Black Arts — Andrew Prentice

When Jack picks the wrong pocket and finds himself making a dangerous bargain with a terrifying stranger, the consequences are worse than he could ever have imagined. Held at knife-point, with his mother brainwashed by an ancient curse, only reckless, rapier-swishing Kit Morely can help him. Determined to find the black gold that will cure his mother, Jack joins Kit as a member of the Magickal Intelligencers, a crack team of secret agents dedicated to preventing the misuse of magic. But the black gold is also the key to everlasting life, and the sinister Sons of Melmoth will stop at nothing to get it. The race is on. Dashing from the cobbled streets of Elizabethan London, to the tropical shores of Algiers, our heroes finally get their hands on the gold, only to be sent hurtling through time, out of one sticky situation and straight into another.