Anybody But You

125

Chapter One-Twenty-Five

Vibe: Motion by Luke Hemmings

"Blondie! Where the fuck are you going?" The blood curdling scream tore through Alice's wandering thoughts.

Finding herself at the altar and grabbing concoctions—a chalice in one hand and the gold vial in the other—instead of at the river, Alice slowly blinked back to reality... before losing herself in another round of distracted thoughts.

Was the gold vial ('redemption' John had called it) how John bound his life-force to the empty vessels? How he took over the mages' bodies? But what was the stuff he sprinkled into the cup? Something to slow the deterioration like him and Geoffrey had talked about before? Or was it what emptied the bodies of their life force? What was acting as a portal to the unknown? How were the creatures coming through? Where were they coming from? What part did the river have in it all?

She didn't understand a thing as she frowned, looking at the glittering gold magic swirl inside the glass casing. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't place it in that moment as she tied it to the staff to free her hands.

"Incredible. They really like you." A low melodic voice hummed out, causing Alice to look up as she shook out of the reverie she'd been under.

Coming face to face with the tall woman who had been standing behind the captain before, Alice's now alert eyes quickly took in her dangerous surroundings. The corpses were all headed towards her—many of them missing limbs, slashed up, falling apart at the seams, and beaten horrifically—while George and the others were scattered along the clearing as they fought their many enemies. Yet each and every one of them stared at her with hapless horror in their eyes as they watched the small drastically wounded blonde go up against a magic wielding slaver completely unarmed and alone.

Alice looked back towards the admittedly beautiful older lady; the tall gorgeous creature had dark hair pulled up into a high braid that fell down to her lower back, with dark mysterious eyes that shimmered a deep startling red even through the black lace veil hiding her face. Her body was curvy and long as her dark corset and skirt clung to her skin and revealed the dips and ridges along her body, her complexion holding a darker note to it that made her look like treasure from the south—shimmering with a black gold in the red glow from the river.

What was her power? Seducing someone to death? Gods, she was hot.

"I've got a winning personality." Alice spoke finally, gritting her teeth as she smiled despite the aching in her bones.

She could sense the power rolling off the mature woman as her dark shiny lips curled up amusedly—the strength coming from her nearly suffocating Alice. "So you're the future king's obsession." She purred, her softly accented voice like silk as she took a step forward—only the stone slab between them now.

"Is that what they're calling me in this lifetime?" Alice asked, pursing her lips as she readjusted; nerves beginning to prickle from the nearing dangers surrounding her. "Beats being his corruption..."

Her dark eyes narrowed suspiciously as she slid a chalice towards herself, "You're still a child—"

"Almost nineteen, actually." Alice watched her play with the chalice—the thickened water sloshing dangerously in the cup. "You said 'the'." Alice quirked her head, holding tight to the staff at her side.

The woman appeared confused, "What—"

"You. Said. 'The'." Alice repeated slowly, her bright blue eyes staring unblinkingly at her. "As in he's going to be your king one day, as well." She smiled, "After talking with Daisy and then seeing your skin and hearing your accent, I thought maybe you weren't permanent residences of Audovera... But you are." She explained, her breath almost stuck in her throat as she waited for the angry slush water to touch the goddess-like being. "Knowing where you live will help us contact your next of kin to let them know of your early demise." With a wickedly innocent smile, Alice fluttered her blood caked lashes.

However, the question remained: why were there outsiders in the kingdom? How many others were there? Was it normal for commoners or peasants to be from other parts?

Stilling the chalice in front of her, the lady chuckled—her eyes flickering to the side so quickly Alice almost missed it, "How very perceptive of you."

"It's all part of the winning personality." Alice hopped on her good foot to the opposite side the woman had looked to just as a dagger flew through the air where her head had just been. "As you can see, I make a lot of friends—I have to be perceptive."

The lady glanced behind Alice at her approaching psychotic co-worker; her eyes deepening in the russet colour. "Daisy, that was rude." As she twirled the air around her finger, Alice's mouth went dry as the dagger spat back from where it came from—Daisy barely jumping out of the way in time.

Alice felt her heart clamber up her throat as she watched the woman turn her attention back to the chalice. Without so much as a shudder, she tipped the cup over with a flick—the thickened liquid spilling out onto the stone before she twirled her finger again. She seemed to pluck a thread out of nowhere as she carefully pulled it out of the viscous water—the invisible string holding onto the poison droplets for a single moment, only to make it visible.

Without so much as a word, she multiplied the string with the flick of her wrist—the singular thread becoming thousands as the whip coiled around her arm like a living creature until it disappeared again.

Her eyes glowed almost identical to the river as she smiled, "Call me Serephin; the spider that will spin you into your fate."

And with that, Serephin the Spider split the stone altar into two with the crack of her whip of invisible strings.

~*~*~

A.N.

I have such a crush on Serephin. And it absolutely comes out in Alice's character at least three or ten hundred times. Which is totally justifiable because everyone is a little bisexual (and you can't convince me otherwise—and it's my world and I can make everyone bisexual if I want to hehe).

Anyways, who's your favourite bad guy so far? Or character? I'm still pretty obsessed with Daisy.

Thank you for reading!