Chương 50: Epilogue - Cold Snap

The cold snap that Conrad had warned me about happened that night. It would have been bad enough if I was in the mansion, but I was still in my tent. I woke up shivering under my pile of bedding and thought wistfully of the antique heating system that had worked so hard to stave off the worst of the winter chill. It might have been old and barely effective, but it had been something. Ms. Elstein was right: you don't know what you have until it's gone.

As the shivering went on, I started thinking wistfully of the solid walls too. Thankfully, Kappa had been given permission to sleep in the groundskeeper's cottage. If the bog-monster had been outside that night, he would've gone into hibernation, and we wouldn't have seen him again until August. Waking Kappa up from the normal morning chill took an hour and broke my heart to watch. He would groan while dragging himself over and around his nest, trying to raise his head.

When he managed it, his head would float around in weary circles, and he would blink his ginormous eyes, trying to get them to focus. By the time he got to his breakfast, it was dried and crusty. I had asked Igor to let him inside as a nocturnal guest. Igor, of course, had been stubborn about it.

"I let you all use my shower. Isn't that enough?" I had held up Kappa, who was only halfway through that morning's wake-up ordeal. He'd let out a quiet, pitiable groan. His head lolled, and his body hung limp. Igor held out for two whole seconds.

"Oh, fine!" he huffed. In a grumble, he added, "I suppose it's better than watching half his breakfast go to waste each morning." He raised his voice and pointed at me.

"But not you, young lady!"

"Not me what?"

"I won't have you sleeping in my shack." I was torn between amusement and offense. I hadn't even thought to ask, but I was already being barred from the option.

"Do I snore or something?" I asked.

"Kappa is a gentleman who falls asleep by nine-thirty and knows how to respect a person's desire for silence, whereas you—" I raised my hand to stop him.

"I get it, I get it. Noisy girl who stays up late. Consider me banished." I pulled Kappa to my chest and spun away while crying to the distant sky and any grumpy chefs who might be listening, "Banished! Unwanted! Sent to freeze to death in an uncaring world. Woe, oh woe, is me!" In my arms, Kappa had burbled out a drowsy, "Woe." It was less funny now that my teeth were clattering against each other at three in the morning.

I could've gone out to find more blankets, but that would've required me to throw on my cold sneakers, walk out into the yard, remove the tarps, and search through all the boxes while praying that the ones with the blankets in them hadn't already been moved back into the house. I wasn't supposed to go in there without a hard hat. By the time I finished doing that, there'd be no chance of getting back to sleep.

'Cause you're totally going to be able to sleep like this. An extra hard shiver shook me to my bones. If only I had some slippers! Back in November, when I'd mentioned the cold floors to Iset, she'd offered to buy me some, but I'd brushed it off. For a seer, it was irritating how short-sighted I could be. I could've gotten a pair of those huge paw slippers that covered my whole foot! Then I could've gone tromping around the yard bear-foot. On the other hand (paw?), I was a semi-legitimate member of an honest-to-goodness lycanthrope pack. Maybe I could get a set of wolf-paw slippers. If they made those. I grinned as I pictured Conrad's reaction—or, rather, his non- reaction. I always got a perverse kick out of the contrast between my enthusiasm and his indifference.

I could picture myself pointing out that my paws were bigger than his, thumping them up on the coffee table in the TV room to compare, and solemnly declaring, "You know what they say about wolves with big paws," and Conrad, without cracking a smile, would ignore my joke and stoke my jealousy by reminding me that his fur was warmer. Not that he needed all that fur. The dude was a walking furnace. Really, if he had any decency, he'd give his fur to me. Something occurred to me.

It isn't easy to work through complex social calculations while half your brain is occupied with making you vibrate at a million miles an hour, but I did my best. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I picked up my phone, turned it to my face, and winced against the sudden light. 3: 18. And it wasn't getting any warmer.

I dragged myself to the edge of my bed, shoved my feet into my sneakers, dropped all but my favorite comforter, and snuck out into the night. I made my way over to Conrad's tent. He never bothered to tie down his door flaps. I inched them aside and peered in. He'd tied up one of his back flaps —up, as in, wide open. The moonlight was streaming in. I knew what he was doing. I did it too. In the daytime. When it was warm, those tents could get stuffy. But to do it at night?

That was just bragging about how much heat he put off! I shook off my sneakers and crouch-walked over to his bed. He was lying on his side, facing me. A second after I got there, I saw him move. He raised his nose an inch, then dropped it back to the pillow.

"You have got to be kidding me," he grumbled.

"Hey," I whispered. He rolled over so his back was to me. I put my crossed arms on his mattress and laid my chin on them.

"Have I ever told you how much I appreciate what a kind, patient, considerate, cozy friend you are?"

"Tell me in the morning." Two seconds later, he rotated his head until his nose was pointing up.

"Cozy?"

"It's freezing outside, Conrad."

"Funny. It's nice and warm in here." He curled up and pulled his blanket—a blanket! Not even a quilt! —over himself until all I could see were his ears, poking out the top. I used a finger to bend the tip of one of them toward me.

