Page 177 of Chaos At Second Sight

“If you wanted me to shave Rudy Junior, all you had to do was ask. Naughty bunny.”

“Not there! I meant your face!” I was equal parts laughing and blushing by the time I reached the dark-green door. A photo of Amaia on her tiptoes, kissing a grinning Callum, was stuck to it.

Her new study room.

“Come on in!” she called, already knowing it was me.

Amaia was sprawled on Callum’s bed, in his wereball shirt and a pair of shorts, so I invaded his desk. I grabbed one of her books. No need for pointless chitchat.

“This is nice.” I beamed at her twenty minutes later. She nodded, her cheeks a cute pink color.

I resumed my reading, happy simply to be near my friend.

Everything had been going well lately…apart from Tiziano.

After Lucien killed his mate and the Comet wereball team was disqualified, Tiziano left. He had family in Canada and decided to finish his medical studies there.

“I only wanted to take you away from the game. Just distract your mates for a while.” Tizzy’s voice was barely there. “Not by force, just…coffee together. Like the old times.”

He was sitting by the bus window, pale and hollow, a ghost of who he had been before.

“He was supposed to join us so you could meet him.” His eyes dropped. “He wasn’t supposed to hurt anyone.”

“Don’t leave!” Makena punched the side of the bus. The driver glared at her from behind the closed door.

Amaia said nothing, just hugged herself. Tiziano had avoided her the most since the incident.

“We forgive you, Tizzy.” My voice broke. “Come back. Please. Things can be the way they were.”

Only, they couldn’t. No matter how tightly we held on, things changed. People changed. Our friend group had changed. No more Wednesday afternoons at the Pumpkin Hide, no more movie nights, no more croissant breakfasts, and⁠—

No more Tizzy.

“Comet was disqualified and you almost got killed. And now? Now, I don’t have a heart left.”

My chest ached.

“I’m just this useless piece of nothing.” A tear escaped. He wiped it away quickly, almost embarrassed by it. His mouth twisted into the faintest, saddest smile. “I need a new start.”

The bus began to move.

Our last picture of him was through that bus window: Tizzy sitting against the glass, a Comet cap pulled low over his face.

His hand rose; ours found each other—three friends holding on while a piece of our hearts drove away.

“We’ll be here.” I sent it through the mind-link.

Tizzy looked at us one last time. “I know.”

Then the bus disappeared behind a curve, smoke rising from the exhaust pipe.

None of us moved. We just stood there, holding hands, pretending that goodbye wasn’t the end of something.

Time healed everything…even losing a crazy mate who never deserved our Tizzy in the first place; he was abusive to him, but fed into Tiziano’s hatred for Dark Diamond. The fact that we had mates here hurt him more than we all could have foreseen.

Makena was the most inconsolable of all…especially after officially rejecting Gaius as her mate—a good decision, considering he had cheated on her again. She’d finally accepted that their relationship wasn’t healthy and decided to join Logan and me in Europe this summer. Deep down, I knew she hoped she’d find a second-chance mate there.

Second chances could happen. If your first fated mate passed away, rejected you, or things simply didn’t work out, sometimes another soulmate found their way to you. If you were brave enough to open up your heart again, or if you had more love left to give. And Makena had plenty of it.