Page 115 of Fool Me Twice

And Roma suspected who the Council was going to choose to lead the mission in her stead, but that doesn’t make it any less of a blow when a familiar figure steps out of the passenger side. Shakily, Roma nods at her. “Hey, Bry.”

Bryant strides across the road to stand right at the bottom of the driveway, staring back at Roma with a perfectly blank expression. She doesn’t smile. “Please tell me you have Jackson tied up inside that house. Preferably Chin and the kid, too.”

Roma shakes her head. The rest of the hunters are streaming out of their vehicles now, arranging themselves around Bryant to cut off every escape route. At a glance, Roma counts seventeen hunters from six separate strike teams, and she knows there are probably more settling into position around the back of the house. “You knew I wouldn’t.”

Bryant’s face crumples the slightest bit before smoothing back into its hard mask. “Damn it, Roma, what are youdoing?Don’t tell me you defected. Not you. Not after‍—not after everythingwe’ve been through together.”

Roma’s heart hurts. Much as she knows that siding with Ez and JJ and Naomi is the right thing to do, much as she doesn’t have any doubts about abandoning the Sanctum to protect them‍?—

Her only regret, she thinks, is leaving Bryant and Chester behind. “I’m sorry,” she says softly. “But there’s a lot going on here that you don’t understand, Bryant.”

Bryant spreads her arms out wide, frustrated. “Thenexplain itto me! What happened to you? Is one of the demons blackmailing you? IsJacksonblackmailing you?”

“Of course not,” Roma says, and she squares her shoulders, meeting Bryant’s eyes. “And the only crime JJ ever committed was loving Cass and their daughter. That’s not a reason for him to be targeted, Nehemiah. That’s not a reason for him to bekilled.”

Bryant’s hands twitch into fists. “And what about you, Gutierrez? Did one of the demons get inyourhead, too?”

For a split second, Roma considers whether to answer honestly.

Did one of the demons get in her head? Yes. Actually, one of the demons has been living rent-free in Roma’s head for a while now. She slipped past Roma’s defenses without Roma even realizing she was there, stood by Roma whenever their path got rocky, treated Roma as an equal whenever they worked together‍?—

Never made Roma feel broken or inferior. Not like the Sanctum always did.

But there’s no reason for Bryant to know that. Cass and Desi are being targeted mostly because of their connection to JJ, and Roma isn’t about to put Ez in that same danger. “Nope,”she says. “I just found something that mattered more than maintaining the status quo. And this? This is it.”

“Nehemiah,” one of the other hunters‍—Hawthorne, Roma thinks‍—says quietly. “Our people in the back can’t detect any movement from inside the house.”

Bryant’s eyes narrow. “How long ago did they leave, Roma?”

Roma’s heart stutters. As casually as possible, she checks her phone. Only twenty-two minutes in. “Twenty-seven minutes and forty-two seconds ago,” she lies, and she makes it a point to casually stretch her arms above her head. “So my job here is pretty much done. Do you still wanna fight? Or should we just call this one a draw?”

Bryant’s eyes flicker. “You know,” she says, “you’ve always been a terrible liar.”

Roma’s heart jumps into her throat. “What?”

“Move in,” Bryant orders, and adrenaline spikes through Roma’s veins. “We’re still within our time frame to reopen the demons’ rifts. Get past Gutierrez and into the house. If possible, take her alive; if not‍—‍” She cuts herself off, jaw tightening. “Just‍—just try to take her alive.”

Damn it.Roma snatches her throwing knives out of their gap in spacetime, dropping into her fight stance. “Last chance to walk away.”

Bryant scoffs. “Like your aim is even good enough to‍?—‍”

Abruptly, a ripple of purple-gold dances through the air next to Roma. Startled, she scrambles away, nearly fumbling her knives as she gapes at the rift.

And when Esmeralda Laguerre steps out of it, glancing around imperiously, Roma feels like she can finally breathe again. “Well,” Ez says, crossing her arms over her chest. “This is cozy.”

Roma’s heart twirls behind her ribcage, light and buoyant after the heaviness of the past few weeks. “You came back,” she says stupidly.

Ez’s eyes flicker over to her, dark and fathomless. “This doesn’t mean that I trust you again.”

A little bit of Roma’s happiness wavers. “Duly noted,” she says haltingly.

“But itdoesmean that I want you to survive long enough for us to try again,” Ez says, and she wrinkles her nose at the strike force in front of them. “Oof. Bryant Nehemiah? You’re down a full strike team, girl. Might want to head on back to the Sanctum and let them know.”

Confidence surges through Roma. Despite their issues, despite the threat, despite the fact that it’s two of them versus dozens of hunters‍?—

Despite everything, Ez is still standing here beside Roma. As long as they have each other, they can take on the world. “Yeah, you can consider this my official resignation from the Sanctum,” she says, nodding at Bryant. “Do me a favor and let Nasir know. I’m sure she’ll be glad to have both Gutierrez sisters off of her hands.”

Bryant’s eyes darken. “Hawthorne, Massimo, you’re on Roma,” she orders, and next to Roma, Ez tenses visibly. “Yu, Amani, get into the house and start tracking those rifts. Everyone else, we take the demon.”

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