But when I go to tell Rose I’ll see her tomorrow, she looks so disappointed, I swallow my words. Besides, it’s not like I’m in a rush to say goodbye. So, looking as innocent as we can, we head upstairs to her room together. I’ll say I lent her my laptop charger if anyone asks why I’m up here, I decide. But I don’t have to use the excuse, because we don’t run into a soul.

“We’ll have to be quick,” I go to tell Rose, but she kisses the words away. I think she’s been waiting for this the whole time we were in the ballroom. We hit her bed and fall backward together, still kissing.

“I can’t stay long,” I say around the kisses. God, I wish I didn’t need sleep. What a waste, to lie there unconscious all night, day in and day out, eating into perfectly good make-out time.

“Mmm.”

“We’ll get in so much trouble if we’re caught.” God, I wish there wasn’t a curfew.

“Shut up, then, and we won’t get caught,” she says, her eyes glinting with amusement.

I open my mouth, and she kisses the words away until I forget what I was going to say to begin with.

By the time I leave Rose’s room, it’s not “a little past curfew” late. It’s “immediate detention” late. It’s “get your ass handed to you by the headmaster the next morning if you’re caught” late. And I should care, I really, really should. But I just don’t.

I pull her door closed as gently as I can and slip down the hall and to the stairs, taking them slow and steady to avoid creaking.

So, of course, I manage to run right into Harriet as I reach the bottom of the staircase.

I freeze, wincing, and brace myself for whatever she’s got to say. She might be my friend, but she’s tough on curfew. I’ve overheard her doling out detentions through the walls more than a couple of times.

“And what time do you call this?” she asks, looking me up and down, and sounding … amused? Amused is a good start. Much better than pissed off.

“I accidentally fell asleep watching a movie with someone,” I lie in my best pleading tone.

“So you weren’t gallivanting?”

“I promise, zero gallivanting on my end. And it won’t happen again,” I add.

Harriet rolls her eyes fondly. “Hurry up and get in your room before someone sees us,” she says, and I clasp my hands together to thank her. “Hey, Danni,” she says, just as I turn to go. “I heard you playing tonight, when I was heading out to my rounds. I haven’t heard you play that song before. It was beautiful.”

I touch the back of my neck self-consciously. “Oh. Thank you.”