Chapter 9

My gaze landed on him instantly, drawn like a magnet, and I almost didn’t recognize him. Jaxon had dyed his hair a bright, rebellious blonde color that clashed with his usual look. New tattoos up on his forearms and beneath the collar of his leather jacket.

A silver hoop glinted from his eyebrow, and there were even more piercings in his ears now, adding to the bad-boy look he’d adopted seemingly overnight. He looked like he —rough, dangerous, and somehow even more handsome than before.

Ava’s eyes widened beside me. “Oh, Mom and Dad are definitely going to have something to say about this,” she murmured, in awe and disbelief.

But he caught my eye before I could respond. And for a moment, it was as if time slowed. The bond between us might’ve been broken, but something remained—a thread of feelings that still connected us.

I felt a wave of his emotions, —anger, frustration. I could feel him pushing those feelings at me, though his expression stayed normal.

Then, as I watched, h