Page 61 of How to Seduce a Slender

“Because the diner owner, Bourgias, the one that the Lord Commander was hunting down for questioning? They left his feet on her desk…still in his shoes.”

Impressive.Smith knew why the necromancer wasn’t home. They were busy cleaning up their mess and sending threats to the councilor over business. But then that meant that the necromancer was in business with Councilor Dawn.

“Aaliyah, do you know who Winters was talking to the day Melody Deathless was chased down in the city? I know you know what happened.”

“I heard about your waitress, yeah,” Aaliyah huffed, crossed her arms over her silk blouse. “Everyone knows you were obsessed with her…but if I’m being honest, I thought it was you who chased her out of town. When I heard, no one knew why or who did it, not until Blightwood came back asking about eldritch beasts and memory magic. But to answer your question, no, I don’t know. That was all on Winters, I deal with theactualbusiness owners. Winters deal with the not so safe for work business.”

Smith bowed again. “Thank you for your time.”

He wasn’t going to comment about being accused of hunting Melody down. If it wasn’t for her desire to be chased, he’d be asmidgenoffended.

Chapter Twenty-One:

Melody

Content warning: animal emesis, induced vomiting, and sick animal

“Uh,Melody?”Kevinpokedhis head in through the back doors. Large, wooden framed doors with glass panes between veins of obsidian-colored ash wood. The handles were large, copper roses with thorny stems that ran up the seam of the door.

The woman in red snapped her head up from her homework at the kitchen table. Dahlia had been in the kitchen not long ago, working on carving up several pounds of fruit. However, Melody realized she was alone, and she didn’t know for how long she’d been that way. Melody glanced around swiftly.Hyperfocus, much!She smiled sheepishly at Kevin, “Yeah?”

“You busy?”

She glanced down at the paper she’d been furiously working on. Melody intended to finish her self-portrait and seal it in the pocket watch Sebastian provided her as a part of her deal with Smith. He wanted something he could carry with him? Well, pocket watches or lockets were more durable for travel than a mini canvas. It was, however, distinctly harder to do than she originally thought. Turns out, being visibly afraid of the mirror is not conducive to self-portraits.Who knew.But Melody didn’t want to risk seeing the wolf again.

Bathrooms and mirrors were now enemy number one.

“Not particularly, what ‘cha need?” She slipped to her feet, happy to leave the portrait alone a while. She’d gotten her shape down, hair, and the dress because she ogled at them all the time. But her face? She was starting to look a lot like Smith in her head.

“I just…would you come check out Carl? You being a werewolf, I’m worried he ate something.”

Melody furrowed her brow as she rounded the table. Following Kevin out the back door was like stepping out into another world. A massive porch extended out into a paddock of different animals. Two Nightmares galloped around catching snowflakes before they melted into water. She could hear the sizzling as white puffs were caught on their flaming hides. Chickens clucked and skittered across the open grassy plain of the yard. A barn framed the back left corner, made of the same decayed, rotten looking wood as the manor with aged crystal panes on the front. However, goats and pigs happily walked around the paddock, bleating, and snorting at each other as they moved about. A cow with three eyes and red spots mooed from the middle of a corn field, while a cow with three eyes and purple spots mooed back from the middle of a vegetable patch.

“Whoa,” Melody breathed, stopping at the center of a fully functioning necromancer farm to soak it all up.

“Oh! Right, you haven’t been back here yet,” Kevin chortled, spreading his arms in a showman sort of way. Dust and cracked corn spread through the air as he did a twirl. “Welcome to the funny farm!”

Melody giggled happily as she did her own slow spin. Both cows looked at her, their eyes blinking at different speeds, before they unhinged their jaws. Tentacles writhed from their mouths in her direction. Then they mooed loudly and went back to stomping their respective yards. Melody’s eyes grew wide.

“That’s Bessy and that’s Butter.” Kevin pointed to the cows individually. “They’re sisters but not twins.”

“Clearly,” Melody snorted, eyeing him. “Are they…?”

“Moody? Yeah, but don’t hold that against them. They’re old ladies. Now, this is Stewy!” Kevin pointed to the massive billy goat in the middle of the yard. All black fur, bright red eyes with hard slits across the middle, obsidian horns, and a long, curly beard. “He’s my main guy, really good at protecting the yard. You know, minus Carl. Such a sweetie, say hi, Stewy!”

Kevin continued across the field, leaving Melody in a standoff with the goat. Stewy bleated at her, and Melody inched around the goat as if to keep a healthy ten feet away from him at all times. The goat watched her, his head spinning a full hundred and eighty degrees. Melody laughed nervously before scrambling to catch up with Kevin.

“Wow, you manage a lot of animals.” Melody panted for air as she stepped up beside Kevin at the edge of a paddock. Wooden gates were more like suggestions that the animals seemed to obey. Kevin lumbered over one of them, leading the two through a massive patch of tall grass. It tickled the bottom of Melody’s chin as she followed him.

Kevin chuckled, “Not so bad, it keeps me busy. I keep them happy, fed, and do my best when it’s time for butchering.”

Melody nodded, holding up the front of her dress skirt. Unlike the other day, she was in just a basic ruby dress. Satin fabric swished around her, the bell sleeves brushing against the scratchy side of the blades of grass. Kevin stopped to offer her a hand. She took it and let him guide her over a massive overturned log. Melody held onto his heavy duty leather gloves as he led her deeper into the grass. The earth was less steady. Swampier even, as they descended deeper into the yard. The aged yellow, rough hide clothes were marred with burn marks. Melody could only imagine which creature caused them.

Until they cleared the grass to the other side. Along the massive iron fence that closed in the property, Carl lay flopped on his side. Massive tongue out of his mouth, panting heavily.

“Carl?” Melody chirped, scrambling to his side. The hellhound didn’t raise his head or even acknowledge her until her hands were raking through his thick fur. “Carl, sweetie, what’d you eat?”

“He’s been finding all these snacks out here by the fence a lot. I think he got into something nasty. His bellies hotter than molten lava, so whatever it was, it’s gotta be tough. Never seen him find something he couldn’t munch, you know?” Kevin knelt down beside the massive, newfoundland-sized beast.

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