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

but every time I wanted answers she blew me off. Now…this. Blake is one of my best engineers. He must know something that Miranda doesn’t want him to tell. I’ve got to get him out of here.”
    “But if she wants to silence him, she will have ways to do it,” Swift told him. “She’s not what she seems. She’s not quite…human.”
    Now this did surprise Devin. “What? Hell. Why can’t you people just stay on your side of the Veil?”
    “What do you know of the Veil?” Swift demanded.
    “I know it doesn’t work very well, that’s what I know. If Miranda is…one of your kind…how can I keep her from finding Blake? I need him alive. I need him to tell me how to undo all this crap he’s been doing for her.”
    “We can use magic,” Pimma offered. “All we need is a nice, secluded place. We can create a localized shield to keep him hidden.”
    “You do recall that’s highly illegal,” Swift reminded her. “You need special authorization to do that sort of magic.”
    She didn’t seem the least bit deterred. “This man is dying. Do you want to take the time to go tell Dorn and the rest of the council what we’ve been doing here? You think they’ll give authorization then?”
    “By the Skies, when you go rogue, Pimma, you do it incredibly well.”
    She rolled her eyes at him, but he could tell she knew he’d meant that as high praise.
    But Devin was busily hoisting his friend and carrying him to his car. Swift flew up to unlatch the car door and Pimma helped swing it open. Devin carefully laid Blake in the backseat. Once the door was closed, it would be difficult for anyone to notice him there. That was good. If they could just keep him shielded long enough to get him someplace safe, someplace where magic could hide him securely.
    “We’ll take him to my boat,” Devin announced. “It’s docked in the marina, but we can take it out into the lake. Will that be secluded enough? Can you do your sparkly voodoo and keep him safe there?”
    “Doesn’t he need a doctor, though?” Pimma asked.
    “My wife can take care of him,” he replied.
    “Your wife is a doctor?” Swift questioned.
    Devin pulled open the driver’s door on his car. He laughed.
    “No. Not a doctor. She’s a mermaid. So, you need to ride in the car with me, or can you put some kind of shield on him right here?”
    *  *  *
    “We can put a temporary shield on your vehicle,” Pimma offered, happy they wouldn’t have to get in the vehicle with the men. She’d had more than enough human interaction today. Enough for a lifetime.
    “Your wife is a mermaid?” Swift asked Devin.
    “She is. It’s a long story.”
    “If she is truly a mermaid,” Pimma said, “she will be telepathic. She can communicate with your unconscious friend and be able to heal him.”
    “She will,” Devin assured them. “But how long will we be safe? How long will this shield of yours last?”
    “Only until midnight of the day it is created,” Swift answered. “We’ll come to you before then and provide additional security. First we need to meet someone and hopefully get more information.”
    “More dust, too,” Pimma noted.
    “How will you find me if we’re shielded from magic?” Devin asked.
    That was a very good question. They would have to create some sort of signal, some way for them to locate him out there on that huge, great lake. But Swift had a better idea. He held something out and offered it to Devin.
    “Take this. We will find you as long as you have it.”
    Pimma almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “A Watcher Stone? You have a Watcher Stone? This whole time, the council has been watching us?”
    He shook his head vehemently and pulled out the counterpart to the round, black stone in his hand. “By the Skies, no. I have the other stone, not the council.”
    That meant no one had been watching them. Good. More than good. But how did Swift get his hands on both halves of a Watcher Stone? What good would that be?