Page 92 of Fool Me Twice

“Statistically speaking,” Micah says, “there’s only a two percent chance that any given spell will react badly with a magic reservoir. That meant our entire premise was on thin ice from the start. Now, it’s fully possible that the Deep just went haywire because it’s quirkier than your standard magic reservoir, but it’s equally likely that there are some pieces we aren’t seeing clearly yet‍—pieces that could have a dramatic effect on the counterspell.”

Gregorio’s smile is faintly mocking. “Still think it’s not worth our time to investigate?”

“All right, all right,” Cass snaps. “We would’ve agreed from the start if you’d led with that. You don’t need to be a dick about it.”

Fear clamps around Roma’s lungs. “But‍?—‍”

“This will only take a minute,” Micah cuts in. “If we find nothing, then everyone can head home and go to bed and forget this ever happened. But if we find something suspicious, then it might be worthwhile to postpone the counterspell until we know more.”

“And it really only requires Obie and Ez,” Gregorio adds, nodding at Obie. “Smith, could you project your memories of the first few mega-rift sites? The ones from before it became an epidemic?”

Obie doesn’t look happy, but he nods. “Sure,” he says, and he closes his eyes, raising a hand in a practiced motion.

All at once, a dozen memoryscapes flare to life around the room, playing out like movies on a screen. Memories of mega-rifts in the Courtyard, at Lakeside, in other nooks and crannies around Redwater‍?—

Roma can pick herself out of most of them. Ez, too. And, to her overwhelming relief, Bryant and Chester are nowhere to be found‍—or, at least, nowhere to be found under the cover of their ever-present cloaking spells. “Well, uh,” she says, and she clears her throat, dutifully peering at each image in turn. “I don’t see any repeated faces so far‍—none besides me and Ez, at least. So if therearespellcasters with cloaking spells or invisibility spells or glamours, we aren’t going to find them like this.”

“Well, obviously not,” Micah says. “We have to cast an anti-cloaking spell over the memoryscapes first.”

Horror slams through Roma. “What? You can‍—‍” She turns to Ez, panic rising in her throat. “You can do that?”

Ez looks intrigued. “Well, I’ve never tried to counter someone else’s spell work inside a memoryscape before,” she says slowly, but her eyes are alight in a way that makes Roma’s heart sink. That’s her curious expression, herintellectualexpression‍?—

The expression she wears when she’s about to take up a challenge and see if she can conquer it. Roma’s heart hammers against her ribcage. “Ez‍?—‍”

“Only one way to find out, isn’t there?” Ez says, and she throws Roma a smirk before snapping her fingers. Instantly, a cool rush of magic swirls around the room, breezing through the memoryscapes, shivering over every scene‍?—

Bryant’s and Chester’s cloaking spells evaporate like the morning fog, leaving them recognizable to everyone in the room.

Or to everyone who knows them well enough, at least. And when JJ jerks away from Roma like she burned him, his eyes wide with betrayal, Roma knows that her streak of goodwill just ran out.

“Again?”JJ snarls, glaring at Roma with a cross between fury and devastation in his eyes. “Goddamnagain?”

Roma takes a quick step back. Away from JJ, away from Ez, away fromeverybody‍?—

And Ez doesn’t need special powers to interpret Roma’s guilty expression. Her stomach bottoms out. “No.”

“I can explain,” Roma stammers, her hands flying to shoulder height in surrender. Her eyes find Ez’s, cracked and desperate. “It’s not what it looks like. I can‍—I can explain‍?—‍”

Obie’s laugh is bitter. “Famous last words.”

Gregorio’s eyes narrow. “I’m confused. You recognize someone?”

Silently, Cass points at the nearest memoryscape. “Chester Locke and Bryant Nehemiah,” he says flatly, and Gregorio goes still. “JJ’s old friends.” This time, when he smiles at Roma, it’s sharp and biting and full of teeth. “Gutierrez’scurrentfriends, apparently.”

“Listen,” Roma says, and she’s speaking directly to Ez now, fast and pressurized and frantic. “Things changed, okay? Things changed, and everything is different now, and‍?—‍”

“Different how?” There’s a roaring in Ez’s ears, loud and demanding enough to drown out every other thought. “Roma,what did you do?”

Roma’s face crumples. “It was‍—I was under orders,” she says, and the words hit Ez like a punch in the gut. “The Council, they‍—they wanted me to get close to JJ again, and‍?—‍”

“So you manufactured a way to do that.” Obie’s voice is hard. “Clever. You got the idea from Lakeside, didn’t you? When you and Ez had to close that first mega-rift together?”

Roma flinches. “Yes,” she says reluctantly. “And then Bryant and Chester opened the others, so‍—so I could close them.”

“So youand Ezcould close them.” JJ’s words are as sharp as a knife. “You knew that you couldn’t target me again, not like last time, so you targeted Ez.” His hands ball into fists. “You targetedmy friend.”

“It wasn’t‍—‍!” Roma cuts herself off, shaking her head. “It’s not like that, okay? Not anymore.”

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