Arcane Entanglement (The Mage and His Brute #1)

Chapter 44

“Where’s the crystal vial, Ice Mage?!” Renwick barked. “I know you have it on you! Give it to me and I will spare these people!”

Sweat dripped down Evander’s face. He shook his head and sought the dark mage with his desperate gaze, only to freeze.

Renwick towered over a group of cowering passengers. A volley of dark magic bolts whined in the air close to the terrified men and women’s faces, ready to pierce their flesh and blind them.

Evander blinked and forced himself to focus. He couldn’t falter now. Not with so many lives at stake and Viggo fighting desperately to overcome their enemy and reach him. Blood pounded thickly in his veins as he gritted his teeth against the agonising pain threatening to rob him of his senses.

There was only one thing he could do to save himself and the innocent bystanders who’d found themselves in the midst of this battle.

I hope the building can withstand it!

Evander’s laboured breaths rattled in and out of his chest as he closed his eyes.

The first time he’d tried this during a private lesson at the Royal Institute, he’d almost destroyed a wing of the building.

He blocked out the chaos around him and looked deep within, to where his magic dwelled. The four elements flickered and grew in his mind’s eye, a riot of blue, crimson, green, and gold energy bubbling and swirling where they twined around one another, hungering to be let loose.

Evander lifted the lid on them a fraction more.

Elemental power rushed thorough him on a wave that made him gasp and invigorated his senses. The station trembled, metal whining and glass vibrating in the face of the violent energies bursting forth from his flesh.

The fire magic racing through Evander’s bloodstream obliterated the dark power seeking to weaken and kill him. Air entered his starving lungs, cold and blissful.

He opened his eyes to find a veritable wall of ice spears and fire lances encircling him, each as thick as his arm. Spikes made of rock and compacted earth levitated amidst them. Above his head, spinning in a growing funnel that swept debris up from the ground, was a storm of wind magic, the currents ruffling the flames crowning his head.

Renwick recoiled at this devastating display of power, his pale eyes widening with a flash of fear.

The air crackled with energy as Evander unleashed a barrage of elemental attacks throughout the station. His magic swept across the interior of Charing Cross like a hurricane, absorbing the sinister tendrils thickening the air, smashing shadow bolts to smithereens, and sending mages flying into walls and pillars. The ground buckled and heaved, opening fissures that entrapped many of Renwick’s followers.

For a moment, Evander dared to hope the tide was turning.

Then he heard it. The screech of metal on metal. The hiss of steam. The rumble of an engine pushed far beyond its limits.

He pivoted on his heels, his pulse racing.

Renwick had abandoned the passengers he’d been holding prisoner and jumped down on the tracks so he could cross over to the other side.

Evander realised why when he saw the train barrelling towards Charing Cross. It was wreathed in dark magic and would jump the tracks and crash inside the station the second it hit the bend, killing all that stood in its path.

Evander’s heart thudded painfully in his chest as he fleetingly met Renwick’s triumphant, snake-like gaze where the dark mage had reached the opposite platform.

It was clear the locomotive had been rigged in advance, likely in anticipation of the fight he would put up.

Time seemed to slow.

The train, a juggernaut of steel and corrupt magic, would crush the people frozen in terror in a matter of seconds.

And Viggo was too far away to help.

Evander’s body moved before the decision had fully formed in his mind.

He jumped down on the tracks and sprinted towards the oncoming train.

“Noooo!” Viggo howled in horror. “Evander, stop!”

Magic surged through Evander, more power than he’d ever channelled before as he lifted the lid on his magic. The elements responded with a boom that shook the station and enveloped him in a maelstrom of energy.

Ice spread across the tracks and raced towards the train in a desperate bid to slow its progress. Wind roared, pushing against the unstoppable force of the engine. Earth rumbled and heaved as it tried to derail the massive vehicle. Fire took hold of the motor and wheels, melting metal to destroy its moving parts.

Still, the train kept coming, the dark magic and man-made machinery powering it smashing through the obstacles Evander erected in its path, a screaming demon hungry for destruction.

Evander planted his feet and stretched his arms out before him, his heart drumming a violent tempo against his ribs. He grunted as he poured everything he had into one last, desperate stand.

Walls of elemental energy given physical form sprang up before him, ice, earth, fire, and wind forming barrier after barrier the height of ten men and the thickness of a tree.

The train struck them with a noise like the world ending.

Metal shrieked. Magic flared.

The locomotive began to slow some thirty feet from the bend.

Evander’s vision flickered.

It’s too late. It won’t stop in time!

He swayed, the taste of blood on his tongue as he felt himself nearing the limits of his powers. A crimson trickle flowed out of his left nostril.

Evander closed his eyes, his shoulders slumping and his last thought directed towards the man who had come to mean the world to him in the past few days.

I’m sorry, Viggo!

The shadow of the approaching train engulfed Evander. Just as he prepared for the crushing impact, something large and solid slammed into him from the side. He went flying out of the path of the train, landed hard on the ground, and tumbled across the divide between the tracks in a tangle of limbs.

Evander rolled to a stop onto his front, dazed and ears ringing.

The sight that met his eyes when he looked up made him freeze, just as it did everyone in the train station.

Viggo had braced his hands against the front of the train and was slowly, impossibly, bringing the massive engine to a halt.

The Brute bellowed, his face a rictus of effort. Tendons stood out on his neck. Muscles strained and veins bulged in his arms. His boots dug furrows in the ground as he relentlessly shoved against a machine that should have crushed him.

The train ground to a stop mere feet from the bend in a final, tortured screech of metal. For a moment, silence reigned.

Loud cheers erupted, the sound deafening as people cried and embraced each other in relief and disbelief.

Viggo stumbled back from the train, his chest heaving. His eyes found Evander’s, his expression a mix of relief and fury.

“You damn fool!” He stormed over to Evander and yanked him to his feet, his gaze wild and his voice trembling with lingering fear at what almost came to past. “What were you thinking?!” He shook Evander’s shoulders before hugging him tightly to his chest, his body fairly vibrating with the after rush of adrenaline.

Evander shuddered and clung to him, heedless of who might be looking their way.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled in the crook of Viggo’s neck. “I was thinking I couldn’t let those people die.” He pulled back slightly and squinted at Viggo. “The rumours were true. You stopped a train with your bare hands before.”

Viggo cupped his face. “This was worse than Strasbourg. Seeing you standing in the path of that damn thing almost made my heart stop.” He pressed his brow to Evander’s, his hands shaking where he clasped his cheeks.

Evander opened his mouth to speak when he was cut off by Rufus’s shout.

“ Evander! Viggo! Renwick’s getting away!”