Page 35 of Fool Me Twice

They might not be as talented as Ez, but they should be able to help her close a mega-rift easily enough.

The customer ahead of Roma moves to one side to wait for his food. She steps up to the window in his place, waving at Falafel Nick behind the counter. “Hi,” she says, fishing a ten-dollar bill out of her pocket. “Can I have an order of hummus fries, please?”

“Hm…” Nick leans across the counter, giving her a calculating look. “Actually, I don’t think you want hummus fries. I think you want falafel nachos.”

Roma blinks back at him, nonplussed. Truthfully, shewasin the mood for hummus fries, but… “Falafel nachos?”

“Exactly!” Nick says cheerfully, and he makes an incomprehensible gesture at Andrew that Roma can only assume is interpreted as “one plate of falafel nachos, stat!” “They’re our newest menu item, and Andrew spentagesperfecting them. A plate of golden-brown pita wedges topped with our specialty falafel, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers‍?—‍”

“Dude, what are you doing?” Jacob complains. “You’re not supposed to give people the recipe!”

“‍—‍feta cheese, tzatziki sauce, andloooove!”Nick finishes, and he shoots Jacob a scowl. “I have to tell her the ingredients, man! What if she’s allergic to cucumbers?”

“Name me one person in the entire history of humankind with a cucumber allergy.”

“It could happen! I once knew a guy who was allergic to bananas! And speaking of which…” Nick peers at a point over Roma’s shoulder, grins, and shucks off his apron. “Now that there’s no line, I’m heading over to Tacos Near Me to grab a burrito for lunch.”

“Liar,” Jacob says. “You just want to flirt with Esteban without being interrupted.”

“Oh, I would climb that man like a tree,” Nick confirms solemnly. “But the pull of Lucia’s burritos cannot be overstated.”

“Also, what do bananas have to do with‍—you know what? Never mind,” Jacob says. “I really don’t want you to answer that in front of a customer.”

“A wise decision.” And, with a wink at Roma and a wave at his coworkers, Nick ducks out the back door of the food truck and saunters towards Tacos Near Me.

Roma frowns after him. “I worry for Esteban.”

“Same,” Andrew says seriously, and he pushes Roma’s tray across the counter. “If you like them, tell your friends. If you don’t like them, lie and say that you did.”

“You can tell your enemies, too,” Jacob adds. “We’re not picky.”

“I’ll, uh. I’ll bear that in mind,” Roma says, and she waves awkwardly as she grabs her tray and heads to a nearby table, glancing around.

Still no Esmeralda Laguerre in sight. Perfect. Satisfied, Roma grabs a wedge of baked pita, loads it up with falafel and toppings, settles in to take her first bite‍?—

A mega-rift crackles to life before she can. “Seriously?” she groans, glaring down at her food.“Seriously?”

The falafel nachos don’t answer. Neither do the myriad civilians who scramble underneath tables or behind food trucks for cover. And neither do Bryant and Chester, who‍—although she can’t quite pick them out of the crowd‍—she knows are hidden by cloaking spells and maintaining the rift right now.

Much as Roma deeply appreciates their help, she’d appreciate it even more if they’d just let her finish a meal for once. Sighing, she shoves herself back to her feet, turns towards the mega-rift‍?—

And nearly trips with surprise when she sees none other than Ez already jogging towards it. Hurriedly, Roma hustles to catch up with her. “When did you get here?” she demands, slowing to a stop next to the rift.

“Been here the whole time,” Ez says briskly, and she shifts into her spellcasting stance. “Ready?”

It’s the first rift they’ve closed together since that night on the corner of East and Mayfair. Roma tries not to examine too closely why she feels pleased about that. “One, two, three‍?—‍”

They jump into their rift-closing spells with practiced ease, their week and a half apart doing nothing to compromise their synchronized spellcasting. Roma still has Bryant and Chester using the old rift-opening spell‍—they won’t get Councilwoman Nasir’s official approval for theMagic-Weaver’sone for anotherfew days‍—so she’s grateful that she and Ez finish their incantations quickly, not taxing her friends too much.

“‍—‍close what once was opened!”

“‍—‍command you to close!”

The mega-rift shudders, teeters, and crumples in on itself without further ado. Almost immediately, the civilians who dove for cover start wandering back out, looking overwhelmingly unconcerned by their brush with the supernatural.

Then again, Bryant and Chester‍—along with a few other mixed-breed hunters‍—have been opening mega-rifts in various parts of Redwater for weeks now. The locals were bound to get used to them eventually.

“Well, that’s a wrap,” Ez says, and she narrows her eyes at Roma’s picnic table. “Are those the falafel nachos that Nick keeps pestering me to try?”

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