Page 76 of How to Seduce a Slender

Because if this was Elyth…the monster in the woods, the necromancer, had it been Elyth the whole time?

Was she still alive?

He couldn’t move for a long time. Not until Melody wrapped an arm around him and tugged him tight. He was shaken from his endless oblivion by a cheeky grin on her face. “It’s a jealous ex, isn’t it? They couldn’t stand me flirting with you over shitty pancakes another day, huh?”

Smith snorted, shaking his head. He cupped her cheek, bringing her forehead to his mouth. She hummed back, softly like that of a cat’s purr, as he kissed it. Smith missed the shift of shadows behind her. Not as he led her away. Nor as they climbed the steps, he didn’t see the shadowy tail split into three bushes of matted fluff…wagging.

SmithsatbesideMelody,flabbergasted. He wasn’t the only one. Kayla, Ophelia, and Dahlia all leaned over the table in complete reverence of Melody. Sebastian was with Austin in the library, leaving the house guests and staff to their own devices in the kitchen. Melody scribbled hard, only stopping when Smith reminded her to take a bite or a sip or a breath.

“Holy dragon’s spit,” Kayla breathed, tucking soft tufts of blond hair behind her pointy ears. The stars and moons on her wizard’s tiara tinkled as she inspected the piece. Ophelia was sat frozen in place, mouth dropped nearly to the table. Dahlia was grinning from ear to ear.

“Alright,” Melody exhaled slowly, taking back her pencil. “What do we think?”

“You’re fucking talented, that’s what we think!” Kayla barked. Dahlia’s college friends had become a monthly staple at the home. Once or twice, Markus and Kierson appeared to join in on the party, and Smith wondered if the Drow and Zillith weren’t also in the library. He’d check to see if they were…but his breathing, though unnecessary, had stopped.

“That’s Elyth,” he blurted out as his chest caved in.

He’d know that face anywhere. Melody had ripped the image of her directly out of his memories. She slid it across the table toward him. Smith was in shock for the first time.Irony as being the being of electricity and shadow.He put a finger to the page as if it could touch him back. That was Elyth Rosemont. The woman he thought he loved for ages and mourned the death of even up until recent years.

“Smith?” Melody croaked.

“May I steal you away for a moment. I believe I owe you a little bit of an explanation.” His innards rattled with exhaustion as he struggled to stand. Melody rushed to her feet. For the first time, he was the one leaning on her. Not that he weighed anything, but the thought was what counted as she looped an arm around him. “We’ll return, I promise my lady.”

Dahlia gave him an apologetic look before shooing him away with her hand. They left a table of three whispering women and stepped into the hushed house around them. Ideally, he would have waited to tell her in his office. But the confession didn’t wait. It pressed down on his heart like he was being stepped on by a mountain giant. It broke his bones and ground his chest into dust. The words came out of his mouth in a puff. “You remember how I told you I was summoned…to this realm?”

“Right, well, you said you were born in the Endless Woods. You were summoned?” Melody’s sweet face turned his stomach into knots.

It shouldn’t feel like a betrayal. And yet it stung the same as he spoke. “Her name was Elyth Rosemont. She was the oldest of the girls. Lord Rosemont wasn’t a particularly wealthy lord, and the people they oversaw were scattered throughout the woods. But that’s not exactly the point. The point is Elyth, in an attempt to bring a dead dog back to life, accidentally opened a portal into the Endless Woods. And I was foolish enough to step in it. My prey had seen it and ran through it hoping for safety. I had gotten ahold of them and was engorging myself when the portal closed and I was no longer in the woods. Now, not exactly a great introduction, but that’s the truth nonetheless. And when they screamed, I ran into the woods. You see this world is drenched in color. I’d never been somewhere so vibrant. There were smells and tastes and textures. I was more intrigued than scared of the girls and had never been to the human realm before…and so I explored. But every year, as if drawn back home, I would appear back at the house.”

Melody giggled, “That’s cute, like it’s your birthday?”

“That’s how they began to celebrate it. And every year Elyth and I would walk the grounds. She would tell me everything I missed. Who was having a scandal in court, what house was doing what, the animals on the property, all of it. Or so I believed. Until one year I came back, and they were mourning the death of their youngest. Elyth told me the house was cursed. Long ago they turned away a necromancer looking for aid, and that person cursed their family. And they would be picked off slowly until one of them appeased this person. And she told me she needed to marry a different lord, one who lived in present day Maylor Kingdom. But she didn’t want to marry him. So, I promised her I’d find this necromancer.” Smith tried not to ground out the words. Anger surprised him. He hadn’t expected it to hit him so fiercely. It crept up on him as they finally entered his office. He rounded the door but left it open as Melody sat down. Not like he didn’t know the whole house was listening.

