Read file lines into list

How come $VARS doesn't contain ('testing', 'second') in the following example:

~ ❯❯❯ /bin/cat ttestingsecond~ ❯❯❯ /bin/cat t | read -L -a VARS~ ❯❯❯ echo $VARStesting~ ❯❯❯

I thought that -L is supposed to split on lines and then -a stores into a list. fish seems to stop after the first line, however.