Moonshifted(109)

“I want my keys,” Dren said, walking alongside me.

“Aren’t you supposed to be shunning me now?” My feet made crisp sounds in the snow.

“Shuns usually go into place at dawn. Gives aggrieved parties a last chance to settle scores.”

“I suppose that’s type of technicality a Husker would know.”

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.