And, really, who cared if Helena had fourteen inches, or ten inches, or even six? Her parents never cared about her, even when she had a full luck line. Michael resented her for having a luck line in the first place. And Helena didn’t even want anything for herself anymore, except for somebody to love her again, so really, she was fine with—

  Beeeep!

  Helena broke contact with her luck line, using both hands to answer the call. Her arm was still prickling when she held the phone to her face. “Nadia, I’m sorry. I was completely out of line, and I—”

  A monotone recording interrupted her. “Hello. This is Fortuna Bank. We are calling about your request to upgrade to our platinum credit card. After examining your luck line status and employment history, we have decided to approve your account for—”

  “No!” Helena hurled her phone into the couch. It bounced unharmed on the cushion. Then she directed her rage toward the floor, kicking it as hard as she could, letting the force rattle through her heels and up her calves. “No, no, no, n-aah!”

  Pain shot into her arch. She fell to the floor, clutching her left foot, which was now bleeding. The cut wasn’t deep, but it was in the softest part of her sole. She rocked back and forth, moaning her way through the pain.

  Once the pain became ignorable, she searched for whatever had injured her. One of the shirts in the pile of Halloween laundry had a small bloody hole. She picked the shirt up, and a spiky metal ball tumbled out. Oh. So that was where Nadia’s thistle pendant had gone.

  Was this supposed to be some kind of consolation prize? She couldn’t win her girlfriend back, so fate had given her this secondhand necklace instead? Ridiculous. Helena tossed the thistle pendant on the couch next to her stupid phone.

  This wasn’t how her line was supposed to work. The luck was supposed to follow her will toward whatever she was wishing for. She’d wanted to talk to Nadia, not some monotone bank recording. Helena probably couldn’t even use the credit card now that she’d ruined her perfect twenty inches.

  Now she only had…nine inches? Eight? She hadn’t been keeping track at the end. Helena took a deep breath and forced herself to look.

  Her arm was blank. Helena rubbed her eyes and looked closer for any subtle variations in color. Her skin was all the same shade of brown now, not a trace of red in sight. She checked the other side of her arm. Her entire luck line had disappeared.

  How did this happen? She remembered panicking around the halfway mark, but even in a frenzy, she couldn’t have spent her whole luck line without noticing. Could she?

  Maybe her hand had slipped when she answered the phone. Her finger may have burned the last few inches of her line without realizing it. She’d heard stories of people burning a few inches accidentally, but Helena never imagined she would be one of them.

  All the hope and panic and rage of the last few minutes fell out of her. Her body sank to the cold, unforgiving floor. An entire lifetime’s worth of luck was gone. All the years she’d spent following her parents’ advice and resisting temptation were pointless now.

  The thought of her parents made Helena shudder. What little affection and approval she got from them was gone now. They would likely cut her off once they learned what she’d done.

  Her coworkers would probably shun her too. No one wanted to spend their free time with an emotional disaster. Now Helena would be the one eating lunch alone with the interns, listening to people spread rumors about her. Legally, KismetCorp couldn’t fire her for spending her luck line recklessly, but Helena could kiss any potential promotions goodbye.

  Helena blinked back tears. Damn it, why did she have to go and spoil the one good thing about herself? She pretended to have so much self-control, but in the end, she was no better than Michael.

  No, that wasn’t fair. Michael at least got the girl in the end.

  Helena rolled herself upright. Should…should she ask her brother for advice? He was the only one she knew who had been through something like this. And he did owe her a favor.

  Helena shuffled across the room and crawled onto her couch, careful not to stain the fabric with her still-bleeding foot. She grabbed her phone. Still no response from Nadia, of course. She swiped over to her brother’s profile and pressed the call button, making sure to click the “audio only” option so he wouldn’t see her weepy eyes.

  The phone picked up on the second ring. A young, squeaky voice answered, “Hi, Aunt Helena!”

  “Soren! Hi there. Can you hand the phone over to your dad? I need to ask him something.”

  “No can do. He’s napping, and he said if I wake him up again, I’ll lose video game privileges.”