"That's why I'm here, sir." He sighed.

"Is this what I get for having a best friend who's an insomniac?" I corrected him: "A cold insomniac." He twisted the top half of his body so he could look at me.

"You're cold?" I gave him my best puppy-dog eyes and nodded.

"Goddammit," he said with a laugh. He reached out with one arm and hauled me over his body onto the bed. After a few seconds of squirming, I managed to burrow under the blanket while keeping at least half the comforter over me. I was facing Conrad, not even snuggled into his fur, and there was still enough warmth to cocoon me. I hummed with satisfaction.

"You're wearing my old shirt," Conrad noted.

"Um, yeah?" I said.

"I always wear your old shirt to bed."

"I thought it got torn when I pulled you out of the truck."

"I sewed it back up!" What kind of a slob did he take me for? I had some standards. Conrad chuffed.

"Remind me to give you a new one tomorrow." He tugged me closer.

"Come on. Roll over." I rolled to my left side and wiggled until my back was against his chest. He put his arm over me and rested his muzzle on top of my head. I hadn't realized how cold my scalp was until I felt the heat on my bare skin. Even through the fur on his throat, it felt like a steady, low-level blaze. Conrad drew in a long, slow breath through his nose to get my scent. You always knew the scent of your pack. Poor guy.

As far as I could tell, the only thing Conrad ever got from having me as a packmate was less sleep, but I was being spoiled rotten. I laid there, soaking in the warm and feeling like I was in fluffy heaven—as if there could ever be a heaven that didn't involve fluff.

"Hey," I said under my breath.

"Go to sleep," Conrad grumbled.

"I heard from Mrs. Park today. She was in port. We texted for a while."

"Oh?" I could hear the smile in Conrad's voice.

"How's she enjoying the cruise?" Big Jacky had offered to pay for Mrs. Park to go on an extended vacation since she wouldn't be needed to act as a housekeeper until there was some kind of house to keep. Now she was off somewhere in the Mediterranean, enjoying a luxury-class cabin and a month off work.

"She's loving it," I said.

"She says she's been flirting with all the single men, but she hasn't found that Love Boat romance yet." I felt Conrad's chest shake with his silent laugh.

"Best of luck to her," he said. I grinned. That was 99. 9% how I felt. Mrs. Park was so cool, it was impossible to know her and not wish her all the best… But there was that pesky 0. 1%, and it was pure worry.

"Conrad," I whispered, "do you think she's going to come back to us?" Conrad let out a sigh.

"I don't know, Mera. With the hazard pay that Noctis gave her, Mrs. Park could probably spend the rest of her life going on cruises." My stomach shrank into a sad little ball. Conrad ruthlessly continued, "After what she's been through, it'd be hard to blame her for wanting to avoid the mansion." The sad little ball of my stomach shrank until it was the size of a popcorn kernel, radiating with condensed sorrow and dread.

"You'd miss her," Conrad said.

"Yeah," I mumbled.

"You know you could drive to town to see her anytime you wanted."

"I know. I would. And of course I want her to do what's best for her, but…it isn't the same." I added in a squeak, "She was a part of our home."

"You could always ask her what her plans are." I felt around for the words that could explain my reluctance.

"No. I wouldn't want to pressure her or anything. I can wait. In the meantime, I can work on cultivating some maturity." Conrad patted my arm.

"That's big of you."

"You're not going anywhere, are you?" I didn't mind asking Conrad. I figured that he was stuck at the mansion—like me, and Kappa, and Iset. There was only one answer he could give, and it was the answer I most wanted to hear. But the length of his silence was making me panic. I pushed myself up on my arms.

"Are you?" Conrad chuckled and threw his arm over me, dragging me back to the mattress.

"Calm down," he said.

"Do you see me booking any cruises? I wouldn't have voted to rebuild the mansion if I didn't plan on sticking around. I'm not going anywhere soon. I promise." My heart rate slowed, and the sick feeling in my chest faded. I scooted around until I could settle back into the comfort I had so foolishly abandoned. I had barely found it again when Conrad spoke.

"You could move out, you know. You look human. You could live anywhere you want, and you know that Big Jacky would make sure you got settled comfortably—" I groaned.

"Aren't we supposed to be sleeping?"

"I cannot believe that the girl who woke me up just had the balls to say that to me." He flicked the side of my head. I rubbed the sting away.

"Come on, Conrad—where would I go?"

"Anywhere. Like I said."

"No, no, no." I punched the pillow I'd stolen to get it into a more comfortable shape.

"Anywhere doesn't have Kappas or Conrads. No good. What would I do if I got cold?"

"No doubt you'd freeze to death," he said.

"Exactly!" I said.

"That's the only option."

"The only one!"

"Well, I guess we can't risk that." Conrad pulled me to him so the whole length of my back was against his chest, and he put his muzzle back over my head. Move out, I thought as I drifted off. As if I could survive a week without them. For information about the release of the next book in the series, see below in the post-chapter author notes.