By the Enchantment of Moonlight (The Forbidden Realm #2.5) (2 page)

A flicker of heat burned inside when he thought of her. She seemed earnest, so fresh…so full of passion for defending the code. He'd been impressed with her professionalism and intellect. He liked the way she smelled, too. Like sunshine on a warm day, like the bud of a rose, just about to open. He shut his eyes and reveled in the memory of her scent.

His body responded immediately. His breathing was labored, his heart rate increased, and his temperature suddenly soared. What was this feeling? Want, need, urgency…desire.

The realization startled him. But how had he suddenly fallen prey to such a carnal,
human
reaction? He forced himself to shake it off, shoving his thoughts of Pimma's sweet scent, satiny skin, and delicate features aside. By the Skies, what was happening to him?

But of course he knew. It wasn't merely his perception of the Fairy Council that had been changed by his experiences in Iceland.
He'd
been changed, too.

He'd come too close to the very thing he'd sworn to condemn, and now he was hungry for it in a way he couldn't quite understand. The conspiracy he had found was fueled by desire, stoked by passion. Human lust had infected the Veil and had infected him, too. Desire—hot, carnal, and wild—was awakening inside him and he dreaded what it might do.

Somehow he had to take control of this thing before it took over him completely, the way he'd seen it do to other magical beings. The rogue fairy Kyne abandoned their Realm when he fell into desire. Swift had seen a huge, raging dragon brought low by passion. There was no place in the Forbidden Realm for this sort of thing—it could only bring destruction.

And now Swift felt it pumping through his veins in full force. How could he have let this happen and how was he going to stop it? Even now, his mind wandered back to those tempting thoughts of Pimma, hoping she'd be happy to see him again and wondering how it would feel to stroke the gentle curves of her body, the iridescent sheen of her wings. She'd done nothing to put these thoughts into his head, but he couldn't seem to get rid of them.

By the Skies, desire had invaded his system and taken root. He simply had to be stronger than this carnal weakness. He was an enforcer, by the Clouds. He was not about to let depravity rule over duty. No matter how good it might feel.

S
o, tell me why you've returned without the fugitive Kyne,” Dorn said once he had let Swift into his private chambers and shut the door tightly.

“And it's good to see you again, too,” Swift remarked, hoping it sounded slightly less ill-tempered than he felt.

Dorn scowled. “Did you come for small talk, or to give me a report?”

“Oh, I'll be reporting,” Swift replied. “What would you like to hear about first? Should I explain how surprised I was to discover the helpless little coalition you sent me to assist turned out to be a massive global organization? Or would you rather hear about the unexpectedly large number of humans I discovered working within it?”

Dorn sighed heavily and rolled his eyes as if he were responding to a toddler. “I explained it to you, Swift. Due to the deteriorated condition of our great Veil, we have been forced to employ limited human technology to assist the repair. Interaction with a few select humans is unavoidable.”

“The amount of equipment those
few select
humans have amassed is beyond anything I could even imagine. And where, exactly, is all this damage? I've crossed an ocean, been on two continents, and I never encountered—”

“Be careful what you imply, Swift.
I
am the Council Leader; not you. I am privy to information that you are not.”

“I was the one watching humans work with magic in Iceland,” Swift pointed out. “Just how big is this coalition? There were dragons involved with this, Dorn. We've not had dealings with them in hundreds of years.”

“Are you questioning our actions?” Dorn asked.

“I'm wondering if I ought to.”

“Your duty is to the council and the tasks laid out before you,” Dorn growled at him. “I don't answer to you; you answer to me. Now, I'm asking you again: why did you return without the fugitive?”

Swift carefully considered before he replied. If Dorn was truly ignorant of what was going on, then he wouldn't be open to learning anything from Swift. If, however, he knew the real powers in play, then truth was the last thing Swift ought to give him.

Either way, Swift realized his only option was to lie.

“Kyne is dead.”

Dorn seemed surprised by this. “Dead? Are you certain?”

“I am. Your coalition was working inside a volcano, draining power from the dragon clutch hidden there. There was an explosion.”

“And Kyne was in it.”

“I'm pretty sure he was the reason for it.”

“He was sabotaging our efforts, you mean.”

“Whatever he was doing there, he didn't live to tell about it. Really, Dorn, you haven't had a report of this by now?”

