Page 43 of Arcane Entanglement
Determination filled Viggo’s face. He removed his trouser belt and joined Evander. They pried Magnus’s jaws open so he could slip the leather band between the jerking man’s teeth.
“Help me get him on his front!” Evander snapped.
Viggo cursed. Magnus was turning blue.
He obeyed Evander nonetheless.
“I don’t care what you do but try and keep him still,” Evander ordered in a hard voice as he took up position by Magnus’s head. “Sit on him if you must!”
Wind magic lightened his body. He used it to carefully part Magnus’s hair, exposing what was buried in the man’s flesh.
Viggo stiffened where he was holding Magnus down. “What in the name of Hades is that?!”
Rufus swore when he saw the object.
Evander’s stomach knotted. He could sense the malevolence contained within the gemstone embedded in Magnus’s head. It reeked of dark magic.
“I think this is how they’ve been forcing him to follow their orders.” Evander met Viggo’s grim stare, his pulse pounding. “It must be connected to the ring that mage was wearing!”
A muscle jumped in the Brute’s jawline. “Can you get rid of it?”
Evander hesitated. “You saw what happened when you touched it.”
Despair darkened Viggo’s eyes. He glanced at Magnus where the latter thrashed beneath him. “There’s nothing we can do for him?!”
“I didn’t say that.”
Shaw returned before Viggo could ask more questions. She was dragging a tall woman with dark skin, golden eyes, and wire-rimmed spectacles that were currently askew by the hand.
“What on Earth is going on, your Grace?!” Philippa Scarborough adjusted her glasses, her chest heaving with her breaths. “Sergeant Griffiths has sealed off this floor. And Miss Shaw here tells me I?—”
“I don’t have time to explain, Mrs. Scarborough,” Evander interrupted. “Can you remove the curse on this gem?!”
Mrs. Scarborough stared from Evander, to Viggo and the Brute on the ground. Her expression grew focused when she saw the dark stone. She approached briskly, the protective amulet on her necklace swinging against her dress.
“Don’t worry,” Evander reassured a tense Viggo. “Mrs. Scarborough is the best curse-breaker in the Met. In fact, she is one of the best curse-breakers in the whole of England.”
“You flatter me your Grace.” Mrs. Scarborough knelt beside Evander and studied the jewel buried in the back of Magnus’s head intently. “Was this triggered by someone touching it?”
Viggo flinched.
“I see.” Purple light lit up the curse-breaker’s pupils and danced on the tips of her fingers. “We’ll just have to do our best then, won’t we?”
A breeze that smelled faintly of violets danced across Evander as she unleashed her magic and attempted to shatter the curse on the gemstone.
Sweat broke out on Mrs. Scarborough’s forehead after a minute.
“This sure is something else, your Grace!” she grunted.
Evander looked from Magnus’s puce face to the curse-breaker’s flushed expression. The fact that she was struggling to break the spell made his stomach knot all over again. He fisted his hands.
Whoever created this cursed gem must be an incredibly powerful mage!
“Is there something I can do to help?!” he asked harshly.
“We need to cool him down.” Mrs. Scarborough winced. “His body temperature is rising and making things worse!”
Coldness flowed through and out of Evander, lowering the room’s temperature by several degrees.
