Page 113 of Fool Me Twice

Obie gives her a calculating glance, but thankfully, he falls into blessed silence after that, jogging twenty feet away before peeling open a new rift. Back and forth, forth and back, taking turns with the rifts, hopping between continents, tracing a dizzying pattern that only the most skilled of hunters could track‍?—

They’ve just rifted to the middle of Siberia when Ez’s cell phone rings. Frowning, she tugs it out, sees Cass’s name on the screen, and taps into the call. “You good, Cass?” she asks, putting the phone on speaker.

Cass’s voice is staticky with bad reception. “Yeah, we’re good.”

“Hi, Auntie Ez!” Desi chirps.

“Hi, sweetie. You guys want to meet up with us? We’re in Siberia.”

Cass scoffs.“Siberia?With the polar bears? No, thank you. How about you join us in Normandy?”

Obie’s eyebrows shoot up.“Normandy?Not for nothing, Cass, but none of us have great memories from that place.”

“Hi, Uncle Obie!”

“Hi, pumpkin.”

“But JJ has never been here,” Cass argues. “I’m trying to educate him. We’re in the town square in Sainte-Mère-Église, right by the church. You coming?”

Ez raises her eyebrows at Obie.

Obie shrugs back.

“Yeah,” Ez says, and she snaps open an invisible rift. “Yeah, we’re coming.”

When she and Obie step into the quiet courtyard, it’s to find Cass, JJ, and Desi waiting for them at a picnic table with a clear view of the town church‍—complete with a dummy paratrooper hanging from the spire, commemorating the actual paratrooper who got tangled there during D-Day.

It’s one of JJ’s favorite stories. Ez thinks Roma would’ve liked it, too.

Just one more thing Ez is never going to get the chance to tell her.

Oblivious to Ez’s inner turmoil, Obie strolls over to the table. “You like the church, JJ?”

“I love the church,” he says, and his eyes flicker to Ez. “You good, Ez?”

Ez grits her teeth. “I’mfine.Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“Well, I’m not,” JJ says bluntly, and before Ez can react, he turns back to Cass. “We have to go back. Roma needs our help‍—she won’t survive facing the Sanctum’s strike force alone, and‍?—‍”

“No,”Cass snaps, and suddenly, Ez realizes that they’ve probably been having this argument since the moment they left Redwater. “Roma knew this was going to be her last stand. She knew what she was getting herself into. She‍?—‍”

“Yeah, and she did it forus!”JJ hisses. “If she dies, that’s onus!”

“No, it’s not,” Obie says evenly, and JJ turns his glare on him. “She made her choices. It was her decision to defect, her decision to warn us, her decision to stay behind. That’s not our responsibility.”

And, even though the words are an echo of what Ez just told Obie, her stomach twists with them anyway. “But she made those decisionsforus,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest. “To save us.”

“Yeah, and how wouldyoufeel if you made a sacrifice to keep the people you love safe, and those same people went right ahead and put themselves in danger for you anyway?” Cass bites out. “Wouldn’t that just feel like a slap in the face?”

Ez opens her mouth to respond.

“No, not at all.”

Ez stops dead. So does Cass. Slowly, they turn to face JJ, who’s meeting Cass’s gaze head-on. “JJ,” Cass begins, his voice wavering, “I didn’t‍?—‍”

JJ cuts him off. “That’s exactly what I did back in February, remember? When the Sanctum cornered us, I stayed behind to give you and Desi time to escape. And I never regretted that decision, not even when the interrogators had me. As long as I knew you two were safe, I was okay. But…” His smile looks watery. “But when the door to my cell opened and you were the one on the other side, I‍—I was so happy, Cass. Because I loved you, even then. Even though I didn’t know how to admit it to myself yet. And if I was going to die at your side, it would’ve been worth every second I got to spend with you.”

Ez’s heartbeat feels almost painful in her chest. She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes.

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