Page 39 of Fool Me Twice

The fault ultimately lies with Roma, but the fact that Nasir bears partial responsibility is probably what’s kept Roma from being thrown in a prison cell. Honestly, she’s shocked that the Council hasn’t called off her mission entirely. Either they recognize that Roma’s working relationship with Ez will be a good stopgap measure to keep the epidemic at bay until they find a permanent solution, or‍?—

Or the Council wants JJ back more badly than Roma expected. She’s trying not to think too hard about that possibility, though.

“But this can’t go on forever, right?” Chester asks, a hint of fear snaking into his voice. “Even if the mega-rifts are opening like crazy right now, there has to be some kind of limiting factor.”

Bryant looks skeptical. “I guess. It’s only been a day, and that’s not nearly enough time to draw any solid conclusions. But I‍—I don’t like this at all.” Her eyes cut to Roma. “Your demon said theMagic-Weaver’srift evenfeltdifferent, right?”

“Laguerre isn’tmydemon,” Roma protests, but the words sound weak in her own ears. “And yeah. It felt different to me, too. Not harder or easier to close, but‍—‍” She cuts herself off, shaking her head. “It was like the texture was different.”

“The texture was different,” Bryant repeats dubiously. “Well, now, Gutierrez, that’s very specific.Toospecific.”

Roma scowls back. “If I knew how to describe it, then I’d probably have a better idea of how to stop it. These mega-rifts still close with the joint blocking and disconnecting spells, which implies that our original rift-opening spell and theMagic-Weaver’sone share a lot of fundamental similarities, but‍—but the few differences are clearly more important than we realized.”

“And sparked an epidemic,” Bryant mutters, turning sharply at one end of her suite and pacing restlessly towards the other. Abruptly, she stops short. “I’ve got nothing, guys. I’m wracking my brain for anything from my childhood magic lessons, textbooks that Sawyer made me read, schmoozing with purebred spellcasters‍—I’ve never heard of anything evencomparableto this.”

Roma’s heart sinks. Even though she’s their best spellcaster, Bryant gets access to more resources‍—and more high-level spellcasters‍—simply by virtue of her lineage.

If Roma and Bryant’s combined knowledge can’t get them out of this mess, then they’re truly starting from zero.

“There has to be a counterspell,” Chester says desperately. “Right? That’s one of the principles of magic‍—every spell contains the seeds of its own reversal.”

Roma’s stomach churns. It’s exactly what she told him when she was reassuring him about pre-WMSA spells last week, and even though she knows he’s not trying to throw the words back in her face, she feels the sting of them anyway. “The reversal issupposedto be the closing spells. And those clearly aren’t working for any appreciable length of time.”

Bryant cocks her head to one side, considering. “But that doesn’t mean they’rethereversal‍—just a reversal that happens to work for rift-opening spells in general. There might be a counterspell that’s better for this specific variation.”

Roma shakes her head. “We don’t have a peer-reviewed counterspell, remember?The Magic-Weaver’s Companionwas published before the Written Magic Standardization Act.”

And that alone should’ve been reason enough for Roma not to use it. Nausea licks up her throat, and she swallows it down hard. One of the first lessons she learned in spellcasting class was to avoid spells written before the WMSA whenever possible, leaving those riskier bits of magic to only the most skilled spellcasters.

Apparently, Roma’s pride managed to convince her that she was one of them. She’s never been proven wrong so quickly in her life. “The only solution I can see,” she says slowly, dread tangling down her spine, “is to create a reversal from scratch. To attempt an untested, unproven spell fromscratch.”

“And that’s basically the most dangerous thing a spellcaster can possibly do,” Bryant says, crossing her arms over her chest. “So no pressure.”

Chester hesitates. “Do you think Laguerre would help?”

Roma laughs bitterly. “She’d need the full text of theMagic-Weaver’sspell to evenbeginworking on a counterspell, and the only way to get her that would be to admit I was playing her all along. No, thanks.”

“I mean…” Chester’s jaw works. “At this point, we have to prioritize Redwater’s safety, right? I‍—I feel like JJ would want it that way, too,” he adds haltingly, and he looks away.

Roma’s chest hurts. Considering how loyal Chester still is to JJ, she knows how much it must take for him to even suggest that they abandon their mission to get him back. “Laguerre reacted badly when I even recognized JJ the other day,” she says softly. “If she knew that I’ve been targeting him from the start, she would probably refuse to work with me on principle.” Taking a deep breath, she pushes herself to her feet, grabs their spellbook, and tucks it under her arm. “Anyway, I‍—I should get to work on this counterspell. I‍?—‍”

Bryant throws out an arm to stop her. “I think you mean ‘we,’ dumbass.Weshould get to work on this counterspell.”

Roma throws her a halfhearted scowl. “Listen‍?—‍”

“Yes, yes, Chester’s spellcasting is atrocious and mine is worse,” Bryant says impatiently, and Chester snorts with surprise. “But we’re ateam,Gutierrez. The three of us got into this mess together, and the three of us are going to getoutof this mess together. It’s that simple.”

“Agreed,” Chester says, nodding. “You can’t get rid of us that easily. Magic might not be our forte, but we can definitely help with research and triple-checking your work. And if you end up on more rift-closing shifts with Laguerre, we can keep taking notes for you back here. We’ve got you, Roma.”

Roma’s heart feels warm. Despite all the stress and tension of the past few months, despite JJ’s defection and Roma’s back-to-back espionage missions and this entire catastrophe with the mega-rifts‍?—

Despite everything, she still has two of her best friends in her corner. “Well, this counterspell isn’t going to write itself,” she says, and she gestures for them to follow her. “Let’s head to the library and get to work.”

18

This is a disaster,” Maggie says flatly, spreading a map of Redwater over her Outpost’s desk. There are pinpoint dots indicating all the locations where mega-rifts have opened over the past three days, and even in those scant seventy-two hours, Ez sees that the paper is covered with so many marks that they practically black out the town. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. Obie, have you?”

“Nope.” Obie’s arms are crossed over his chest and jaw is twitching with frustration. “Before now, I didn’t even think riftscouldbe weaponized like this. Leave it to the humans to figure out how to turn anything into a weapon.”

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