Chapter 1

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1

On a Labor Day weekend road trip to a century-old mountain village, my boyfriend's childhood sweetheart decided that, to pray for every stray animal in the world, she absolutely had to release nine hundred and ninety-nine sky lanterns.

I looked at the century-old timber buildings crowded all around us, every one of them tinder, and snatched the lighter out of her hand.

"You send those up and you're setting the whole mountain on fire. Are you trying to get everyone in this village killed?!"

Carmen Fox dissolved into wounded tears and threw herself into my boyfriend's arms.

"Poor little animals are suffering, and all you care about is these cold, ugly old houses. Do you even have a heart?"

I didn't give an inch. I threw the law at her until she backed down.

Herman Dickerson was afraid of the whole thing blowing up, so he grudgingly shut Carmen in her room.

Carmen felt her sincere prayers had been ruined. On the drive back she slipped off in secret to feed wild animals, lost her footing, and fell off a cliff.

The day the news of her death came, Herman was inconsolable. He clutched Carmen's things and sank into a month of grief.

I thought he'd finally let go of the obsession, and I threw myself into planning our wedding.

Then, on the day I was trying on the wedding dress, he poured a whole can of gasoline over my head with his own hands.

The instant the match scraped alight, his smile turned savage.

"If you hadn't stopped Carmen from flying her lanterns, she never would have fallen off that cliff!"

The flames swallowed me whole in a heartbeat.

When I opened my eyes again, Carmen was lifting the lighter, all sweetness and coquetry.

"I'm going to light up the whole sky and shine it down over every stray baby's night!"

...

"Nine hundred and ninety-nine sky lanterns floating up there is going to look gorgeous. I film it, post it online, and I'm guaranteed to blow up."

"Once I'm famous I can pull in tons of donations. I could even do livestream sales..."

Carmen's eyes glittered with excitement as she moved to light it.

Watching the scene in front of me, every drop of blood in my body ran backward.

I had been reborn.

Sent back to the exact moment that had changed my fate.

I stepped forward, wrenched the lighter away, and in the same motion ground that lantern under my foot.

"This whole village is unbroken rows of century-old timber. Everything around it is dry mountain forest."

"One bad outcome and you've broken the arson statute. That's prison time."

My voice was cold and hard, the words coming fast.

I didn't actually care whether she lived or died, but these old buildings were protected, and the lives of the hundred-odd villagers here were lives too.

Carmen stumbled from the shove.

She froze for a second, then her eyes went red on the spot.

"Maxine Harding, do you even understand what compassion means?"

"I only wanted to pray for them. To ask the heavens to watch over them."

"Why do you always crush my good intentions with these cold, dead rules?"

"In your eyes, are these ugly old houses really worth more than tens of thousands of living creatures?"

Carmen cut her eyes sideways, and her two friends, Nadia and Fifi, rushed straight over.

"Maxine, is this really necessary? Carmen just wants to say a prayer and you have to blow it up into some huge deal!"

"Right. Fixating on a few dumb rules all day, cold as ice. No wonder Herman keeps saying being with you is suffocating!"

Fifi rolled her eyes beside her, chiming in.

My boyfriend, Herman, stood off to the side, brow knotted tight.

He glanced at the warning signs strung up around the village, the ones reading NO OPEN FLAMES, and a flicker of hesitation crossed his eyes.

But the second Carmen tugged at his sleeve and the tears started dripping, plop after plop, whatever sense he had left evaporated.

He yanked me aside and dropped his voice to scold me.

"Maxine, that's enough."

"Carmen has a good heart. She's a simple girl."

"Do you have to back her into a corner in front of everyone and humiliate her?"

Looking at this man who in my last life had burned me alive with his own hands, my heart sank to the bottom.

I pulled out my phone, pulled up the sentencing terms of the arson statute, and pushed it right in front of Herman's face.

"Whoever causes serious injury, death, or major damage to public or private property through fire shall be sentenced to three to seven years' imprisonment."

"Herman, I'm saving your lives."

Herman shoved my phone away in irritation and flung my hand off.

My wrist slammed into the wooden railing, swelling red at once.

"Enough!"

He turned to soothe Carmen, gentle again, and in the same breath swept every lantern off the ground into his backpack.

"Carmen already said she's doing a good deed. The heavens will look after her."

"Come on, Carmen, stop crying. We'll go release them somewhere quiet at the foot of the mountain, where she can't stick her nose in!"

Carmen nestled against Herman and shot me a taunting look.

My fingertips dug hard into my palm; I barely held back from slapping her on the spot.

"If you're all so set on doing this, then I won't stay for it."

I turned to grab my suitcase and go.

"Stop! You are not leaving!"

Carmen shrieked and suddenly lunged over, flinging her arms wide to block me.

She wept like a spring rain on pear blossoms, her voice shrill.

"Maxine, what's that supposed to mean, walking off now?"

"If you won't stay and pray with me today, then you've got a guilty conscience, then you're cursing those poor strays to die!"

"You are staying here to watch me light these lanterns, and you're going to sincerely apologize to the little animals!"

Nadia and Fifi caught on instantly and clamped down on my arms, one on each side, dragging me back by force.

"That's right, you're not leaving!"

Herman watched Carmen cry until her whole body shook, and that finished it. He turned on me and roared.

"Maxine! Carmen already gave in and agreed to go release them at the foot of the mountain, and you still want to make a face and walk off?"

"You apologize to Carmen right now, and you calm her down!"

Looking at this man who claimed, over and over, that he loved me, yet forced me to bow my head and admit fault for the sake of his childhood sweetheart.

In my last life, it was exactly his indulgence and his favoritism that let Carmen act without a thought for the consequences, and it got me killed.

I didn't waste another word arguing.

I only lowered my eyes and gripped the phone still recording, tight in my palm.