Page 85 of How to Seduce a Slender

Sebastian stopped dead in his tracks before glancing to look up at Smith. It took only a few seconds for Melody to catch on.

“She wanted to lure in a Slender from the Endless Woods,” Melody breathed.

“And this time, collar it. So that it would do exactly as she wanted. She didn’t intend for this one to have free will.” Sebastian stepped away from the spell and headed for Smith. Her Slender was frozen at the head of the spell.

“What!” Smith barked, stumbling back a step. “That couldn’t…it wouldn’t… Could she have?”

“I think Elyth realized her talent early on and honed that skill. I think she used you but couldn’t control you, as you were still just a regular person, summoned to this place. And I think she was trying to do it again, but this time, she’d perfected her craft. After hundreds of years, she’d finally gotten strong enough to collar one. But Melody disrupted her plans. Melody changed the trajectory to the Nightmare Realm, where the Witch of the Woods found you, not a Slender out for a bite to eat.” Sebastian continued, stalking around the circle with his hands folded behind him at the small of his back.

“Sir, that’s not possible.” Smith stood incredibly tall, his static erratic and crackling.

“Unfortunately, my old friend,” Sebastian stopped to face Melody with an apologetic look. “It is very much possible. And since Melody ruined her spell the last time, it seems only plausible that Elyth intends to use her as bait once more as a means of revenge. And whatever she collars, whatever beast she traps in her web, will have no bodily autonomy. They will be forced to do exactly as she says and not even death would grant them sweet release. A collar like this would just bring them back. An endless cycle of torment.”

Melody swallowed loudly. “Could she…”

The whole yard stared at her as she tried to form the words. Her gaze fell to the spell circle at her feet. She’d never been more scared in her life as the words finally formed.

“If she got ahold of Smith again, if she trapped him in something like this. Would she be able to collar him?”

Her gaze snapped to Smith. He shrunk back down to normal size, his face fully clear to her again. Her heart thumped sluggishly as time slowed down.

The poisoned treats for Carl. Trying to destroy Kevin. Killing off Winters with her evil book. Every time something happened, Smith was forced to go into town alone to do something or fix something.

“Yes.” Sebastian’s reply made her heart sink.

“I’m not the target,” Melody blurted out, tears welling in her eyes. “Smith is.”

“What?” Smith breathed.

“She’s trying to get you alone. When we went into town together, that thing got in between us. But every time something happens, you leave me here and go in town alone. But recently you’ve been using portals or blinking or jumping out of reach. But if she just keeps trying, one of these times, you’re going to be caught. She’s trying to lure you out because why would she chance catching something she doesn’t want when the Slender she wants to collar has been here all along. Smith don’t you see? I’ve always beenyour bait.”

Her heart skipped a beat as he stumbled back a step. Dahlia reached for him, but he was out of reach, falling to the clovers beneath them.

“This whole time…”

“It was never about me,” Melody murmured as her voice wobbled.Maybe the first time, Elyth had wanted to catch one, spent years crafting the circle and working to perfect her trap…but why go fishing when the wolf was in the woods?Why hope that her trap would catch what she wanted when what she wanted just needed a collar. Elyth had switched gears and studied Smith’s habits.

The night she’d been attacked and chased down, it wasn’t to kill her, it was the lure Smith out into the woods, to keep him from going directly home to catch him.

“I need my wolf,” Melody’s eyes snapped up to Dahlia, a sharpness in her eyes. “I need to talk to the witch.”

Chapter Thirty:

Smith

“Absolutelynot,”Dahliasnapped.

“I can’t fight back without it. The witch wants a deal; I need to hear her out.” Melody dried her hands off on a random tea towel that Agatha handed her.

“She will steal from you. She’s got some bigger game!” Dahlia grabbed up a different one and wiped the paint off Melody’s forehead. The werewolf wrenched backwards and swatted her hand away.

“She’salreadystolen from me. I won’t let Elyth take Smith and I won’t stand by while my life is decided for me. Besides…”

Smith stood just an arm’s length from her but it felt like an eternity spanned between them. He stared at her, unable to voice the hundreds of things swirling through his head. Melody offered him a soft smile. The words fell out of his mouth without question, “I’m going with her.”

Dahlia glanced between the two of them. With an angry sigh, she strangled the tea towel. “Fine! Fine! We will go, but Smith…”

He caught the wild, uncertain stare of Dahlia Rosemont, eyes no longer slate gray but a swirling vortex of yellow. “Smith, you had better strike a good deal or we strike no deal at all.”

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