---
Color rose under her skin like dawn under frost. "You sound like a poet," she said.
"I feel like a lost man," he said. "I wanted to find you. I could not leave. Punishment. Curfew. Rules that have never met romance."
Sera's laugh ghosted out. "You can find me in your heart," she said, trying to make light and failing because truth made it heavy. She breathed. "Listen. You cannot leave freely now. First-years never can. But there will be an outdoor training in a few weeks. You will go to buy things. When you go out, I will meet you. At the house. At the shop. The one I gave you."
John looked at her, eyes warm and unguarded for a moment. "I will come," he said. "My body and my heart—" he stopped, embarrassed by his own daring, then decided to be brave twice in one day— "they crave you."
