Page 108 of Fool Me Twice

There are the records from the rental home Bryant mentioned, a cozy one-story house near Lakeside. The nextsection is the spellcasters’ notes, detailing the exact defensive spells around the property‍—and how to get past them. The pages after that are from JJ’s personnel file, and‍?—

Roma snaps the folder shut, nausea licking up her throat.

JJ may not be in that house, but she still can’t risk compromising Naomi and Sawyer‍—or anyone else Obie might be trying to protect. But she only has a few options, and right now, none of them are good.

Her first option is to lead the operation as planned. They’ll find Naomi and Sawyer in that house instead of JJ, and while the Council will be grimly enthusiastic to strap their two most infamous defectors to interrogation tables, it won’t take much for them to deduce that Roma knew about them all along. She’ll probably be branded a dissident and thrown into prison right alongside them.

Her second option is to come clean to the Council. That’ll lead to the same conclusion, obviously‍—if she knew about Naomi and Sawyer but chose not to say anything, then that’s treason. That’srebellion.

And that’s not even considering what Roma knows about the conspiracy.

What else can she do? Find a way to warn them? The phone Naomi used to text Roma is out of service, and so are Sawyer’s and JJ’s old numbers. Covertly sabotage the raid? She’d have to do itverycarefully, and even if she managed it, the Council would probably punish her severely for her “missteps”—if they didn’t see through her deception altogether. Fake an illness or injury? That would look too suspicious, and it would only buy her enough time for the infirmary’s spellcasters to heal her.

All roads lead back to the prison. All roads lead to Roma compromising herself without the Council even lifting a finger. All they have to do is let her march towards her own fate, let her seal her own sentence‍?—

Let her choose her own punishment. There’s no way out of it, not that Roma can see, unless‍?—

Unless she’s not here for the Council to punish.

The thought stops Roma cold, slipping into her veins like ice. Defection. Exactly what Naomi and Sawyer did, exactly whatJJdid.

Exactly what Roma was planning to do, back when she had Ez and JJ and all their friends by her side.

She’s known all along that defecting without a safety net would be a death sentence. But is that really so different from what’s waiting for her now? If every other option leads back to the interrogation rooms, then‍?—

Then maybe Roma’sbestchance is to run. Her only chance, really. The odds of her lasting for more than a week or so on the outside are vanishingly slim, but they’re better than the odds of her surviving whatever the Sanctum’s interrogators have in store for her.

Roma takes a deep breath. Lets it out slowly.

Pushes herself away from the wall and strides towards her bedroom, keeping her eyes fixed straight ahead.

Is the Sanctum expecting this, too? Is this the Council’srealtest of her loyalty? To either stay and be punished, or leave and be hunted? Because they know as well as Roma does that she can’t escape them forever. Forcing her to make this decision is just one more way they can place the blame squarely on her shoulders.

Roma Gutierrez, defector. Just like her sister.

This time, though, Roma doesn’t get the stab of bitterness and betrayal that she used to feel when people compared her to Naomi. Now, she feels something almost likepridecoalescing behind her sternum, steeling her resolve.

Yeah. Yeah, this must’ve been how Naomi felt right before she left. Angry and jaded and scared, but determined tosomehowsurvive.

To survive, and to make the world a better place on the other side.

Roma’s bedroom door looms large ahead of her. She ducks inside, grabs her go bag from underneath her bed, and skims over its contents.

Honestly, it’s not much. Just enough to last her a few nights during missions. She doesn’t have much to add to it, either‍—just some extra clothes and the one or two trinkets she’s picked up over the years.

Her entire life can fit into this one duffel bag. She never realized how small that felt, howlimitingthat felt, until now.

But that’s okay. She’ll be traveling alone. She won’t need much.

She can’t bring Bryant and Chester with her. No matter how much the thought makes her heart crack, she knows she can’t. In the end, she doesn’t think either of them would believe her‍—not about JJ, not about Naomi and Sawyer, not about the conspiracy.

And, even if they did, she’s not expecting to make it more than a week on the outside. She can’t ask that of them, can’t ask them to risk death for her.

She can come back for them later, but for now, they’re still safe here. Just one more way Roma takes after her sister, apparently.

Taking a deep breath, she grabs her duffel bag, casts a cloaking spell over herself, and strides out of her room without looking back. She walks through the hallways and down the staircases, detachedly realizing that this may very well be the last time she ever sees them, and slips through the double doors.

First, she has to warn Naomi and Sawyer. Once the Sanctum realizes Roma is gone, they’ll send the strike force out immediately, and she can’t let her old mentors face that alone, not when they don’t even know it’s coming. After that‍?—

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