Page 31 of Fool Me Twice

Chester looks fascinated. “Sounds solid. Can I help?”

“Hm…” Roma eyes her spell books. “Not this time. I learned nuance analysis in one of my advanced spellcasting classes, and you never took those.” She winces. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have dragged you down here with me. You can‍?—‍”

“No, this is fine,” Chester says, and to Roma’s surprise, he pushes himself to his feet, strolls over to a shelf, and grabs a spell book like he’s already familiar with it. “I’ve been doing some reading in here lately, anyway.”

Intrigued, Roma leans forward to peer at the book. The title itself is nearly illegible, dull and faded from centuries of use, but when Chester flips it open, Roma sees a few familiar words. “Isn’t that… demon magic?”

“Yep,” Chester says, and he turns it around so she can see better. “Remember how I told you that I’ve been researching the demon gods? Well, I exhausted most of our resources in the main library, so I decided to do a deep dive down here, instead.” He grins. “And I hit the jackpot. Demon magic has different bases, just like human magic, and they invoke the gods’ names in almost all of them‍—mainly Nostringvadha, but there are hints of The Fourteen as a unit, too. That means I can pick up a lot of information just from context clues.”

Slowly, Roma nods. “Impressive.”

Chester ducks his head, embarrassed. “Thanks. I just have some questions about the demon gods that no one seems to be able to answer, you know?” His jaw twitches. “Especially about Nostringvadha. The fact that we as hunters are ignoring that there’s a demongodon Earth just seems reckless to me.”

Huh. Roma never really thought about it like that. After all, Nostringvadha has stayed hidden for so many millennia that he never even crossed Roma’s mind as a threat. “I think you missed your calling as a Nostringvadha scholar.”

“I wish. From what I’ve read, they’re mostly based in Canadian Sanctums, not U.S. ones.” He smiles mirthlessly. “But that’s okay. I pick up plenty of intel from my interrogation shifts, too. How about you tell me if you find any interesting rift-opening spells, and I’ll tell you if I find any fun facts about Nostringvadha?”

“Deal,” Roma says, and they bump fists across the table before falling into companionable silence, absorbed in their respective spell books.

Roma scribbles quick notes in the pad she brought, frowning at the page in front of her. Checking spells for shared nuances is hypothetically a simple task‍—it mostly involves matching words, phrases, syllables, intonations, and other syntactical aspects of the incantation‍—but there’s a lot of room for error. Roma got the best marks in her class on their nuance analysis exam, and even she only got an eighty-two.

And, importantly, this is the first time she’s ever tried it with a pre-WMSA spell. Hell, it’s the first time she’s even consideredusinga pre-WMSA spell. Magic didn’t change dramatically in 1446, but her instructors always warned her to leave older spells to only the most advanced spellcasters.

But what if you’re wrong?

Naomi always told her to avoid them, too. Roma scowls at the thought, deciding to scrap this rift-opening spell when it’s clear that most of its nuances don’t match their current one. Obviously, she isn’t the best spellcaster the world has ever seen, but she’s definitely one of the best in Redwater‍—maybe even in the state. With sufficient preparation, she thinks she can handle a pre-WMSA spell.

Especially since she won’t be the only one looking it over. She’s planning to ask Nasir for feedback on the new spell‍—including her nuance analysis‍—in her next weekly report, and hopefully, the councilwoman will commission a few other advanced spellcasters to triple-check Roma’s work.

Roma would never risk giving Chester and Bryant a spell that could hurt them.

Her next three spell options are resounding negatives‍—there are certain magic bases that shecan’tuse, just because her Sanctum enchantments interact with them‍—but her eyebrowscreep upward as she works through one fromThe Magic-Weaver’s Companion.Even though it’s fairly different from their current rift-opening spell on a surface level, the nuances and deeper principles are nearly identical. More importantly, it relies on a magic base that’ll be less taxing for Chester and Bryant, and‍?—

Abruptly, there’s a strangled shout from the hallway. Chester rockets to his feet a split second before Roma does, an escrima stick already in his hand. “The hell?” he asks sharply, jogging towards the door.

Hastily, Roma summons her ax from its gap in spacetime and scrambles to follow him. “That sounded human.”

Chester’s eyes are dark. “I’ve already dealt withfartoo many jailbreaks down here lately,” he says, and before Roma can react, he wrenches open the door and disappears into the hall.

Roma’s stomach drops.“Locke!”she hisses, following him out and checking his blind spots. Damn it, Chester means well, but he doesn’t have a strike team operative’s instincts‍—and, above all, it’s only two of them against an unknown threat. “We need to sound the alarm.”

“Already did,” Chester says, and he taps the back of his neck. “Interrogators are all patched into an alarm spell network. The others should be shutting this place down as we speak.” He checks both directions, his frown deepening. “Which way did that shout even come from?”

“I don’t know. I‍?—‍”

What are we going to do about the neophyte in the prison?

Don’t worry about it. You just keep your head down and be a good little lackey.

Roma’s blood runs cold. Ajailbreak?Was Ez implying that she was going to spearhead ajailbreak?Is this going to be like the Cassius Chin incident all over again?

More importantly, is JJ going to be here?

No time to wonder about that now. Guilt twisting through her, Roma points down the hallway, towards the cell that houses the neophyte demon from midtown. “Maybe that way?”

Chester falls into step next to her without question, the two of them creeping down the hallway side by side. Roma’s heart drops when she sees thatmultiplecell doors are open, not just the neophyte’s, and‍?—

A blur of bloodred shoots past Roma. Her ax swing is far too slow to hit the demon before it tackles Chester to the floor, knocking him out cold and making his escrima stick clatter down the hall.

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