Page 34 of Fool Me Twice

The words jolt through Ez.“Twelve years?”she repeats, aghast. “Someone from the Chain has been forging your signature forover a decade?”

Gregorio’s laugh is bitter. “Oh, they’ve been doing alotworse than that.”

“Although we didn’t know about neophytes being smuggled to the Sanctum until you told me about it,” Micah adds, nodding at Ez. “That actually solved a huge mystery for us, but beyond that, we were looking into… other matters.”

Ez grits her teeth. “Micah. Gregorio.Whatother matters?”

Gregorio’s eyes narrow. “This hunter you’re seeing. Roma Gutierrez, right?”

Ez’s hackles rise. “Don’t make it sound like we’re dating. If anything, we’re in a fraught situationship.”

“Uh-huh,” Gregorio says. “Listen, there are a lot of things about the Sanctum and the Chain that you don’t understand‍—a lot of things that almost no one understands. It’s not just isolated corruption. It’s‍?—‍”

Abruptly, Micah grabs Gregorio’s forearm and squeezes hard. “Don’t.”

Ez turns her glare on Micah. “Excuseyou?”

Micah glares straight back at her. Considering his usual friendly nature, it’s almost frightening. “We have sources to protect, Laguerre. We can’t compromise them‍—not now, not ever.”

“Really? Because you two have been doing a whole lot of compromising over the past few months,” Ez bites out. “Listen, I’m grateful that you’re helping with the Cass and JJ situation, but what none of us understand iswhy.Why did you go out of your way to help them? Why did you put yourselves at risk then‍—and apparently again now? What do the two of you have to do withanyof this?”

“In a word? Everything,” Gregorio says shortly. “But Micah is right. We can’t put our people in danger.” His eyes glint dangerously. “And we can’t letyouput them in danger, either. So understand this: if you try to go public with any of this to the Chain, we’ll throw Chin and Jackson under the bus so fast that they’ll never know what hit them.”

Ez jerks away, her stomach dropping. Micah’s eyes widen.“Gregorio.”

“No. No, Micah, I amtiredof this,” Gregorio says. “Stay in your lane, Laguerre. Micah and I will handle the conspiracy, and you can handle closing the mega-rifts. Clear?”

“Theconspiracy?”Ez repeats, feeling increasingly out of her depth. “Who said anything about aconspiracy?”

“No one,” Micah says, and before Ez can protest, he snaps his fingers, shattering Gregorio’s soundproofing spell. “Anything else we can do for you today, Esmeralda?”

His smile is tight. Gregorio isn’t making an attempt to smile at all, just glaring at Ez with the fire of someone who fought through the Roman Empire in his eyes.

Ez fights back a shiver. She jokes that Maggie Khan is the only demon who intimidates her, but she knows for a fact that Gregorio and Micah are a force to be reckoned with, too. “Nope,” she says shortly, pushing herself off the desk and stepping away. “Just keep me posted.”

“We might,” Gregorio says briskly, and he pulls out a stack of paperwork. “Have a nice day.”

Scowling, Ez stalks out of the Outpost. The instant the door closes behind her, the lock clicks shut and another soundproofing spell whips into place, and when Ez glances over her shoulder, it’s to see Micah and Gregorio already engrossed in a rapid-fire conversation, shoulders tense and expressions serious.

Yeah. Yeah, answers would be nice, but somehow, Ez thinks she’s not about to get them anytime soon. Feeling like she’s standing near the edge of a cliff with no idea how much solid ground she has left‍—or how far she’s about to drop‍—Ez lets out a slow breath, turns towards the afternoon sun, and starts her long trek towards home.

16

Two days later, Roma strides into the Courtyard around lunchtime with a singular goal: to not run into Esmeralda Laguerre.

It’s more the Council’s goal than her own, really. After her “mishap” with last week’s mega-rift, Nasir decided that Roma should prioritize closing them with demons other than Ez at least once or twice per week. Roma can’t deny that it’s a smart move‍—if Ez hears about Roma working with other demons, she’ll be less likely to suspect that Roma is up to something‍—but she admittedly isn’t enthusiastic about spellcasting with anyone besides Ez.

Not that she’senthusiasticabout spellcasting with Ez, of course. Especially not after Sunday’s prison break. Roma fights back a wince, stepping onto the line for Falafel Express. Luckily, Chester’s prediction was correct‍—none of the hunters were injured badly enough that the infirmary’s spellcasters couldn’t fix them up‍—but it still makes guilt churn through Roma that they got hurt at all.

If she hadn’t told Ez about the neophyte from midtown, then this never would’ve happened. No one would’ve gotten hurt, theprison wouldn’t be bare and empty, and the Sanctum wouldn’t be back on high alert.

It doesn’t help that this was their third jailbreak in less than six months, either. Technically, the Council signed off on the first one‍—Roma “helped” the demons rescue JJ as part of her fake defection, so the interrogators treated it as a drill‍—but the second and third were a lot more vicious.

And Chester got hurt during both of them. That’s the worst part of all for Roma. Yes, she knows that Ez is a demon; yes, she gets that they’re not actually on the same side; yes, she understands that Ez is going to look out for herself and her people before she even thinks of looking out for Roma, but‍?—

But part of Roma was almost starting to think of them more as allies than anything else. Allies in the mysterious case of the neophyte demons, at least. Even if Ezwastrying to give Roma plausible deniability for the jailbreak, the fact that she didn’t even mention it beforehand stings more than Roma expected.

So maybe it’s good for her to get a little distance from Esmeralda Laguerre‍—and, luckily, Ez is nowhere in sight. Quietly, Roma whispers a spell to check for demons in the vicinity, nodding to herself when she senses a few nearby.

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