Page 95 of How to Seduce a Slender

“Or?” Melody crept forward, not liking the souring look on Sebastian’s face.

“Or she had already cast it and it simply did not work.” Sebastian spared her an apologetic look. “Excuse me, will you? I need to investigate a thought. I was bid by Dahlia to come rouse you on my way back to my own chambers for tools. Agatha is elbows deep in fabric, I needed Smith to work some of his magic on paperwork I’m drowning in, and Dahlia wishes to, how did she put it? Body double with you? Let me know if you need further assistance, Ms. Melody.”

Sebastian gave her a slight tip of his head before he stalked away, muttering to himself.

“Oh…” Melody breathed, turning to look at the wall once more. “Kay…”

She cast it.

It simply did not work.

Melody’s heart sank as she stepped up to the wall. Her hands trembled as she played with a memory that wasn’t hers in her head. Like a movie she created. Of Smith and the beautiful but cruel woman. Dizzyingly spinning into the room, kissing, and grabbing onto each other. How easy it would be to spin him into the wall. Pin him here or at the very least knock him into the wall. He would never know. Smith was in love, and she wanted a beast to control.

Melody sank to her knees, a hand against the wall.

She cast it.

It simply did not work.

Melody had been right. Elyth seduced him back to her room in hopes of trapping him. Making him one of her puppets on strings.One of her toys.Melody swallowed over her own tongue as she tried to do anything but stare at the grooves in the wall. It took her a while…but eventually, spite settled in where the hollow desperation had once resided.

I’ll make her pay.

That’s the spirit.

I’ll make her rue the day she tried to harm my Slender.

Melody snatched up the front of her dress.She had better come to the party.Melody’s world flashed red, her wolf snarling from deep in her soul. A resounding agreement between the two of them.That witch better show her face! Or I’ll hunt her down in the woods and rip her face off.

See how she likes being the prey for once.

Melody couldn’t help the cruel smirk on her lips as she lumbered to the wardrobe. Throwing it open, she pulled on clean clothes. She’d make Elyth pay. But first to make something to replace the empty space.

“AndsoItoldhim, I’d rather kiss a razor toothed zombie—no offense, Kevin.” Dahlia stopped in the middle of her explanation to nod at Kevin. The zombie, stood in the corner of the kitchen like a pin cushion, chuckled.

“None taken.” He chuckled as Agatha continued to poke and prod him around her muslin design.

“Than to marry him. That him breathing near me made me ill, and then the fucker chased me through the woods. Well, first, he threw me into a tree and tried to choke me out. Andthen he chased me!” Dahlia was mixing up a cauldron of something on the stove top. The entire kitchen was full of half prepared things. Melody was doing her best not to take up any room other than her easel, her canvas, and Carl at her feet. Dahlia rampaged around, throwing seasoning in one pot, breadcrumbs in the other, and berries in a third. Melody was listening, but her eyes were on her painting.

She didn’t know what she was going to make at first.

Then it came to her halfway through a few random strokes. Hours had passed with Dahlia leading the charge of conversation while Melody piped in when needed. Usually, it would be the other way around. But it seemed they both had things to work through.

Dahlia stood at the center of the kitchen tea towel in her hands, wiping bread dough from her fingers, when she sighed.

Melody peeked up to find it was just them.Where’d they go?She’d missed the part where Agatha finished her design and left to whip it up. Or that Carl and Kevin had scampered back outside.

“Do you like living here, Melody?”

“Of course, what kinda question is that?” She snorted, tossing tendrils of her wild mane behind her.

“The kind leading up to me asking you if you’d like an office. As much as I enjoy having you at my hip while I work or while you work, I can’t keep making you drag that easel around, now can I?” Dahlia huffed, throwing the tea towel into a pile of other dirty fabric.

“Well, seeing as I’m super strong and half the people in this house can move stuff with their minds, I don’t care. Unless you mind? Or does someone else mind?” She glanced around as if waiting for the guilty party to show their face.

“It’s less that and more…I want you to have a slice of this manor. I got one when I married Sebastian, and Smith has his own office, and you, well…”

Melody narrowed her eyes on Dahlia. “Me, what?”

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