Page 47 of Fool Me Twice

He’s doing well. Doing well outside of the Sanctum, doing wellwithoutRoma and Chester and Bryant.

Doing well somewhere that Roma isn’t around to see it. “Oh,” she says haltingly. “That’s, um. That’s good.”

“Yeah.” Ez arches an eyebrow. “So that’s the JJ update. How about Naomi and Sawyer? What happened with them?”

A breeze of power wafts past Roma. She sucks in a quick breath. “There’s‍?—‍”

“‍—‍a mega-rift. I’m aware,” Ez says, and she snaps open a rift of her own. “Let’s go.”

Roma steps through first, leading the way. Ez falls into place next to her as they approach the mega-rift, both of them shiftinginto their spellcasting stances as easily as breathing. “One, two, three‍—ages upon ages‍?—‍”

“In the name of Nostringvadha‍?—‍”

The mega-rift closes as quickly as it opened. Roma expects another question, but this time, Ez doesn’t follow up. Another surge of magic, another transport rift to get there‍?—

“I don’t know, either.”

Ez pauses, her eyes flickering to Roma. “What?”

“I‍—‍” Roma takes a deep breath. “I don’t know what happened with them, either. Not why they defected, not where they are now. Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Not disappointed. It’s just weird,” Ez says, and this time, she raises her hands first. “One, two, three‍—in the name of Nostringvadha…”

Roma waits until the mega-rift shudders closed before picking up the thread of their conversation. “Why is it weird?”

Another rush of warmth. Ez peels open another rift. “Because they basically made local headlines when they defected six years ago‍—the food truck crowd went wild with speculation‍—but no one seems to actually know what happened. JJ had no idea when we asked him, either. But two loyal Sanctum lackeys wouldn’t just disappear into the night without any warning, and‍—and didn’t they both mentor you guys?”

“Not exactly,” Roma says, and she spreads her arms. “One, two, three‍—ages upon ages…”

The mega-rift shivers closed. Ez frowns at Roma. “‘Not exactly’? What doesthatmean?”

“They both mentored JJ,” Roma says, bracing herself for the next whisper of magic. “Usually, hunters-in-training only get one mentor‍—the one who trains them for their future vocation. For me, JJ, and Bryant, that was Naomi‍—she taught us how to function as a strike team. For Chester, it was an interrogator. ButJJ and Chesteralsohad Sawyer Solomon to teach them how to be hunters, since they weren’t raised in the Sanctum.”

The expected surge doesn’t come. Looks like another short break. Ez leans against a nearby streetlamp, eyeing Roma curiously. “So you didn’t really interact with Sawyer?”

Roma grimaces. “Hypothetically, I wasn’tsupposedto, but‍—but I did. Sawyer was very involved with JJ and Chester, and that meant she was also involved in our strike team training. Naomi hated that. It was considered a great honor when Sawyer was chosen to mentor JJ and Chester, and it was an honor that Naomi probably would’ve gotten if she were a purebred. She hated that Sawyer would butt into our strike team lessons, too.”

Ez’s eyebrows knit together. “Sounds like they didn’t ride off into the sunset together like everyone thinks.”

“I mean‍—‍” Roma lets out her breath in a hiss. “I don’t think so. They started getting along marginally better by the time Strike Team Kappa’s final exam happened, but I think that was mostly out of necessity‍—they were both in charge of grading us, so they had to spend a lot of time together. But I don’t think that equates to ‘riding off into the sunset,’ no.” Bitterness snakes through her. “And Naomi was alwaysverystrict about the bloodlines hierarchy. Sawyer obviously was, too, but Naomi was militant. From the time I could talk, she drilled into me to never trust a purebred. Unless she had a massive change of heart, I can’t see her pursuing a relationship with Sawyer.”

“And you and Naomi were… close?”

Roma doesn’t know why she keeps talking. Maybe it’s because there’s nothing else to fill the space between mega-rifts, or maybe it’s because she’s never really spoken about this out loud before, or‍?—

Or maybe it’s just because of the honest interest in Ez’s eyes. Not calculating or judging.

Just trying to understand.

“She basically raised me,” Roma says. “Our parents were always gone on overseas assignments, so Naomi took over most of my education. She taught me how to be a hunter the same way Sawyer taught JJ and Chester. And she‍—‍” The bitterness deepens. “She was actually the one who got me into spellcasting. I showed an aptitude for it, so she kept pushing me. Pulled strings to enroll me in advanced classes, brought me obscure spell books to study. Called in favors to get me sessions with purebred spellcasters.”

And Roma hates that. She hates the fact that the one thing she’s talented at, the one thing that earns her respect, the one thing she truly considers her own‍?—

Even as one of the Redwater Sanctum’s best spellcasters, she’s still living under the shadow of Naomi’s decisions. The way Naomi shaped and molded Roma’s life.

The skill that Roma originally learned to make Naomi proud of her.

“So she was a… good sister?” Ez ends the statement as a question, her eyebrows furrowing.

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