  Helena forced herself to keep her voice calm. “Please, Soren. It’s an emergency.”

  “Oh. Well, I’ll give you to Mom, then.” Before Helena could explain that she needed his father specifically, Soren was already yelling for Iris. “Moooooom! Aunt Helena’s on the phooooone!”

  While Soren ran through the house, Helena took the chance to grab her mini first aid kit from a nearby shelf. She put the call on speakerphone so she could bandage her foot while talking.

  After a minute of yelling, a muffled voice responded, “Don’t scream, Soren. You’re going to make your poor aunt go deaf.” There was a shuffling noise followed by a much clearer version of her sister-in-law’s voice. “Hi, Helena. How are you doing?”

  It wasn’t the question itself that broke Helena but rather the soft, patient way Iris asked it. “I’m fine,” she choked.

  “You don’t sound fine. What’s wrong?”

  “Well, I…” Helena had always looked up to Iris—heck, when she was younger, she’d even had a crush on Iris. That was why she couldn’t bear to tell her sister-in-law what she’d done. Iris might be sympathetic, but she wouldn’t understand like Michael would. So, Helena answered with a half-truth. “My partner and I broke up.”

  Even Iris’s gasps were gentle. “Oh? I didn’t even know you had a boyfriend. How long were you together?”

  “Girlfriend,” Helena corrected. “And about six months.”

  Iris, to her credit, didn’t lose a second of momentum. “Oh no. What happened?”

  Helena poured some rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball. “We had a fight, and I said something thoughtless. When I tried to apologize, I made twice as many problems.” Her breath hitched when the disinfectant met her foot. “So, I wanted to ask Michael how he fixed things between the two of you.”

  “Are you talking about our fight Tuesday? I didn’t think the carpet stain was a big deal.”

  “No! I mean when Michael burned all of his line at the racetracks. And then he dropped out of college. And then he couldn’t find a job.” Helena ripped open a Band-Aid. “Most people would have been…well, hesitant to raise a baby with him after all of that.”

  The voice on the other end of the line grew icy. “Helena, I loved Soren from the moment I learned he existed. Abortion was never on the table for me.”

  “No, I wasn’t asking about that! Obviously keeping Soren was the right decision. I would never suggest otherwise,” Helena assured her. “But you could have taken advantage of Dunestown’s maternity program. You didn’t need Michael for childcare. You didn’t need him for anything, so why…”

  “Why didn’t I break up with him?” Iris prompted, her voice gentle once more.

  “Yeah.”

  “Because he spent all of his luck line.”

  Helena dropped the Band-Aid to the floor. “What?”

  Iris laughed at her confusion. “Think about it. So many people scolded me for getting pregnant: ‘You should have insisted on using a condom. You should have taken your birth control pill more consistently. You should have waited to have sex until marriage.’ Everybody around me acted like pregnancy was some sort of crime.

  “Michael never shamed me though. He knew there was nothing to be ashamed of. Instead, he sacrificed everything trying to support me and Soren.”

  “But he lost all his money.”

  “But he tried. For me. Where in the world would I find someone else that loyal? That selfless?”

  Helena’s mind immediately flashed to Nadia and her grandmother. “I don’t know,” she murmured.

  “I know most people think Michael was foolish, but to me, it was the most romantic gesture I could imagine,” Iris gushed. “It takes a special kind of person to turn a difficult situation into something beautiful like that.”

  Something beautiful, huh? Helena picked Nadia’s thistle necklace off the couch and twisted it in her fingers.

  “Obviously I’m not recommending you burn your luck line simply to get your girlfriend back.”

  Helena forced a laugh. “No, that would be so…irresponsible.”

  “You’re too smart for that,” Iris agreed. “That’s why I know you’ll be able to turn this situation around.”

  “Mm-hmm.” Helena put on a second Band-Aid. This one stuck.

  “Do you want to brainstorm together, maybe? Practice what you want to say?”

  “Thanks, Iris, but I’ve got this. I know what to do now.” She hung up the phone.

