d reappear three feet to the left, smiling like she was enjoying this way too much.

The sun beat down, turning the battlefield into an oven. Sweat stung Duke’s eyes. His pulse hammered in his ears. And still the witches pushed forward.

Suddenly, “Behind us!” Joell shouted.

Too late. The dead had stirred. They rose as one. The zombies’ swords lifted, then launched forward in a screaming wave of steel—straight at the witches’ backs.

Joell spun, both hands up. Sahara added her shield to the mix. Two shields snapped into place, catching all the blades with a violent impact.

Joell gritted her teeth. “Little help would be fantastic!”

“On it! Duck!” Crystal fired a rocket launcher over their shoulders, blasting the dead bodies into pieces. Meanwhile, Duke, Brianna, Magda, and Rayna kept up the shields in front of them.

The sorceress tilted her head. Then her voice slipped into their minds. She whispered doubts. Pressed at cracks.

“Don’t listen,” Duke yelled.

Victoria’s voice cut through. “Stay locked.”

They held. Together.

The sorceress’s smile slipped. “Fine,” she said through clenched teeth.

Power exploded outward.

The witches were thrown back.

Then… “Get up!” Joell barked. “Attack!”

They surged forward together. No finesse now. Just force.

Magic slammed into magic.

And this time, the sorceress fell.

Silence. The witches surrounded her. She looked to be unconscious.

“Wait a minute…” Crystal said. “Do you remember how the Sea Witch promised ‘the dead shall rise’?”

Several of the witches nodded or murmured their assent.

“It makes sense that it would happen now… right around Samhain. That’s when the veil between the worlds is thinnest.”

“Yeah, and ‘The moon is hungry.’” Lioness quoted. “What the heck did that mean?”