The next morning, I woke early and dressed in as many clothes as were in the small chest of drawers in my room. Not my room, even though I'd come to call it that these last several days. Soon, I was ready to go to Old Man's Den, ready to get this charade over with so I could get paid and leave here for good. Leave Grady and the horrible way he made me feel. Leave Sasha. Leave Hellbreath. And leave Archer.

Those last two would be the hardest. Archer's warmth and easy nature had ...