Page 78 of Fool Me Twice

“Well, I asked everybody from my side for opinions,” Ez says, and she passes a small stack of papers to Roma‍—copies of their counterspell with notes from each person. “Those are from Maggie Khan, Gregorio, Micah, Obie, Cass, and JJ.”

Roma skims over the scribbled comments. “Anything exciting?”

“Not in the sense of potential mistakes,” Ez says. “But Obie thinks the original rift-opening spell might actually be based on the one that was used to banish Nostringvadha, so that was a neat tidbit.”

Roma looks taken aback. “Really? How could he possibly know that?”

“I… have a suspicion that he might’ve met Nostringvadha at some point here on Earth,” Ez admits. “But that would’ve been millennia ago. And he’s never mentioned it, so I’ve never asked.”

“Huh. One of my friends might actually be interested in that,” Roma says, flipping through the rest of the papers. She pauses over the second-to-last copy, her eyes lingering on JJ’s handwriting, before turning to the final page. “And this one?”

“Oh, that one is from Desi,” Ez says. “She wanted to help, too, so she drew us a dragon for good luck.”

Roma squints at the offending picture. “That’s supposed to be a dragon?”

“She’s four, okay? Cut her some slack.”

“Well, I actually think it’s a halfway decent…” Roma turns it to one side, tipping her head in the opposite direction. “Horse with wings. But not alizardwith wings.”

“Rude.” Ez taps a finger on the table to get Roma’s attention. “Who checked it over on your end?”

Roma rifles around in her pocket, pulling out a handful of folded pages. “The Council put our five best spellcasters on the job, but they couldn’t find any errors, either. I asked Bryant and Chester, too, even though spellcasting isn’t their forte. And, um, Naomi ended up reaching out, so I also got feedback from her.”

Ez stops halfway through reading the first page of notes, her eyebrows shooting up.“Naomireached out? Your sister, Naomi?”

Roma scowls down at the reversals. “Do we know another Naomi, Laguerre?”

“I mean, I’ve met a few over the centuries,” Ez says, and she ducks her head, trying to catch Roma’s eye. “So how was that?”

For a long moment, Roma is quiet.

And then she says, “Exhausting. In so many ways. She was‍—I was‍—‍” She scrubs a hand down her face, grimacing. “I don’t think I got that closure you were talking about.”

Ez’s heart hurts. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’m just… more confused than ever. About everything.”

Ez hesitates. “About the Sanctum, you mean?”

Roma doesn’t look at her. “Yeah. Partly. She gave me the names of all the other neophyte hunters worldwide. I looked them up to make sure they actually existed.” Her jaw tightens. “They exist.”

Ez almost doesn’t want to ask. “And…?”

“Well, there wasn’t a blinking neon sign pointing to a conspiracy,” Roma says flatly, “but there sure were a lot of criminal demons ‘coincidentally’ showing up at the perfect time for a neophyte hunter to get revenge.”

Ez winces. “That’s hard.”

“Yeah.” Roma’s eyes flicker up to meet Ez’s. “I don’t know what to do yet. The Sanctum has always been my home, but‍—but it really hasn’t felt like home lately. Hell, I’ve barely been able to look Chester in the eye for weeks. I just‍—‍” She shakes her head sharply. “It’s a lot to process. And I haven’t really been processing much for the past month or so.”

Ez’s heart stutters unevenly. Roma looks sad and frustrated, like she’s resigned to questioning the Sanctum’s every move now, like she’s struggling to find the pride she used to have in being a hunter‍?—

Like she’s seriously starting to consider the possibility of leaving that life behind altogether.

Defect and come live with me. Defect and come live with me. Defect and‍?—

“Well, you have time to figure it out,” Ez forces herself to say, avoiding Roma’s eyes as she stands up to grab the pizza out of the oven. Giving them both a little space. “Time to gather your own evidence, do your own investigation. Figure out your next steps.”

“Yeah.” Roma lets out a slow breath, glancing out the window. The sun is just starting to drift towards the horizon, the sky fading from light blue to a gentle shade of orange. “Once we end the mega-rift epidemic, I should have a lot more time on my hands to work through everything.”

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