There were plenty of magical means that one of Dorn's representatives in Iceland could have used to send word back. Had the coalition not reported to him for some reason? Or was Dorn testing Swift's loyalty? Swift watched the Council Leader's expression and waited.

Finally Dorn nodded with a satisfied smile. “Yes, I heard of the explosion. I wanted your firsthand account of it, though. We lost some of our most useful operatives in that mishap. It would be worth the sacrifice if you're certain Kyne is gone.”

“He is.”

“Was he working alone?”

“No,” Swift replied. He didn't really want to share everything he knew, but he couldn't let Dorn catch him in a lie. He just had to hope he wasn't telling Dorn anything he didn't already know. “Kyne was working with another fairy from our Realm. A Wish Fairy, I believe.”

To judge by Dorn's expression, this wasn't news to him. “And the Wish Fairy is gone, too?”

“Yes.”

Dorn didn't seem overly grieved to hear about the loss of another one of his constituents. “Very good. It would have been nice to finish the collecting operations before all of this, but I'm told we have enough power stored up to move on to the final stage. What about the ship? Was it under sail when you left it?”

“On its way to the Caribbean,” Swift announced.

This also was true. A huge human vessel laden with odd machinery that used both human power as well as Forbidden Magic had been secretly running tests in a remote Icelandic fjord. Swift would have never had a clue of such a thing if Dorn had not dispatched him there when Kyne escaped custody. Reports indicated that Kyne was headed for Iceland and Dorn feared he intended sabotage. Swift had been shocked by what he found there, but he'd done his duty and kept that ship safe.

Now he wondered how much damage he'd done to his Realm by following orders. The damage to himself felt life-altering and permanent.

Dorn seemed perfectly pleased with Swift's efforts in Iceland, though. He nodded smugly and slapped Swift on the back. “Well done. The council appreciates your dedication.”

“But just what am I dedicated to?” he asked. “I should think that after all I've done for you, traveling all the way to Iceland, you could finally trust me with a few more details about the operation.”

Dorn still seemed hesitant to confide, but eventually he relented. “I suppose you've earned a few answers. Are we working with humans? Yes. We determined that by using magical means alone, repair efforts would require years. Now that we've incorporated human technology, we can boost our abilities and the repairs will be done in half the time, without draining our resources. You are helping to save the Realm.”

Swift couldn't tell if Dorn meant what he said or if he simply wasn't ready to trust Swift completely. Either way, it gave Swift nothing more than he already had.

“You're certain that these humans won't pose a risk?”

“We will wipe their minds once we're done,” Dorn explained. “Plus, we limit their exposure. You'll see. The ship is on its way to the final staging area, and we are just awaiting confirmation on the last load of equipment to be sent from our warehouse.”

Swift's ears perked at the new information. “Our warehouse?”

“In the human city not far from here. Sandstrom Industries—the equipment is manufactured there. We use enhanced aspects of the Veil to keep most of the human workers from realizing what they are making and to ensure they stay completely unaware of our involvement. Unfortunately, some interaction simply cannot be avoided. Two or three humans in key positions have been recruited to work on design and implementation. We reward them with a little insignificant magic and in return they keep our secrets. The arrangement has worked nicely, and it's safe.”

“Relying on humans? It doesn't sound very safe.”

“Trust me, Swift. Humans are the least of our worries.”

“Then who is our greatest worry?”

“I have things well in hand; don't worry. Very soon we will begin the final phase of our project. The Forbidden Realm will be protected, despite the few humans we've had to let into it temporarily.”

Swift had a few hundred more questions, but they were disrupted by a knock at the door. A soft, tentative knock. A feminine knock.

It was immediately followed by the opening of the door and the appearance of a face Swift wished he hadn't been thinking about so much lately.

“Am I interrupting?” Pimma asked.

Pimma shouldn't have been eavesdropping. She never did things like that! But this time, she'd approached Dorn's door and heard the low, growling timbre of Swift's voice and she just froze. She hadn't meant to listen in on their conversation.

But she had, and now she was fluttery inside. Swift had returned, and he'd been involved in some strange operation that included humans? Humans who worked with magic? How could this be?

Swift didn't sound like he was exactly in favor of whatever business Dorn had assigned him. Information and emotion whirled inside Pimma's mind. The Council Leader was entangled in some very questionable activities and she still couldn't quite wrap her brain around it. She'd suspected him, and now she was hearing proof she had never wanted to know.

