Page 56 of Fool Me Twice

“And I’m sure you can handle your fun little conspiracy just fine without us,” Cass cuts in, giving him a sharp smile. “I didn’t fill out the TX-203 to join another war, Ricci, and neither did my boyfriend. Thanks for the trauma, but we’re out of here.”

Fear slices through Roma. Despite JJ defecting from the Sanctum, despite him shacking up with Cassius Chin, despite the Council’s scathing views on his morality and loyalty and humanity‍?—

Despite everything Romashouldbelieve, JJ is the only person in this room she truly trusts. Ez has had Roma’s back for a few weeks, but JJ had her back for over a decade. “JJ‍—JJ, don’t‍?—‍”

JJ doesn’t look at her. “Later,” he says hoarsely, and he bows his head as Cass snaps open a rift and guides him through without a backwards glance.

Leaving Roma alone with four demons, two defectors, and a gaping hole ripped through everything she thought she knew.

25

So,” Sawyer says eventually. “That went well.”

“We… probably could’ve been a little more tactful,” Naomi admits, worrying a stray thread from her shirt.

Obie scoffs. “Alittle?Do you even know thedefinitionof ‘tact’?”

“They do not,” Micah confirms, and he shrugs when Naomi and Sawyer glare at him. “But Obie. Ez. You get it, right? You believe us?”

Ez takes a deep breath. Lets it out slowly. Tries not to look at Roma as she considers the words.

She doesn’t want to believe it. She doesn’t want to believe that the Chain could be working with the very humans who hunt them, that they knowingly protected the criminals responsible for the Jackson–Locke murders, that they’re actively betraying demons around the world‍?—

Doesn’t want to believe that they could be teaming up with the Sanctum to destroy lives like JJ’s for the sole purpose of amassing power.

But Ez didn’t want to believe that the Chain could be sending neophyte demons to the Sanctum’s prison, either‍—and she andRoma have been tugging at the edges ofthatcorruption for nearly a month now. At the very least, the Chain’s Education Department and a handful of Sanctum hunters seem to be involved.

Going from an isolated issue in Redwater to a worldwide conspiracy is a stretch, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility. “I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt,” Ez says at last. “But we’re going to need a lot more evidence before buying what you’re selling.”

“But not tonight,” Obie says, shaking his head. “Like Ez said, we came here for a spell‍—specifically, a spell to help us end the mega-rift epidemic. Your conspiracy theories can wait.”

And Micah‍?—

Micah actually looks crestfallen by that. “Right,” he says quietly, and he turns to Naomi and Sawyer. “Naomi, you have a theory about that, right?”

Roma laughs sharply. “Seriously? You brought us all the way here for anothertheory?”

Naomi glares straight back at her. “All right, Little Miss Prodigy Spellcaster, riddle me this: who can create rifts?”

“Mostly demons,” Roma answers immediately, “but also humans with access to a demon’s soul energy. That’s how summoners are able to open rifts to Tamaros‍—they’re utilizing the soul energy of the demon they’re about to drag to Earth.”

“And why can’t these mega-rifts be the work of a human spellcaster?”

Roma’s eyes narrow. “Hypothetically, they could be. The spellcaster could be tapping into a demon’s soul without actually summoning them,” she says, and she shifts uncomfortably. “Realistically, though? A human would need to take more breaks to eat, sleep, and avoid overexertion. It could be anetworkof human spellcasters, but that level of coordination would be nearly impossible to maintain for this long.”

“And why can’t the mega-rifts be the work of a demon spellcaster?”

Roma’s jaw twitches. “Again, theycouldbe, but a demon would also need breaks to avoid overexertion. And a network of demon spellcasters would run into the same problem as a network of human ones. Why are you asking me stupid questions? Ez and I literally went over this in the firsthourof the epidemic, and we’re currently two and a half weeks in.”

“Because you apparently haven’t arrived at the right answer yet,” Sawyer says, and she points meaningfully at the floor. “Namely, that Redwater happens to be situated over a stockpile of magic that doesn’t need to eat or sleep, doesn’t need to worry about coordinating resources, and is known far and wide for its bizarre quirks.”

Ez’s stomach plummets. Obie stops dead. “The Deep,” he says, incredulity bleeding into his voice. “You think theDeepis responsible for this?”

Ez crosses her arms over her chest, unsettled. “But magic reservoirs don’t just activate out of nowhere like this. The Deep might play by slightly different rules than most, but in general, it follows the same principles. It’s just a stable source of magic.”

“You’re right,” Naomi says. “We think something must havedestabilized it. There were mega-rifts opening even before the full epidemic started, right? Whoever was responsible for those must have accidentally brushed against the Deep, and now, the Deep is stuck in an infinite loop of activating andre-activating that same spell.”

A chill runs down Ez’s spine. “That… makes sense, actually,” she says, chancing a glance at Roma’s wide eyes and still face. “If someone was stupid enough to use an older spell that doesn’t play nice with magic reservoirs, then they could’ve disrupted the Deep’s equilibrium‍—and, because the Deep keeps a record of every spell that’s cast within its borders, it’s reacting to thatfaulty record over and over again. It would explain why there are predictable breaks‍—the Deep would occasionally need to replenish itself after activating the same spell repeatedly‍—and why the mega-rifts only open one at a time. It makes sense.”

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