Page 55 of Fool Me Twice

“Oh, Idareyou to look at our hundreds of crime scene photos from those massacres and call any of this ‘guesswork,’” Sawyer hisses. “I fuckingdareyou.”

“And a better question, Smith,” Naomi says, her voice hard and precise, “would be why the Chain is sending demons tothe Sanctum to be tortured. You knew that was true even before tonight.” She nods at Roma. “Letting Laguerre bring that neophyte from midtown to the Chain was a clever way to test your theory‍—stupid, but clever. And Laguerre, you saw that the Education Department lied to your face about where the demon ended up.”

“That doesn’t mean the Sanctum put out a hit on my family.” JJ’s face is bloodless. “That doesn’t mean‍?—‍”

Sawyer’s laugh is biting. “Come on, JJ. That last demon you killed flat-out said that he had ‘orders’ to leave you and Chester alive. Didn’t you ever wonder what he meant?”

Ez’s stomach drops. Roma whirls around to face JJ, her eyes wide. “He saidwhat?”

JJ is trembling. “I… didn’t,” he says, his voice strained. “I didn’t wonder what he meant, no. I‍—I was kind of preoccupied with other things at the time.”

Cass slips his hand into JJ’s and squeezes. The last few times Roma saw them hold hands, she was shocked and even a little disgusted, but now‍?—

Now, she’s suddenly and inexplicably grateful that Cass is standing next to JJ.

Especially when Sawyer keeps talking. “And you never found it suspicious how the Sanctum immediately went togreatlengths to separate you and Chester? Putting your bedrooms on opposite ends of the building, setting you up for jobs in different specialties? Keeping you as far away from each other as possible?” Her smile is tight and feral. “And that’s not even touching Chester’s final exam. Not even Naomi and I expected them to gothatfar, but‍?—‍”

“Shutup,”Roma snarls, jerking forward. Chester’s final exam‍—where JJ pretended to be a dissident and Chester tortured him for nine hours straight‍—may have been six yearsago, but she can still remember how badly it messed them up for weeks afterward.

Sawyer suggesting that it was all a ploy by the Sanctum to traumatize them crosses the line. “And if you two were so convinced of this,” Roma snaps, “then why the hell did youleave us there?Why did you‍?—‍?”

“Because you wouldn’t have believed us,” Naomi bites out. “Just like you don’t believe us now. I mean‍—‍” She gestures harshly at JJ, whose fingers are clenched so tightly around Cass’s that his knuckles are burning white. “JJ has completely forsaken the Sanctum at this point. He’s a dissident, a defector, atraitor,but evenhedoesn’t think they would be capable of all this. And you‍—‍” Her eyes narrow. “Whatisyour deal, anyway? We had it on good authority that you faked a defection a few months ago and almost got half of this room killed.”

The tension in the cramped apartment ratchets up, and Roma’s heart stuttershardin her chest. Logically, she knew that her stint as a fake defector couldn’t have been far from anyone’s minds‍—after all, JJ surely remembers this apartment just as well as Roma does‍—but she’d been hoping and praying they would get through this trainwreck of a conversation without anyone bringing it up.

She’s fairly confident in her ability to lie to Esmeralda Laguerre‍—even though actually doing so nowadays makes her stomach churn with guilt‍—but lying to the sister who taught herhowto lie is a different story altogether. “I‍?—‍”

To her surprise‍—and overwhelming relief‍—Ez jumps in to defuse the situation before anyone else can respond. “I was under the impression that we were going to be learning aspell,”she says pointedly, glaring at Micah and Gregorio, “not getting pulled into a conspiracy. And Roma happens to be the best human spellcaster in Redwater.”

Naomi’s eyes flicker to Roma. “Is that true?”

Deep inside Roma’s chest, there’s a sixteen-year-old girl begging for her big sister’s approval. Viciously, Roma forces her down. “Damn right, it is.”

“Hm.” Naomi’s lips curve up in the corners. “Good. You always showed an aptitude for magic. I’m glad I pushed you in that direction.”

Roma’s temper spikes. “Don’t try to take credit formyskills, Naomi.Iwas the one who put in the years of work, not you. You just‍?—‍”

You just left us spiraling. You just left us without protectors. You just left me to clean up your mess, Bryant to curse your names, Chester to start having nightmares again, JJ to get so disillusioned that he defected‍?—

Are you proud of us now? Are you proud of me now, Naomi?

“You just left us when things got rough,” she finishes bitterly. “You left usrightwhen we needed you most.”

Naomi’s face shuts down. “You wouldn’t have believed us then,” she repeats curtly, “just like you don’t believe us now. One of you would’ve tattled to the Council, and Sawyer and I would’ve been burned alive as dissidents. We didn’t have a choice.”

“There’salwaysa choice!” Roma yells. “You just chose the easy way out. You just chose torun.”

Abruptly, Sawyer advances on her, eyes dark and thunderous. “Stand down, hunter. You’re way out of your depth here.”

“All right,all right!”Micah shouts, putting himself between them and holding out his hands like he can physically force them apart. “Let’s all just take a breath, okay? We have six years’ worth of evidence that we can go through, and we can answer any questions you have, and‍?—‍”

“Actually,” Cass says, “I’m taking Julian home.”

Roma whirls around to face him, startled. Cass has his fingers wrapped around JJ’s shoulder and his jaw set in a hard line, and JJ‍?—

JJ looks like he’s about to have a panic attack.

“What?” Gregorio asks, his eyes narrowing. “Chin, there’s a reason we wanted both of you here‍—a reason we wantedallof you here. We’re the only ones in Redwater who know this is going on, the only ones who cantrusteach other right now, and‍?—‍”

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