  Helena might not be able to wish herself back into a relationship, but that didn’t mean her luck had to go to waste. She was going to make her mistake mean something, even if she had to sacrifice her dignity to do it.

  THE RAIN WAS falling hard when Helena arrived at Nadia’s apartment complex. She held the stair railing with one hand and an umbrella with the other as she picked her way up the slippery steps. By the time she made it to the third floor, her fleece-lined boots were already waterlogged. So much for keeping her injured foot warm and dry.

  She squelched her way to Nadia’s door. Fluorescent light glowed through the cheap tie-dye curtains in the window. Helena rang the doorbell. She waited a minute, tugging her long sleeves down where they’d ridden up. When there was no answer, she pounded on the door. “Nadia? I know you’re home. I saw your car in the parking lot.”

  The curtains slid open. Nadia’s tired face stared at her through the glass. She had on no makeup, and her hair was tied in a sloppy bun. The glass muffled her voice when she spoke. “Well, that doesn’t make you sound like a stalker at all.”

  “It’s not stalking; it’s simple observation,” Helena argued. “You didn’t leave me much choice after you ignored all my texts.”

  “Most people would have taken the hint.”

  Helena winced. The disdain in Nadia’s eyes made her want to melt into the rainwater and hide in the gutter. “Look, we don’t have to get back together, but we should at least be able to hold a conversation. For closure’s sake.”

  “What’s left to talk about?”

  Helena fished Nadia’s necklace out of her purse. “I don’t know, maybe the fact that you left your pendant in a pile of dirty laundry on my floor?”

  Nadia’s eyes widened. She shoved her door open and snatched the pendant by the chain. “You kept it!” She cradled the metal thistle in her hands and bent her head to examine it.

  “Did you really think I’d be cruel enough to throw your keepsake away?”

  “No, but I told you to toss our costumes in the trash. I assumed you would have dumped everything without looking through the pockets.” Nadia fastened the chain behind her neck. As soon as the clasp closed, the tension immediately left her shoulders. She let out a shaky sigh. “Thank you, Helena. I’d called every landfill in town trying to find this. I thought I’d never see it again.” The smile she gave Helena seemed both heavy and fragile at the same time. “I owe you one.”

  Helena had thought this good deed would make her feel better about her spoiled luck line, or at least bring her some closure for the breakup. Instead, she found her ex’s gratitude depressing. Was the bar really so low a simple favor could get Nadia smiling at her again? “You really don’t. Consider it an apology for the stuff I said last week.”

  “Oh. Right.” The smile evaporated from Nadia’s face as she remembered how the necklace got lost in the first place. “Sure.”

  The two of them stood awkwardly facing each other. This would be a great time to excuse herself and retreat to the warmth of her car, but her feet refused to move. She couldn’t help but ask, “Why didn’t you tell me the truth about your luck line?”

  Nadia automatically started fidgeting with her pendant. “Like your friend said, I burned it all for nothing. Grandma ended up dying anyway.”

  “You don’t believe that. You wouldn’t have kept this necklace for so long if the extra year with her meant nothing.”

  Nadia’s hand closed over her thistle pendant, loosely enough to avoid injuring herself but tightly enough to hide the pendant from view.

  “You spent your luck for a good reason,” Helena insisted. “A noble one, even. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an idiot.”

  “Does it matter whether I used it for a ‘good’ reason or not?” Nadia sighed. “My line’s still gone.”

  “I think so.” Helena would be feeling a lot better about her own line if she’d spent it on something she could be proud of, like saving her grandma or supporting her unborn child. “Your line shows what your priorities are, even if you don’t necessarily get what you wish for.”

  A gust blew some rain sideways, sprinkling Helena’s side. Nadia, protected by the door, stayed dry. They were only a few feet apart, but they still felt so distant. “It was silly of me to assume you’d spent the luck on your music though.”

  Nadia frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “You were right. You never needed it.”

  Nadia’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at the admission.

  “I only convinced myself otherwise because I was jealous. Sorry.” Helena glanced down. Her shirt was almost damp enough to see through. She should have known better than to wear cotton. The shirt itself was red, so her blank arm wasn’t too conspicuous, but if she stayed much longer, Nadia would eventually notice. “I should go.”

