Page 20 of Arcane Entanglement

The Brute’s pupils flashed red. He pinned Evander with a blank gaze once more.

Evander’s throat tightened.

Those explosions would have incapacitated a small mob!

There was only one thing left for him to do. Though it was magic, its effect would be more physically devastating than anything else he’d tried so far.

Heat burst to life inside Evander’s chest. It filled his body and warmed his blood, bringing with it the fourth element he could wield. The air around him shimmered on a warm haze.

The Brute blinked when Evander walked up to him and pressed a hand to his chest. Flames burst into life around his fingers.

Ginny’s eyes rounded where she’d landed a short distance away.

She had only seen him use this power once before.

The fire magic Evander manifested knocked the Brute off his feet and carried him clear across the street. He slammed into a brick wall, the impact leaving a ten foot crater that sent fracture lines racing across the surface.

Thick droplets of water coalesced from thin air at Evander’s command. They doused the flames engulfing the Brute’s clothes. The giant moved sluggishly amidst the rising steam and pushed himself off the wall, only to stop dead when ice encased his feet.

He stared at the glittering prison racing up his body. The Brute looked up and met Evander’s eyes seconds before his expression froze behind a thick, pale wall that chilled the air with a faint, white, swirling mist.

Evander’s heart thumped painfully as he stared at the icebound Brute.

He flinched when Ginny fired her pistol.

The dark mages were disappearing in the direction of Hyde Park.

“Shit.” She lowered the gun, her jaw clenched tight.

Footsteps pounded the street behind them as constables from the Met arrived.

Chapter10

“Dammit all to Hell,Evander! Why didn’t you tell me about the bloody vial?!” Rufus snarled.

He raked his hair with a hand where he paced the floor before the fireplace, the flames in the hearth casting an orange glow on the sharp angles of his face and his untidy locks.

“I completely forgot about it,” Evander admitted guiltily.

He hissed when Hargrove dabbed some ointment on his knuckles. The manservant ignored his sound of protest and carried on tending to him where they sat at his desk, in the formal study of the townhouse in Mayfair.

It was gone three in the morning.

One of the night duty sergeants at the Met had sent a message to Rufus’s home about the incident near Hyde Park Corner after the Brute was taken into custody. Despite the lateness of the hour, the inspector met up with Evander and Ginny as they were leaving police headquarters and insisted on escorting them to the townhouse.

“Honestly, Mrs. S, it is but a scratch,” Ginny protested. “You should see to Evander’s wounds.”

Evander’s housekeeper tsk-tsked. She was perched next to Ginny on a mahogany, button-back sofa upholstered in gold and green damask. “I will get to Master Evander in a moment. A lady must take care of her face, Lady Hartley.” Faint green light shimmered around Mrs. Sinclair’s fingertips as she healed the shallow cut on Ginny’s cheek.

“We all know she ain’t a lady,” Rufus muttered distractedly.

Ginny narrowed her eyes. “You asking for an ass-whooping, Grayson?”

Hargrove snorted. Mrs. Sinclair’s expression grew pinched.

“Sorry, Mrs. S,” Ginny mumbled. She shot a glare at Rufus from under her lashes.

Rufus smirked.