Page 102 of The Fate Factor

“After six years? Why wouldn’t you at least hear her side, Jamie?”

“The rest of it came true. What was I supposed to think?”

“Oh my God.” That’s what he said at the hospital.I couldn’t ignore that one when the rest was so spot on. The back of my neck is damp with sweat, and I strip his hoodie off and find myjacket on the back of the couch. “I should go. You have to get ready for the launch.”

It was last season’s launch when I agreed to see him again. I’m not sure what kind of sign that is. I can’t read them anymore. Or maybe I never could.

“It’s nine-thirty in the morning, Noel. We have hours. Stay.” He looks nervous, pulling his hands from his pockets to grip his hair.

“I have to feed Pixie.”

“I’ll go with you then,” he says. “Hang out at your place until I have to be here.” He’s on my heels as I buzz around gathering my things. His fingers grab for my hip, but I twirl out of reach.

“Noel,please. Look, let’s just… forget it happened. It doesn’t matter.”

“Ofcourseit matters,” I cry. I didn’t think it was possible, but he’s just made this infinitely worse. Tell me it was all a dream, tell me she’s just angry and lashing out, but don’t tell me I messed with his entire life, and it doesn’t matter.

“And stop doing that, Jamie. Stop pretending everything’s going to be fine because you want it to be. We’ve made a lot of big decisions based on that night, and I was wrong. And you’re hoping to use the same flawed magic to help you with the next one.”

He links his fingers behind his head, pacing. “Okay, well, what if we just tried it again? Maybe we haven’t been trying hard enough to make it happen. Just one more time to clear it all up.”

His words echo in my brain like the ringing after an explosion. He cannot think that is a good idea. “That’syour solution? Dive deeper into this?”

“It’s better than you running away.”

God, I’m so tired of that accusation. Maybe that’s what you do with something like this. When some force you don’t understandhijacks your life. Maybe running away was always the right call. Hasn’t anyone consideredthat?

“Come on, Noel.” He reaches for my wrist, and I let him take it.

“I can’t force it. That’s the one thing—theonlything—we know about this.”

“I know, baby, but we could try, right?”

“Jamie.” I huff his name on a sigh. What is it about him that ruins my logic and instinct? “You don’t even own a candle.”

“You said the candle didn’t matter.” He draws me against his chest, circling me with his arms. “Just stand here with me. We’ll focus. Try.”

I nod, but I don’t curl into him the way I would have before. Instead, his body pressed to mine makes my heart race in a different way. A bad way. A warning way. It suddenly feels really dangerous, playing with this force that I don’t understand and has the power to wreak havoc.

What if I see exactly what he wants me to and he makes another huge financial decision because of it, only to find some hole later?

And what if I get some confirmation that other things I saw that night aren’t true, that the thing I have my heart set on isn’t as sure as I thought it was?

What if I see Jamie and me again, and like his tattoo, it’s changed?

The blood seeps from my face. Jamie’s not the only one who’s been making huge decisions because one domino fell that night on the roof. My condo is about to have a For Sale sign in front of it. I turned down guaranteed income with Vi for a dream. All because I thought it was tied up in the same vision that gave me him.You don’t make major life decisions on a freaking candle. Isn’t that exactly what I told him?

I press a hand to my chest, and it’s covered in sweat. The tattoo, the scar—those were little holes in the magic, hints thatthis could all change and I ignored them because I wanted to. I wanted him. But this isn’t a little hole. This one is a gaping wound. I can’t chance it.

“I don’t want to do this,” I say, pulling out of his grip. “Jamie, this is too important to play around with. Even if I see something, it could be wrong.”

“Noel…”

“No. We don’t know what we’re doing. It was foolish to make decisions this way. What if this whole thing was bullshit from the start?”

Jamie’s face falls, and I hear what I’ve said. My stomach plummets.

“I didn’t mean—”

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