He never talked about the past.

“What happened?” Melody breathed, patting the cushion on the couch next to her. Smith sat as she twisted to be knee to knee with him, fully engaged.

“Well, I went hunting. As I do. I sought out all the necromancers I could find. I picked them off one by one, those who couldn’t explain their whereabouts, those who seemed to know something but wouldn’t tell me. It was an endless rampage of death as I ripped apart most of the countryside looking for a necromancer. And when I returned, the second eldest had died, but the mother was pregnant once more. And once more Elyth told me everything. I don’t think I knew what the word was at the time, but I was enthralled by Elyth. She was the first person to ever treat me as her equal, to invite me in and talk with me. She was unafraid. And so, I craved her validation even more. However, their necromancer was still a problem. She would still have to marry this lord…and she told me if she married, that she would no longer be able to see me. That she would be lost to me because she would be expected to be his. And so she sent me on another quest to find information, books, all the things to help her research this curse to break it.”

Melody’s eyes had grown wide. Smith didn’t realize he was holding her hands until she squeezed, begging him to continue.

“For years, I would come and stay with them for a whole month, soak up as much of Elyth as I could before being sent out on some grand quest to find something or kill someone. I was her blood hound. Anything she wanted. And soon, I returned much faster. I would see her every few months, but nothing seemed to be working. The new youngest was only two when they were killed. Then the mother. Soon it was only her father and her. And when I came back on her birthday, she was sobbing as she said she was soon to go marry him. That all our efforts had been in vain. I asked if she wanted me to kill him. There was no way to marry him if he was dead, but she begged me just to stay. To stay with her and maybe we’d catch the necromancer here at the house. And so, I stayed. For days, then weeks, then I was there a whole month. Unfortunately, I’d grown hungry and there weren’t many people to feed. But I wanted to stay to keep her safe.”

Melody furrowed her brow, “Smith, you didn’t…you couldn’t have eaten her. You didn’t, did you?”

Smith raised a finger, laughing nervously, “Patience, sweet girl. But no, I didn’t eat her. You see, up until this point, I’d taken refuge outside of the house, in the yard, within the woods, to keep her safe. But one-night Elyth asked me to join her. Said she wanted to feel me and…if it wasn’t obvious, I was in love with her, so of course I said yes. I’d only fantasized about romantic things like kissing her or holding her in my arms, all the things I’d witnessed in the world but yet to find for myself. I was a puppy on a leash as I climbed the stairs and followed her into her chambers. I will spare you the more intimate details, but she brought me into her bed and when she slept, I laid there holding her…hungry. So hungry that I pulled myself away. I didn’t want to feed from her. Instead, I ran. I looked for any dreaming thing I could devour. But in several hours, I found none. All the other homes were empty. And when I returned to her bed, delirious and unsure what to do, I decided I could survive by just feasting on her dreams. At the very least it would sustain me until I could properly hunt. But she realized I was feeding from her in the middle of it and immediately broke my hold over her.”

Melody blinked rapidly. “Wait, she could do that?”

“Anything can; my feeding is not infallible. With the right spell or body reaction, you can theoretically remove yourself from me. And, of course, I was being as gentle as possible, so I wasn’t latched on very tight. So, she awoke with the evidence of my betrayal all over her face. I can still remember her screaming at me. Calling me a handful of well-deserved names as she chased me from the manor and into the woods. She instructed me to never come back and I, up until that point, had been a very obedient Slender. I did not return.”

Melody rubbed her thumbs against the sides of his palms. Smith softened his shoulders as he felt something. It was a warmth, an affectionate heat radiating off her as she smiled up at him. “But you did return.”

“Well,” he wheezed, “that is, after several years. I came back to apologize. I agonized over my departure for years. But when I returned, Sebastian was in the yard with Austin. And when they asked me about who used to live there, I couldn’t help but tell them about the Rosemonts. Especially after he told me he buried the last two found in the house within the mausoleum.”

“Oh, Smith,” Melody ripped him across the couch. Smith didn’t even realize his body could shake till it fought him in his attempt to wrap his arms around her. He clutched her tight, softening the vibrating of his bones. It took ages for him to realize how deep that hurt ran. How, for ages, he’d just swallowed the blow and never thought about it again.

She was supposed to be dead.

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