Page 48 of Fool Me Twice

Roma scowls. “I guess. Or a good parent, maybe. She was there for all my milestones, but‍—‍” She laughs hollowly. “But she and Sawyer literally disappeared on the night of Strike Team Kappa’s commencement ceremony‍—the one that happened after we passed our final exam. That was the last time I ever saw them.”

Ez is quiet.

“They didn’t stick around for Chester’s final exam at all,” Roma adds spitefully. “And Chesterneededthem after that‍—him and JJ both. And‍—and Naomi promised she would be there for me after Strike Team Kappa’s first official mission. She wasn’t.” She looks away. “So yeah. I don’t really like talking about them.”

“I can see that,” Ez says, pursing her lips. “I can honestly say that I’m even more confused about them than I was before.”

“Yeah. Join the club.”

“But Idounderstand why you’re so good at spellcasting now,” Ez says, and she arches an eyebrow. “You did it out of spite, right?”

Roma snorts out a surprised laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

“I did the same thing,” Ez says. “My summoner forced me into spellcasting, too.”

The words jolt through Roma. “Oh. I‍—I didn’t know that.”

Ez shrugs. “I don’t exactly talk about it. But he was a military general during the Haitian Revolution, and he had me cast offensive spells for him with a frequency verging on psychotic.” Her jaw tightens. “Against enemies and innocents alike. After he died, I kept honing my craft to make itmine,not his. To become more than the human who dragged me to this dimension could ever fathom.”

Roma’s chest feels unsteady. Almost like she’s seeing a part of Ez that she wasn’t quite prepared to know about‍—not yet, anyway.

Just like Ez has glimpsed parts of Roma today that Roma wasn’t altogether ready for her to see, either. Strangely, she doesn’t mind as much as she thought she would.

It’s almost nice to have someone who trulyunderstandsRoma’s complex relationship with spellcasting. Cautiously, she lifts her water bottle. “To spite.”

Ez throws back her head and laughs. “To spite,” she agrees, her eyes dancing.

Before Roma can get too caught up in the sound of Ez’s laugh‍—or the particular shape of her fond smile‍—a warm breeze trails over the back of her neck. Her shoulders almost sag with relief. “Next mega-rift?” she blurts out.

“Next mega-rift,” Ez confirms, snapping open a transport rift, and thankfully, they lapse into silence after that.

22

It’s just past six p.m. on the first Tuesday in June when Roma lowers her arms after their latest mega-rift closure, checks her watch, and yawns into her hand. “How much longer are we going to be out here?”

“That depends on you, lackey,” Ez says, wrinkling her nose when another warm breeze of magic wafts past them. Heaving a sigh, she flicks open a rift and strides through it, Roma following her without complaint. “I can keep going all night, but I’ve been reliably informed that humans are wimps.”

Roma’s scowl looks more halfhearted than anything else. “Bold words from the demon who complains if I’m not in the Courtyard by exactly eight a.m.,” she says, and she spreads her arms as they approach the mega-rift. “One, two, three‍—ages upon ages…”

In under a minute, the mega-rift is crumpling in on itself. Roma rubs her eyes tiredly, yawning again, and Ez shoots her a frown. “You should probably get back to the Sanctum, Gutierrez. You look like death warmed over.”

It’s not a lie, either. Roma has been showing up for their ten-hour shifts almost without fail since the epidemic began, and Ezknows for a fact that she buries herself in spell books when she goes back to the Sanctum every night, trying to find a solution to Redwater’s current crisis.

Ez has been burying herself in spell books every night, too, but demons don’t actually need to sleep. The hunting enchantments baked into Roma’s bones might mean that she needs slightly less rest than a normal human, but considering her chronically slumped shoulders and bloodshot eyes, Ez thinks the constant stress might be catching up with her.

Now, Roma winces, glancing around. “Is anyone coming to relieve us?”

Ez grimaces. Public Safety is generally good about providing a demon spellcaster at around this time, and even the Sanctum seems to send their hunters out at regular intervals, but there’s never any guarantee‍—especially because summoners haven’t stopped wreaking havoc just because of the mega-rift crisis. She pulls out her phone. “Not sure, but I’ll shoot a message to Maggie Khan. Let her know that we need our shiny replacements sooner rather than later.”

“That won’t help on the human side,” Roma points out.

Ez waves a hand dismissively, sending off the text. “We can always find a replacement human if we need one. You’re just the most readily available.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Anytime.” Another rush of magic breezes over the back of Ez’s neck, and she swears under her breath. “One more?”

“One more,” Roma agrees grimly, and Ez nods as she homes in on the power surge, raises a hand to snap open a rift‍?—

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