Page 14 of Fool Me Twice

Roma winces. Just like neophyte demons are new to this dimension, neophytehuntersare new to the Sanctum‍—former civilians without any hunting blood in them. They exist at thebottom of the social hierarchy, even below mixed-breed hunters, and as far as Roma is aware, there are only two of them in the entire world: Julian Jackson and Chester Locke.

Or just Chester, now that JJ defected. “Honestly, I don’t even think a purebred would stand a chance. With everything that wants to kill us outside these walls, challenging the system that keeps us safeinsideof them is playing with fire.”

“But we both know it’s wrong.” Chester’s eyes flicker up to meet hers. “Right? The bloodlines hierarchy, the obsession with purity, the carefully arranged marriages to keep certain families in power…” He grimaces. “The systemic discrimination against mixed hunters.”

Roma’s stomach roils. “The system exists for a reason,” she says shortly, “and keep your voice down.”

For a long moment, Chester is quiet. Roma turns away, retreating to the nearest bookshelf. Calling this cramped room a “library” almost feels like an exaggeration‍—with only three shelves pressed against the walls and a single lightbulb hanging over a dusty table, it feels more like a large walk-in closet than anything else‍—but she knows how much power these books hold.

And that’s exactly why she’s here. While Chester and Bryantareopening the mega-rifts with a surprising level of success, they’re usually exhausted afterward, and Roma doesn’t want to risk either of them making mistakes in their actual jobs‍—Chester in his interrogating, Bryant on her strike team assignments.

Not that Strike Team Kappa has been sent on many missions since JJ left them. But that’s another matter entirely.

In any case, there are multiple spells that can open a rift to Tamaros. She just has to find one that’ll be less physically taxing for her co-conspirators, and with the abundance of spell books on these shelves, she’s sure to discover at least a few. Shetrails her fingers over the embossed leather spines, pulls a few promising options into her arms‍?—

Chester’s soft voice stops her cold. “Did you ever think that might’ve been why Sawyer and Naomi left?”

All the blood rushes from Roma’s head at once. Slowly, she turns to face him. “Excuse me?”

“The bloodlines system. The rigid hierarchy keeping them at different levels.” Chester hesitates. “The fact that not even purebred Sawyer could change anything.”

“Why would that bother them?” Roma’s voice comes out harder than she intended. “They were born into this life, just like me and Bryant.”

“Well, they‍—‍” Chester’s shoulders hunch uneasily. “Did you ever get the vibe that they were… you know. A couple? For those last few weeks, at least?”

Roma’s hands are trembling the slightest bit. She clenches them around her stack of spell books to hide it.

Did she ever think Naomi and Sawyer were acouple?The very idea is laughable. Besides the fact that they barely even interacted until a month or so before Strike Team Kappa’s final exam, Naomi hated Sawyer.

Well. Maybe “hate” is a strong word. At the very least, Naomi always complained to Roma about how “perfect purebred princess” Sawyer could saunter effortlessly into promotions and special assignments while Naomi had to fight tooth and nail for everything she got.

The most notable assignment, of course, being JJ and Chester themselves. After the Jackson–Locke murders, Sawyer was given the unprecedented task of training the two ten-year-old survivors to be hunters. Roma remembers Naomi seething that Sawyer only got the job because her grandfather is president of the Council‍—although Roma thinks Naomi might’ve beensecretly relieved once she saw how JJ and Chester’s low status rattled Sawyer’s formerly unshakeable position.

Eventually, though, Naomi got half of her wish: JJ was assigned to join Roma and Bryant’s strike team, and Naomi was put in charge of training them for external operations. She and Sawyer frequently clashed over JJ’s education‍—although, to be fair, Sawyer fought with Adrian Nostrand about Chester’s interrogation lessons, too.

For the last few weeks before they defected, though? When they were forced to work together to prepare Strike Team Kappa for their final exam? Roma bites back a scowl. Sure, she noticed that Naomi and Sawyer were arguing marginally less. Naomi didn’t complain about the purebred quite as much, either. And theydidspend a lot of time away from the Sanctum together, presumably plotting their traitorous exit.

But even during those last few weeks…

“Naomi wasn’t reckless enough to flirt with a purebred,” Roma says curtly. “And it would’ve been social suicide for Sawyer. Neither of them was that stupid.”

“And yet.” Chester raises his eyebrows. “If nothing else, they defected together. That requires a certain level of camaraderie and trust‍—two things that the Sanctum has never really encouraged between purebreds and mixed breeds. If they wanted to be together but knew the Council wouldn’t allow it, then‍?—‍”

“No offense, Locke,” Roma cuts in, “but I’d really prefer not to talk about this.”

Immediately, Chester’s face flushes. “Right. Sorry. I just‍—I’ve been thinking about them a lot since JJ left,” he says, and he strides towards her, gesturing towards her armful of spell books. “Here, let me take those to the table for you.”

Roma instinctively hugs them tighter to her chest. “I’ve got them.”

Chester’s flinch is almost imperceptible, but Roma still notices. Silently, she curses herself for not accepting the olive branch. “But, um,” she says, and she nods awkwardly towards the opposite bookshelf. “Do you want to check that side for any relevant books? Preferably ones with English titles?”

Relief flashes across Chester’s face. “On it,” he says, and he jogs across the room.

Between the two of them, they end up piling nearly two dozen spell books on the old table. Roma quickly identifies the most promising seven and searches for their respective rift-opening spells, skimming over the lines of spindly handwriting.

But it doesn’t take her long to run into a problem: no counterspells. While the Written Magic Standardization Act of 1446 required all spell books to include written counterspells, these particular books were clearly compiled before then.

That isn’t a dealbreaker, of course. While it’s generally inadvisable to cast a spell without knowing its counterspell, there are precautions Roma can take and analyses she can perform to find a passable reversal. And since these are just rift-opening spells, the risks would be comparatively low.

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