Clenching her fists, she knocked at Dorn's door.

The voices inside went silent, then Dorn called out, giving her admittance.

“Good afternoon, sir,” she said, poking her head in. “I was wondering if…Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were meeting with someone.”

“No worry, Pimma. Swift was just catching me up on what he learned on his…assignment to the neighboring Fairy Realm.”

Pimma pretended to be surprised. Really, it was mostly sincere. She'd distinctly heard Swift mention traveling to Iceland. Now Dorn tried to act as if he'd been nearby? She watched Swift's reaction. It was subtle, but his frustration with their leader was evident.

She had to decide—would she involve herself further in this, or just walk away? When she made the mistake of meeting Swift's intense gaze, she knew immediately which of these she'd pick. It was not the smartest decision she'd ever made.

“I'm happy to see you're back.” She smiled at him. “Did you do anything interesting on your assignment?”

He smiled in return and for just a moment they were held there, eyes locked and Dorn temporarily forgotten. A fire burned behind Swift's brilliant green eyes, and it mesmerized her. She couldn't look away. He was just as she'd always known him to be—bold, determined, honorable…and now he was something more.

He carried something inside him that hadn't been there before. What was it? Had he gained a new sense of purpose? The way his eyes seemed to bore into her soul made her feel that he'd gained some new knowledge of her, but of course that would not have happened in Iceland. Maybe she only wished that it had. She wanted to believe that he was really seeing her for the first time, and that he liked what he saw.

It made her feel warm and anxious, daring and shy, all at the same time.

“I'm happy to see you too, Pimma,” he said.

Now she felt a little bit dizzy on top of it all. By the Skies, what had happened to him in Iceland that could possibly explain her odd reaction to him now? She liked it, but even that added to her confusion.

There was a long second of very loud silence before Dorn cleared his throat. “I see you two are eager to return to your duties. I believe you worked together on the Kyne case…before the scoundrel escaped from us.”

“Yes,” Swift replied. “If you've got another case for us, we'd be glad to get to work on it.”

Finally Pimma was able to pull her gaze from Swift's striking form and glance over at Dorn. The Council Leader was studying her through narrowed eyes.

“And you, Pimma, are you eager to get back to working with Swift now that he's returned?”

“Yes, of course.” She said that just a little bit too eagerly.

“Very well,” Dorn said with a contemplative nod. “The two of you have worked well for us in the past. I believe I have just the assignment for you.”

An assignment for both of them? That could only mean Dorn suspected another fairy of significant wrongdoing. She was glad for the opportunity to break these past days of monotony, but something about the timing on this seemed odd. How strange that she'd heard nothing of any new investigation, but now the minute Swift returned to their Realm—just when Dorn and Wain were conspiring in hushed tones—a new case for them materialized.

“It's a sensitive matter,” Dorn explained carefully. “Only recently brought to my attention. I'm afraid one of my closest advisors might be involved in something…unorthodox.”

“One of your advisors?” Pimma asked.

“Wain,” Dorn replied.

“Wain?” she questioned.

She hoped her complete shock wasn't evident on her face. Why would Dorn have them go after Wain when he himself was conspiring with him? A tingle of worry ran up her spine and all the way out to the tips of her wings.

Dorn seemed oblivious to her concern. “I've tried and tried to guide my associate, but I fear it's been in vain. I think he's gotten involved with…with humans. I need the two of you to find him and report back.”

“You want us to bring him in?” Swift asked.

“No! No, don't bring him in,” Dorn said quickly. “Just follow and observe. That's all. I'm still working out my case against him. I need you two just to gather information. Nothing more.”

This was highly irregular. Of course it was normal procedure to send an enforcer to investigate cases like this, but an advocate? No, if Dorn was not yet ready to bring charges against Wain, there should be no need for Pimma's involvement. Yet Dorn made it quite clear; he was sending both of them to go spy on his assistant.

One glance at Swift and Pimma knew he shared her misgiving. A second glance at Swift and she realized she had one more thing to worry about: the tingle that ran through her body this time had nothing to do with worry and everything to do with Swift. As much as she couldn't trust Dorn and didn't appreciate the mission he was sending them on, she had to admit she looked forward to working with the esteemed enforcer.

He caught her looking at him, too. She averted her eyes quickly, but not before she saw the hint of a smile touch his lips.

“All right, Dorn,” he said confidently. “Where do you want us to go?”