There should be some difficulty in determining what, for a heart in love, was a more trying matter: fleeing from an army unit armed from toe to tooth, or being away from the heart’s beloved.

Despite both those matters being true for him, at the moment Christopher Hawks was quite content, if somewhat tired. Stepping out into the cold air, he took a deep breath. Freezing wind blew into his throat and he coughed, covering his mouth.

Squinting against the bright blue sky, he smiled: good weather this time of year was a rarity he had learned to appreciate.

Someone bumped into him and he moved away from the school entrance, avoiding being trampled by the students behind him who spilled out into the campus grounds.

Tearing his eyes away from the sky, Chris glanced at his watch.

There wasn’t any reason to be in a hurry other than the prospect of finishing homework early – he simply didn’t like being shoved into the walls by the growing crowd just because Daniel hadn’t had the decency to bring Julia out here and talk on their way to the dorms for once...

Something flew past him and he snapped around to look. A large icicle was sticking out of the wall beside his left ear, gravity slowly pulling it down until it fell with a low crash. Steadying his breath and ignoring his racing heart, Chris traced the probable source of the icicle to a group of laughing male Witches a few steps away from the entrance, close to where he’d been standing.

“Real mature,” Chris mumbled under his breath.