We'd lost without realizing we were even on the battlefield.
I was going to walk over to Alice, my mind fighting hard to fathom words of comfort, but a surge of energy came from our right. The two of us followed the movement before Cyrus jumped through a golden portal, her mouth carrying a piece of clothing with blood on it.
"Cyrus!" I exclaimed, but suddenly cursed and was pushing off the ground and catching the familiar before I lifted my unoccupied hand to protect us from the beam of flames that came out of a random portal.
"URGH!" I went flying back and immediately braced for another impact before words sliced through the air.
"WINDANDA PROTANDO!"
A spinning force of wind caught me before I hit the solid wall, but my eyes widened at the black shadow heading straight at me. I took in a sharp breath as I held Cyrus against my chest, but suddenly Alice was before me and her fist was punching towards the approaching opponent.
There was no way her punch would defend her against what seemed to be a dagger in the person's grasp, but Alice's clenched fist ignited in flames that danced with black and orange. The flames grew from small to a deadly mass of power that triggered an explosive collision which sent the person flying back into the portal they came from.
Alice screamed and charged towards the portal, but I knew without a doubt she wouldn't make it as the black portal began to close with haste.
I muttered a spell so swiftly that I couldn't comprehend what I was doing until a golden-and-teal lasso was jolting forward and wrapping around Alice in a nanosecond, giving me enough time to pull back with enough force to save her from running straight into the wall as the portal shut out of existence.
Her body was pulled back, which left her screaming, but I quickly ran forward and moved Cyrus away from my chest so I could catch her. The impact made both of us grunt as we were sent back and fell to the ground.
We skidded all the way to the wall of the staircase. We crashed into the wall, which only left me groaning once more.
"Ow..." I groaned and tried to remain conscious as dizziness assaulted my senses, but my body grew defensive as I sensed another approaching force coming our way.
The door to the house suddenly burst open, and Gabriel and Keru were skidding into the living room before their eyes locked onto Alice and me.
"Fuck! Alice! Westly!" Keru exclaimed as Gabriel looked over and immediately stopped Keru before he ran through the puddle of blood.
"Shit!" Gabriel actually cursed and Keru soon followed his gaze to see why he'd stopped him. "Oh fuck..."
The lasso holding Alice disappeared, freeing her from my grasp. She immediately got up and began speed-walking towards the wall.
"Alice!" I snapped, which caught the others’ attention. Gabriel was in front of the very spot of the wall in a second, stopping Alice from whatever attempt she was trying to conjure up in her frazzled state of mind.
"Alice? What are-"
"Open it up!" she demanded with clenched fists as her whole body shook uncontrollably. "Open up the portal!"
"What portal?" Gabriel demanded.
"The person who killed Grandma went through the portal!" she screamed. "Move!"
"Alice that's not how it wor-"
"MOVE!" she screamed, and the whole house shook before the windows shattered.
We all nervously exchanged glances before another set of footsteps emerged. I took the risk of looking away to see Chambers rushing in. One look to his side had him frozen in place before he immediately looked around until his eyes landed on Alice, whose aura was raging at a dangerous level.
"Alice." Chambers’s voice was worried, but it did nothing to get through to his daughter as her hair began to levitate.
No. No. No.
"Someone, stop her!" I urged and fought to get up myself, but my body wouldn't cooperate.
"WOOF!" Cyrus added with urgency, even with the weak cry for aid.
Gabriel was the first to grab her, but he hissed in agony as his hands seemed to burn from the mere touch.
"Alice, stop!"
"They killed her! They killed her. THEY KILLED HER!"
I couldn't understand who she was referring to, but if Cyrus had even gotten a glimpse of the person, Alice must have surely known what she needed to track them down.
Even if she hadn't been taught.
Alice wasn't running off of logic. She was thriving on the energy of intuition and the blazing elements that now wanted to enact revenge for their lost loved one. If we dared let her slip out of our grasp, who knows what chaos would erupt in her wake.
"Alice!" Keru grabbed her arm, and he hissed just like Gabriel but kept holding on. Her threatening gaze moved to him and soon Gabriel was pushing Keru out of the way – dodging slices of wind that barely missed Chambers as he moved out of the way.
The wind suddenly sliced at the door and broke it entirely into pieces. We all seemed to gawk before Chambers was right in front of Alice.
"Stop this now, Alice!"
"They killed Grandma!" she screamed as tears rolled down her cheeks but literally evaporated the next second.
That only confirmed that her body was in overload, the heat of her magic so intense that it was leaking through her skin, which was why both Gabriel and Keru couldn't stop her.
"I know!" he snapped. "We need to figure it out! Nothing will get done if you hurt others!"
"Out of my way!"
"No," he hissed and grabbed her wrist. She fought against him and was putting up a good fight in holding off his gripping force. His eyes searched for me, pleading for assistance.
I had no choice but to push myself up, and I was behind Alice in seconds. Instead of trying to disable her, I did what suddenly felt right.
My arms wrapped around her, feeling her body grow rigid at my touch before words went flying out of my mouth.
"We get it, Alice! We understand your anger!" I exclaimed loudly.
Chambers let go of her as she tried to fight against my grip, but I only held her tighter while fighting the intense heat that threatened to burn my flesh at any second if she didn't lower her blazing temperature.
"Alice!" I growled. "You're hurting me."
The statement seemed to make her pause in her rebellious struggle, and she suddenly shook even harder as heavy sobs began to leave her.
The mere sound of agony hit me hard, my sudden strength dropping to the point that my knees buckled and the two of us were suddenly on the ground. It didn't stop me from holding onto her as she began to sob harder and shake her head.
"I have to...find...find the killer! They killed her! How dare they kill her?!" she screamed relentlessly as more sobs escaped her. "What did she do?! Why? Why? WHY!" she screamed, and the sound shook the house once again as thunder boomed through the sky. Suddenly, the sound of an ear-piercing siren went off.
"What's that?" I asked.
Chambers answered, "Hurricane warning."
We all seemed to look at Alice at once, and I somehow knew if we didn't get her under control, this house and everything around it would be doomed because of Alice's agony.
I let go of her for a second before pinning her to the wooden floor, her wild, rage-filled eyes glaring back at me like I was the culprit of her sorrows.
"Let me-"