He held out his shorter arm toward me. “You still owe me for my hand.”


    “Being shunned doesn’t dissolve my debts?”


    “No. I just won’t be able to bother you about them now.”


    I stopped, and Dren did too. “That doesn’t make sense.”


    He grinned maliciously—it even went up into his grass-green eyes. “Let’s just say I have a feeling we’ll be seeing you again.”


    I opened my mouth. I wanted to say, I hope not. I thought I’d mean it. But the truth was I really didn’t know. I hated where I’d been tonight, but I was scared of the normal life that lay in front of me, too. I tossed his keys up, and he caught them.


    “Besides, Edith. You’re the type that gets into trouble, or gets dead.”


    I closed my mouth without saying anything at all. He gave me a flourishing bow and veered off, walking away through the snow.


    I arrived at my door and unlocked it. Inside my apartment, the carpeting was still new, and I stepped onto it, feeling like I’d stepped onto the ground of an unknown world.


    I took a shower and I waited up. And once dawn came, I slept.