Page 10 of Fool Me Twice

Lucia’s voice floats out from the depths of the food truck. “Two months of fake dating equals atleastone month of real dating.”

Esteban jabs a finger in his sister’s direction, triumphant. “Precisely! It’s basic mathematics!”

“Oh?” Ez says innocently, smirking at him. “And what’s the equivalent of flirting with someone without making a move forsixmonths?”

Esteban blusters indignantly. It’s only recently that Cass and JJ’s love affair usurped the “will they or won’t they?” drama of Nick from Falafel Express constantly batting his eyes at Esteban, as Ez thoroughly enjoys reminding him at every opportunity. “That’s not‍?—‍!”

Lucia appears in the window with Ez’s tacos. “It’s the equivalent of ten years off my life, is what it is,” she says flatly,and she pushes the paper carton across the counter. “Here. I gave you extra guac as compensation for the lack of fish tacos.”

“A reasonable exchange,” Ez agrees solemnly, and she waves as she steps away with her food. “Gracias por la comida.”

“Buen provecho!”

Ez strolls over to an unoccupied table to sit down, letting the usual hustle and bustle of the Courtyard move along around her. Chicken might not be her favorite variety of taco, but Lucia’s cooking is always amazing, and for a few minutes, she relaxes into the delicious lunch and the warm sun at her back, just enjoying the moment.

But not for long, though. She’s barely finished her first taco before she casts a surreptitious glance around, snaps open the pocket dimension that houses her spell books, and dives back into her current spellcasting obsession: soul bonds.

Before a few weeks ago, soul magic in general was hardly on her radar. It’s dangerous, finicky, and just plainweird,with stringent rules and bizarre side effects that can sometimes break the laws of spacetime themselves.

In one especially notable case, a spellcaster unintentionally gave himself soul damage and performed a reset spell to go back in time to a week before the accident‍—only to find that the soul damage inexplicably traveled backwithhim. It’s exactly the kind of magic that Ez loves in a theoretical sense and utterly despises in real life.

Accordingly, her soul magic résumé was depressingly short when she, Obie, and JJ broke into the Sanctum’s prison last month to find Cass’s soul in tatters. Suggesting a soul bond between him and JJ wasn’t her preferred choice‍—actually, it didn’t even make the top twenty‍—but it was clearly the only way to save Cass’s life.

Even if it snuffed out JJ’s life in the process. In the past, Ez had only performed soul bonds between participants who had aminimal chance of dying‍—namely, two humans or two demons. Never a humanwitha demon. Hypothetically, a human’s high-energy soul can lose almost three-fourths of that energy before sustaining damage, but with the age-old power inherent in a demon’s soul‍?—

Well. Usually, the demon unwittingly drains the human’s soul dry within seconds. In Cass’s weakened state, they ran the risk of his soul devouring JJ’s even faster in an effort to heal itself.

And, as Ez found out later, that’s exactly what happened. One of the unique perks of Obie’s memoryscapes is the ability to manipulate them like a physical environment, so a few days after the fact, she asked him to display his memories of the scene and ran a few diagnostic spells.

According to her calculations, Cass drained ninety-eight percent of JJ’s soul energy in approximately half a second. Ez might be the most talented spellcaster on the East Coast, but there’s no way she could’ve broken that connection in time.

In other words, JJ has no business being alive right now.

Except for the fact that Cass‍—with a little help from Desi‍—managed to somehowreversethe soul bond, pushing a piece of his soul back into JJ. Now, Cass and JJ each have half of the other’s soul, an apparently unprecedented anomaly that they’re referring to as a soul exchange. And until they find another documented case‍—anyother documented case‍—they’re going to be in the dark about that exchange’s long-term effects on Cass’s and JJ’s health and general well-being.

Hence Ez’s current obsession. But it doesn’t look like this spell book is going to tell her anything she doesn’t already know. Sighing, she starts on her second taco, letting her gaze wander around the Courtyard. It’s a Tuesday just before the usual lunch rush, but the crowd is already starting to swell: a handful of college students working on a group project near the fountain,a smattering of businesspeople grabbing an early lunch from Cachapa Castle‍?—

Ez sees a familiar figure sitting on the other end of the Courtyard and stops dead.

Roma Gutierrez. The supposedly “good” hunter who faked a defection from the Sanctum a few months ago, tricked JJ into compromising Cass’s location, and was directly responsible for Cass’s kidnapping‍—and everything that came afterward‍—is sittingrightover there, enjoying her pad thai without a care in the world.

Ez’s blood boils. She hasn’t seen Roma since that situation with the summoner last week, but the hunter has done precisely nothing to endear herself to Ez. In fact, Roma’s willingness to kidnap those scared neophytes for the Sanctum’s sadistic “testing” left Ez more ready than ever to break her neck at the earliest opportunity.

Not that she’s going to do it without provocation, of course. Not with all these potential witnesses around. And even if theywerein a genuine fight, she thinks JJ would be sad if Roma died. Much as Ez has mixed feelings about Cass’s new priorities in life, she can readily admit that JJ is like a lost puppy that follows them around. She doesn’t want to hurt the puppy.

Ez takes a vicious bite of her taco, eyes narrowed. Maybe she would settle for some light maiming. Kneecapping sounds particularly nice. The Sanctum can fix broken bones, right? Their spellcasters are at least competent enough for healing spells?

Ages upon ages‍?—

Ez’s mood sours even further. The fact that Roma’s idea to use her rift-blocking spell in tandem with Ez’s disconnecting spell actuallyworkedjust adds insult to the injury of the entire situation. She can reluctantly acknowledge that Roma seems to be a capable spellcaster‍—after all, not many people know thatdemon magic and human magic can make each other stronger‍—but in Ez’s opinion, that just makes her more of a threat.

Knowing her way around both an axanda spell book is a dangerous combination.

Still, it’s not like they’re ever going to have cause to interact again. In fact, Ez is planning on staying as far away from Roma as possible, starting right now. Scowling, she pushes herself to her feet, crumples up her to-go container, tosses it into a nearby garbage can‍?—

And is instantly hit with a familiar rush of power. Swearing, she whirls around to see the purple-gold of an interdimensional rift churning to life in the middle of the Courtyard, looming large and imperious against the backdrop of panicking civilians and cowering shopkeepers.

The only human whoisn’tpanicking or cowering, actually, is Roma, who just looks annoyed at the interruption to her lunch.

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