Alice's muscles twitched violently. With a jerking motion, she dragged her fingertips across her bloodied forehead and held them before her face. Crimson dripped in long threads between her fingers, and as her vision clouded red, her expression contorted into pure, feral rage.
She leapt to her feet in a blur. Wordless, like a beast gone rabid, she summoned a storm of icicles from the ceiling, each spear plunging down toward Cassius with lightning speed.
But Cassius was faster. His body tilted back just enough, his hand sweeping upward. With a brutal swat, he shattered the descending shards, the fragments shooting like darts into the walls, piercing stone and wood alike.
Alice was already in front of him before the splinters stopped vibrating in the air. Her speed was monstrous. But Cassius, as if he had read her intent, did not recoil. His hand darted forward, fingers angled toward the pale curve of her throat, only for a flash of gold to coil against his wrist.
