Page 73 of Arcane Entanglement

It took him a moment to register that Father Smith was leading their assailants. The priest’s face was contorted in an evil expression.

Except he no longer looked like the man Evander and Rufus had just met.

The figure leering at him was the principal suspect in Millbrook’s murder.

Standing amidst the group poised to attack them were the men who’d been with Magnus when Evander’s carriage had been ambushed.

Evander’s chest tightened as he studied the dark mage who’d worn the disguise of a priest. He was tall and lean, with blond hair slicked back above his sharp, angular features, and cruel grey eyes that made him look older than his thirties.

He must have an Illusion Amulet on him!

Light from the flames licking through the church gleamed off a silver locket hanging from the mage’s neck. The edge was engraved in minute arcane symbols, their intent to alter the wearer’s appearance to the extent where they would be unrecognisable, including changing their age, height, and even their gender.

It could not however mask their scent.

“We meet again, Ice Mage,” Millbrook’s murderer sneered, the smell of dark magic andNoctis Bloomrising thickly off him amidst the smoke.

Evander swallowed down bile.

The letter had been a trap meant to lure him to the church.

Rufus appeared beside him. The inspector was unscathed save for a cut on his forehead. He wiped the blood away with the back of his hand.

“Do you know this bastard?!”

“Yes.” Evander clenched his jaw. “He’s the dark mage who attacked us in the alley where Millbrook’s body was discovered. The one I chased on the rooftop.”

Rufus’s eyes grew flinty.

“Your Grace, Inspector Grayson,” Griffiths said stiffly, “the exit is blocked.”

Evander’s shoulders knotted when they looked behind the sergeant.

Rufus swore.

A wall of flames sealed off the entrance to the church.

Evander knew there was no point trying to douse the fire burning through the building. It was too heavily tainted with dark magic and would be resistant to water for some time. His gaze swept the interior of the building.

Dark mages stood in the path of the remaining escape routes at the side and the back of the building.

Dread curdled Evander’s blood as their dire situation sank in.

It had taken a single dark mage to incapacitate Shaw and Brown in Bethnal Green.

Rufus and our officers won’t be able to withstand a sustained attack from this many of them. They’re only casters! Even channelling their magic into their weapons will barely scratch these men!

Though Rufus and Griffiths were doing their best not to show their nervousness, Evander could see panic growing in some of the younger officers’ faces.

The dark mage’s eyes shrank to slits. “Oh my. Are we boring you?”

His gaze flicked to the right.

A strangled shout had Evander’s head snapping around. His throat closed up at the sight of the constable writhing on the floor.

One of their attackers had managed to pierce his barrier.

Bands of wind magic trapped the officer’s body in a cage that cut straight through his uniform and lacerated his flesh, the wards in his truncheon and clothes helpless in the face of a power polluted with dark magic. Griffiths rushed towards the screaming constable, only to fall back when an inky bolt cracked the stone at his feet. The sergeant cursed.