Free By the Enchantment of Moonlight (The Forbidden Realm #2.5) by Serena Gilley Page A

me. Use my dust to get this man out of here, out to the alley even, so he can breathe.”
    He was going to sacrifice himself to save this human? She couldn’t allow it. “No, I won’t do this without you. We save him together!”
    But it was too late to argue. The door flung open and light poured through, making the murky smoke into a bright cloud. Pimma blinked into it and could see one thing immediately.
    This wasn’t Miranda. It was the man who had argued with her earlier, Devin she had called him, who was, apparently, the owner of these buildings and all the strange machines in them. He blinked and coughed into the smoke but it was obvious they’d been spotted.
    Pimma grabbed for her pouch and pulled out a fistful of dust. She was just about to toss it and transport them elsewhere, but the odd look on the man’s face stopped her. His warm brown eyes met hers through the haze and she was surprised by what she saw there. Recognition.
    One of his eyebrows went upward and he fanned at the smoke. “Fairies. I should have known.”
    *  *  *
    Swift glared at the tall human. If this man even so much as made the slightest move toward Pimma, he’d use every ounce of dust he possessed to drop the big hulk. The fact that this human did not seem the least bit shocked by their presence here made Swift even more suspicious of him. Obviously he’d encountered their kind before. He’d seemed uninvolved in Miranda’s scheme when he’d argued with her before, but now Swift didn’t know what to think. Either way, a human who felt comfortable with magic was something to be worried about.
    “What have you done to my engineer?” the man demanded.
    “We’re trying to save him,” Swift replied.
    Devin dropped to his knees, hurrying to examine the unconscious man. His relief was obvious when he determined the engineer was still alive.
    “Hold the door open while I get him out of this smoke,” Devin ordered.
    Pimma had seemed momentarily frozen with fear, but she suddenly jolted to action and rushed to push the door wide. Swift realize he’d be useless to help carry the huge, listless victim, so he went to help Pimma. The door was heavy and he could see she was shaking from the combination of nerves and smoke. She held her ground, though. Not many fairies he knew would be bold enough for all this, but Pimma was. Together they held the sturdy door until Devin finally had his friend out into the alley. Only then did they let the door swing shut, stopping the flow of the smoke and leaving them gasping for the relatively fresh air of the alley.
    Devin laid his friend gently on the ground and tried to revive him. The man groaned weakly, but Swift took that for a good sign. At least the human’s lungs were still clear enough for him to breathe. Perhaps they hadn’t been too late, after all.
    “I need to get him to the hospital,” Devin said.
    “You need to get him someplace your friend Miranda won’t find him,” Swift said.
    Devin glared at him. It was more than a little unnerving to be in such close proximity to a human, especially a human who did not seem phased to converse with a magical creature.
    “What about Miranda?” he asked.
    “She’s the one who did this to your friend!” Pimma said quickly, her voice giving away just a bit of her nervousness. “She lured him into the building and then locked the door.”
    Devin frowned, but didn’t argue the point. “ I should have seen it. She’s been at the heart of this all along.”
    “What’s really going on here?” Swift asked. “What do you know about that shipment of equipment and where it’s going?”
    “You’re saying you’re not a part of all this?” Devin questioned.
    Swift was quick to reply. “No. We were sent here to investigate. How much do you know?”
    “Not much.” Devin shook his head. “I started noticing inconsistencies in our books, shipments being rerouted, orders coming from dummy corporations. Miranda said she’d look into things,