Then she vanished.
Just gone.
No smoke. No sparkles. No dramatic thunder.
One second there. The next second, empty air.
Brianna sat frozen at the kitchen table for nearly a full minute before grabbing her phone with shaking hands, and texted.
BRIANNA: She came back. But she’s gone now.
DEVON: ARE YOU ALIVE?
BRIANNA: Shaken, but alive.
FREYA: Do you need us to come over?
BRIANNA: It can wait.
DEVON: What did she want?”
BRIANNA: She offered me a job and warned me about a lie detector chair.
FREYA: What?
BRIANNA: It’s okay. Everything makes sense now.
FREYA: If you say so.
Brianna stared at the brass key still sitting on the table. Outside, snow continued falling softly. Inside, for the first time in her life, the strange things happening around her suddenly felt less random. And, without the proper training, far more dangerous.
Author’s note
Don’t worry,dear readers, I won’t leave you hanging! That’s why I combined this book with the next and included the next pagan holiday called Imbolc. It’s halfway between Yule (the Winter solstice) and Ostara (The spring equinox).
Enjoy the rest of Brianna’s recruitment into the League of Amazing Witches!
THE LONELY WICCANS’ YULE
PART 2: EMAILS FROM THE FUTURE
FOREWORD
In the woods on Long Island, where the property taxes were obscene, and the neighbors had gardeners sign NDAs just to mow their lawns, a clandestine organization known as the L.A.W. quietly kept reality from unraveling. The League of Amazing Witches handled what conventional law enforcement couldn’t, wouldn’t, or flat-out refused to believe existed. If it bent physics, laughed at logic, or tried to eat Manhattan, the L.A.W. stepped in.
Brianna Suretti arrived early. Not because she was punctual, but because she was nervous and wanted to do some covert scouting.With time to burn before reporting in, she wandered the grounds surrounding the mansion that served as L.A.W. headquarters. The woods smelled of pine and damp earth, peaceful in a way that felt curated. She stopped short when she reached the inground pool.
“Uncovered and full, in winter?” she muttered. “Bold choice.”
She crouched, touched the water, and immediately withdrew her fingers. Ice-cold. “Hopefully, they aren't all maniacs insisting on a good cold plunge every morning before coffee.”
She fished out a floating leaf and turned it over, admiring the delicate veins while sunlight filtered through the trees and fractured across the tiles like nature was creating its own mosaic. This setting was beautiful. Serene. Definitely hiding something.
Eventually, procrastination ran out of road, so she returned to the driveway. The mansion’s double front doors loomed ahead, and before she could knock or talk herself into a dramatic retreat, the doors opened on their own.
“Right,” Brianna muttered. “Of course, they just did that.”
Bas Evergreen stood waiting in the center of a two-story foyer that radiated money, power, and absolutely no IKEA furniture. A massive oriental rug anchored the space beneath a chandelier large enough to require its own zip code. Bas herself stood regal and still.Her emerald eyes were sharp enough to make Brianna feel politely dissected.
