Page 23 of Fool Me Twice

“Hey.” Bryant squints at her. “You good? I called your name, like, three times.”

“Yes,” Roma says quickly. “Just, uh. Just got lost in thought. What’s up?”

“The Council is sending Kappa out on a job,” she says, and she motions for Roma to follow her. “Come on. I’ll give you the details on the way.”

The words jolt through Roma. Hastily, she grabs her workout bag and breaks into a jog to catch up. “Just Kappa? But they haven’t sent our strike team out alone since‍—‍”Since JJ defected.She bites back the words. “Are they giving us a third operative?”

Bryant shakes her head. “Nah, they figure we can handle it on our own. I think we can, too.”

A tendril of apprehension creeps down Roma’s spine. “But we always had Jackson as backup,” she says cautiously.

Bryant’s jaw twitches. “Well, we don’t anymore,” she says shortly, shouldering her way through the Sanctum’s imposing double doors. “And we already have you as our close-quarters fighter. Jackson was kind of superfluous, anyway.”

Roma stifles her instinctive argument. Yes, she and JJ were both used to close combat, and yes, they fulfilled some similar functions on the team, but‍?—

But their skill sets weren’t identical. JJ was undeniably their best combatant, almost always taking point during their missions, and Roma knew she could lean on him when she needed to fall back and focus on spellcasting‍—or reevaluate their strategy altogether.

And, above all, JJ would always put himself between Roma and an attacker, no matter the cost to himself. The thought makes her chest hurt. “All right,” she says eventually. “Is it a summoner?”

“As usual,” Bryant confirms. “The site is about forty minutes from town. We should hopefully be back by tomorrow with the summoner dead and the neophyte demon in tow. I’ll drive, you plan?”

Normally, Roma would have JJ as her sounding board for their battle plans. She forces down the memories. “Sure. Just let me take a shower and grab my overnight bag. Meet you in the garage in an hour?”

“Sounds good,” Bryant says, and she claps Roma on the shoulder before jogging down the hallway.

Roma waits until Bryant disappears around the corner before letting her shoulders slump. Fighting back a grimace, she adjusts her grip on her workout bag, turns in the direction of the staircase to the third floor, and trudges forward.

Having a strike team with only two people isn’t unprecedented. There have been plenty of times when Roma, Bryant, or JJ got injured during a mission, forcing the remaining members of Kappa to finish the job without them. It entails extra risk, but it’s certainly doable.

But that’s not what bothers Roma. Whatbothersher is how utterly dismissive Bryant seemed. If the Council told Roma that she and Bryant were being sent out alone, Roma would’ve requested another operative, even if it was a simple mission. Better to be overprepared than underprepared, after all.

Instead, though, Bryant just… accepted it. Immediately agreed and moved on, like she wanted to prove that they don’t need that third person‍—that theyneverneeded that third person.

But that’s just how Bryant handles loss: by convincing herself she never cared in the first place. She did it with Naomi and Sawyer six years ago, and she’s doing it again with JJ now.

Roma wishes she could turn off her memories that easily. Letting out a slow breath, she walks down the hall to her bedroom, battles the lock into submission, and shoulders her way inside, glancing around.

Neatly made bed, obsessively organized closet, and old desk‍—the one her parents gave her when they left on their first of many long-term assignments overseas. Home sweet home. Roma starts undoing her boxing wraps as she strides towards the closet, mentally calculating the clothes and weapons she’ll need. Enough to last her an extra day if complications arise,but not enough to weigh her down if they need to hike to the location.

Especially now that they’re regularly bringing neophyte demons back for testing instead of killing them. Incapacitating one of them is hard enough, to say nothing of transporting them to the Sanctum’s prison. They’ll have to work quickly to avoid running into any Chain operatives, and‍?—

Roma stops dead, one of her wraps dropping out of her numb fingers.

The Chain took custody of those three neophytes from the Lakeside summoning, but that didn’t seem to matter‍—they still ended up in the Sanctum’s prison. And Roma doesn’t audit other strike teams‍—that’s a different job description altogether‍—so she has no idea if this is the first time that’s happened.

Hasthis happened before? Have there been other neophyte demons under the Chain’s protection that still ended up in the Sanctum’s custody?

How much does it really matter who gets there first?

The thoughts feel dangerous in Roma’s head. Heretical.Treasonous.

More fitting for the likes of Naomi and her purebred maybe-girlfriend than the last loyal Gutierrez daughter. Swallowing hard, Roma grabs a haphazard pile of clothes, shoves them into her go bag, and swings the strap over her shoulder, compulsively double-checking the door’s lock before heading towards the showers.

Today, she’s going to do her job as a Sanctum hunter. She’s going to fight tooth and nail to take down this summoner and bring the neophyte back for testing, just like always. With Bryant beside her, it’s not like she can do anything different.

But what about the next time Roma has to close a mega-rift with Ezaftera demon comes through? What about then?If Roma had to fight Ez for custody of a neophyte, what would happen if Roma just… lost? Just to test her theory?

It would be disgraceful, of course. The Council would be scathing, and Bryant and Chester would be disappointed. But no one could really suspect her‍—or punish her‍—for being bested by one of the East Coast’s most powerful demons.

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