  She got halfway to the stairs when Nadia called after her. “Helena, wait!” She turned around. Nadia pointed to her foot. “There’s something wrong with your boot.”

  The fleece lining in Helena’s boot was pink around her heel. When Helena shifted her weight to get a better look, more pinkish water squelched up to stain the boot’s lining. The sole of her foot prickled. “Damn it, the Band-Aid must have come off.”

  She dropped the umbrella, leaned against the wet stucco wall, and ripped her boot off. The cut was dripping. How was her wound bleeding even worse than before? Was it because she’d climbed up so many stairs?

  Nadia hissed through her teeth when she saw the bloody foot. “What happened?”

  “I stepped on your necklace earlier,” Helena admitted. “That’s how I found it.”

  Nadia cringed. “Oh. I thought the red was paint.” She watched as Helena fished the soggy Band-Aid out of her shoe and tried hopelessly to restick it. “Helena, give up. It’s dead. Come inside and I’ll give you a new one.”

  Helena slapped the wet plastic against her heel. Half of the bandage stuck. “It’s fine! I’m good. I’ll see you Monday.”

  Nadia walked over and grabbed her by the elbow. “No. If you go down those stairs right now, you’ll give yourself tetanus. Come on, I said I owed you one, didn’t I?” She pulled Helena through the doorway and swung the door shut with her hip.

  The air inside was warm and dry due to an overactive heater, and the unmistakable scent of ferret permeated the living room. Phantom’s cage was open, and Helena could hear him chittering, but she couldn’t see him. “Damn it,” Nadia muttered. “I forgot I was feeding him when you showed up.” She let go of Helena and began searching under her furniture. “Phantom? Phaaantooom.”

  Chortling came from inside the kitchen trash can. The bag was empty except for a few napkins, one of which Phantom was tearing to shreds. “He’s in the garbage.”

  Nadia snorted. “Of course he is.” She scooped him up out of the can. “Aw, who’s my little trash boy?” She handed the ferret to Helena. “Hold him while I get your bandage.”

  “Okay.”

  Phantom gladly transitioned to her arms so he could smell the wet boot in her hand. He stuck his head inside. Helena sat down in a chair by the kitchen and subtly positioned the ferret’s torso to cover her blank arm. Hopefully this would be quick and she could retreat to her car before Nadia saw anything.

  She watched Nadia rummage through her kitchen drawers, and a dash of red caught her eye. “Oh!”

  Nadia looked up. “Did Phantom nip you?”

  Helena shook her head, then pointed to her thistle painting still hanging above the kitchen sink. “You kept my painting?”

  Nadia smiled faintly. “Well yeah. I wasn’t going to toss out a perfectly good piece of art just because I was mad at the artist.”

  Helena honestly could not keep track of Nadia’s mood today. First, she wouldn’t even acknowledge her existence, and now she was complimenting her art? The whiplash was too much. “You told me to throw my last painting in the trash.”

  Nadia winced. “Well, maybe you’re not the only one who gets petty when she’s mad. Also, that painting fell on the floor.”

  “You said none of my work was sellable though.” Helena yanked Phantom’s head out of her boot. He responded by poking his nose in her loose sleeve.

  “Don’t put words in my mouth. I said your problem was you were afraid to sell them. You can’t be upset about people not appreciating your work if you never let anyone see it.”

  “Oh.”

  Nadia brought over a first aid kit and a kitchen towel. She kneeled in front of the chair and grabbed Helena’s bleeding foot without warning. In a soft voice, she added, “I love your art. Still do. But I got frustrated watching you obsess over that damn cloud when you could have been focusing on, you know, me.”

  “That’s fair,” Helena admitted, trying her best not to get flustered.

  Nadia rolled up Helena’s pant leg and began rubbing her foot dry, careful not to agitate the cut. The two of them settled into a comfortable silence. Nadia’s fingers rubbed circles on Helena’s skin through the thin cloth. She couldn’t help but be reminded of the massages they used to give each other back when they were…closer.