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I rubbed my damp palms against my jeans and forced myself not to run away like some scared elementary school kid. Seconds passed in silence before Aria nodded as though she was satisfied with whatever she saw in me. Her lips turned up at the edges as she closed her eyes and hummed something beneath her breath while her hands cupped the sides of her crystal ball. For a second I swore I saw something swirl in its depths, but when I blinked it was back to being a plain purple orb.
It’s just glass, and this is nothing more than a parlor trick, I assured myself. A person with the ability to truly see the future would charge a lot more than ten dollars.
Besides, having Madam Aria tell your fortune was something all the kids in town did at the yearly carnival. She’d been around so long that my parents had their fortunes told by her back in junior high. They called it a rite of passage, whatever that meant.
It was meant to be a harmless bit of fun, but something about being seated across the round scarf-covered table from her made me feel weird. I startled when her eyes popped open, and she focused on me with intent concentration, unlike anything I’d ever seen.
“Praise the Goddess! I haven’t come across one of your kind in many years,” she murmured.
I wrinkled my brow with confusion. My kind?
“You are what seers refer to as a devoted. In the world of mysticism it is the most celebrated union.”
I stared at her blankly. Celebrated unions? Maybe the incense I smelled was masking the scent of marijuana.
Aria snorted as if I’d said that aloud. “A devoted exclusively desires one specific soul throughout eternity because that soul belongs to their perfect counterpart,” she explained. “You and your beloved find each other in every lifetime, and no matter what obstacles are put in your way, you have always fallen in love. In some lives, your path to each other has been easier than in others. No matter what, you are always up to the challenge of winning your other half. In this life however, you met her much earlier than in your other incarnations.
“Unfortunately for you that early meeting does not mean your path to love will be quick or easy. Although that soul will always be the yin to your yang, in this life, your beloved has been more stubborn than in previous lives. That’s because her heart was broken by someone she should have been able to rely on. She is a survivor, this girl. For one so young, she’s very headstrong. You will need to be patient and true to capture her heart. She requires special attention and she will not come easy.”
My heart started to beat faster. Aria had to be talking about Chloe Holland. We’d met early. Our fathers had been best friends since my dad moved to Bliss, Massachusetts. They’d met on the first day of third grade and since both had names that began with H their cubbies had been right next to one another. The rest was history. Like our fathers before us, Chloe and I were always in the same classes because of our last names. Unlike our dads, we weren’t best friends—not for lack of trying on my part.
She had been born four months after me and although she’d started out life in the town of Bliss like I had, her family had moved to Brooklyn before her first birthday. Her dad had moved back to town with her when we were three and a half, just two weeks before we started preschool—right after her mother bailed out on her and Uncle Leo.
My parents had told me to make Chloe feel welcome, and I’d done my best, but everything I did backfired. I’d been trying to get on her good side since the very first day I met her but other than stomping her foot and glaring at me, she hardly gave me the time of day. I wanted to think Chloe was the girl Madam Aria was talking about but the way things were going I was starting to believe she was never going to like me. I didn’t know why but the bottom line was that the only girl I cared about couldn’t stand me.
Before I could ask any questions, Aria closed her eyes again and gripped the ball tight. It felt like a dozen years passed before she opened them. Her eyes locked onto mine as she leaned forward and grabbed my right hand with her left.
“I know you’re confused and that sometimes you wish you could stop liking her but that will never happen. It’s very important for you to use your head and make wise choices,” she said forcefully. “Your beloved’s life this time around has caused her to build walls around herself. She feels less than and she’s channeled that into jealousy of you.”
