Page 94 of How to Seduce a Slender

“What can I say?” Mestophemuse hacked up a whole chunk of roasted meat that Havroc caught with a massive purple tongue.

“We enjoy a little danger. And we’re always hungry things, wouldn’t you agree?” Havroc snickered. “What are you doing, Servonix? Why are you making your poor pray dizzy in this manner?”

Melody laughed, “We’re dancing.”

“Dancing?” Both of the elder Slender murmured, glancing at each other with a befuddled slouch to their shoulders. Suddenly, Smith was able to see what Melody meant. Even without faces, they had an expression that made him huff.

“Yes, it is a movement that mortals perform when celebrating,” he hated explaining it to them because he knew the questioning had only begun.

“Celebrating?” Mestophemuse wheezed, smoke pluming out of their mouth.

“What are we celebrating? Did you both kill a mighty beast together?” Havroc’s mouth upon their chest opened wide with impish delight.

“It’s almost Smith’s birthday!”

“Birthday?”

Oh, here we go.And so, Smith spent the better part of the evening also teaching his mentors how to waltz, the meaning behind birthday cake, and why mortals celebrated such things. Smith would have said he couldn’t wait till morning, but despite it, as he stood back and watched Havroc wildly swing Mestophemuse around in childlike wonder while Melody clapped out a beat. He couldn’t have wished anything better.

It was strange and delightfully domestic, something he hadn’t felt in a while and definitely not in the Endless Woods before. It was the sweet werewolf with her tail made of smoke, grinning at him from over her shoulder.It’s because of her…my life is full.

Chapter Thirty-Three:

Melody

Wakinguptosunlighton her cheeks, the blankets up to her shoulders, and for the first time, no Slender at her back.Or inside her for that matter.She was lazily draped in the bed. Melody pushed up until she sat on her hip. Glancing around the room, she studied it in the hazy light. Every time she tried to focus anywhere but the dusty outline of a missing portrait, her eyes traveled back. It haunted her. Called to her.

Something’s wrong with it, little wolfie…

The softly whispered, evil cackled voice of Persephone drifted in her ear. Melody was drawn to it. Something was wrong with the wallpaper. As her feet touched the frosty floor, biting into her flesh, she woke up. Her senses cleared and she could smell something rotting.Decaying.She tiptoed across the floor, following the stench in her nose. With every inch it grew thicker. Her body tensed with her hackles raised. As she stood in front of the wall, the world was drenched in red. She saw a seam where plumes of invisible stench danced out from under the wallpaper.

Melody wrenched the paper back. It ripped like it were made to come off in one strip. Like a false drawer in a desk or a rug over an already open trapdoor. Her hands immediately flew to her nose. Rot. Decay. Death. Pungent and overwhelming, the wall made her eyes water. Carved into the walls with someone’s bloody fingernails was a spell circle. At the center was a pentagram that’d been drawn over and over to the point she saw shards of something embedded in the wood behind the wallpaper. Wallpaper that was exactly the same color and design as the paint.Someone did this so long ago, when they took the portrait down, it didn’t even budge.

The door to the bedroom wrenched open but her eyes were glued to the symbol on the wall.I’ve seen it before.It repeated in her head as someone came to her side, enveloping her in one arm and putting a cloth to her other. Coffee beans, freshly roasted. The cloth was clearly soaked in their cleansing scent as it washed away the pungent death. Melody clutched the mint green hand to her face, inhaling the coffee deep.

“Steady, even breaths, little one. There we go. And what do we have here.”

Melody’s watery eyes flickered up to the uncovered face of Sebastian Rosemont. In all his pretty glory with his high cheekbones and emerald scales along his temple and brows. His obsidian eyes studied the wall intently.

“How did you know that was there?” He glanced down at her.

Melody flailed her hands about.

“Right! Right, the stench,” He snapped his fingers at the wall. Black flames rolled up the bare wall, burning the perfect cut out of wallpaper and the symbol.

I know that symbol.It plagued her. She’d seen so many symbols over and over, they’d begun to spin in her head. Melody could recreate it but couldn’t pin down where it was or why she’d seen it.

Sebastian nodded at his own successful removal of the symbol before slowly prying the cloth from her face. Melody inhaled deeply through her nose and let out a heavy, thankful exhale. “It smells good again.”

Never say I didn’t do anything for you, Wolfie…

Melody squinted at Sebastian then back at the wall. That symbol had been there for a while. She growled, no actual words, just growled as she lurched back towards the walls and inspected them. Fingernails and chunks of bone were still embedded in the wall. “Elyth drew that symbol over and over here. Must have been important.”

“It was…that was the prototype for her collar spell.” Sebastian crossed his arms over his vest and button-down shirt covered chest.

Melody whirled to face him. “How’d you know?”

“I saw elements from that in her later works. It was rough, and weak, not strong enough to work on anything stronger than say an elemental, but that tells me where she got her humble beginnings. Though, I thought I cleared all magic in this house when I moved in. It seems Elyth was good at hiding things.” Sebastian scowled, tapping an irritated finger against his bicep with a rapid tempo. “Must not have been strong enough for me to pick up on or…or…”

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