Page 15 of Daemon Master

It was Heartrender’s quick thinking that saved him. One moment, the night hung silently around them like a shawl. The next, an illusory duplicate of his likeness shimmered into existence beside him right as a massive fist swung through the air. Instead of colliding with him, the blow smashed through the image’s chest. The illusion wavered, leaking aether as it broke apart.

Almost instantly, an identical copy formed a few paces from the first. The attacking daemon—Adrian caught only glimpses of it in the dark, but it looked as large as a man with massive forearms and a hunched back—fell for the bait and charged the new apparition.

Sending a silent prayer of thanks to Heartrender, Adrian channeled his own aether to summon Trailseeker. Blue flashes of aether lit up the night, a second daemon joining the first while Heartrender conjured more illusions to add to the growing chaos. The enemy daemons must’ve used shrouds to cloak their auras and mask the inherent glow of their aether in the darkness while they approached.

When Trailseeker finished manifesting in a low crouch, Adrian melded with its mind and used its enhanced senses to scan the area until he spotted a pair of shrouded watchers lurking nearby. Cancelling his meld, he ordered Trailseeker past the battling daemons toward the nearest watcher. The watcher tried to stumble away, but he was too slow. He screamed as Trailseeker’sBolster Body-enhanced bite punctured his arm. Blood splattered the grass, a darker swash of black in the nonexistent light.

As Adrian had hoped, the enemy daemons rushed back to defend their masters.This is our chance to slip away.Muffling a faint pang of guilt, he ordered Trailseeker to hold the watchers’ attention and fled toward the forest. If he could put somedistance between himself and the watchers while they were distracted, then—

A deafening roar reverberated through the meadow. Every muscle in Adrian’s body instantly seized up. He pitched forward, stiff as a plank, and hit the ground with a helpless crunch.

A paralysis technique.

That had to be why he suddenly couldn’t so much as twitch anything except his eyes. He sensed Trailseeker’s matching helplessness, followed a few seconds later by its aether shattering apart for the second time that day. The poor beast hadn’t even had the chance to defend itself.

Massive hands grabbed Adrian’s shoulders and flung him over. Light flared, illuminating the grassy knoll. He squinted in the harsh glare.

A large, ape-like daemon towered above him. Translucent azure scales covered its skin except for a slit in the middle of its chest that parted to reveal a fanged maw encircled with disturbingly human teeth. His aethersense identified the creature asTremorfist.

The daemon seemed familiar, and he realized why when its master stepped up beside it, leering down at him. “Caught like a rat,” Watcher Seymour said. “Why am I not surprised?”

Sharp pain erupted in Adrian’s side, and he groaned.

Another man joined Seymour—the same blonde-haired watcher Adrian had narrowly eluded in Hillvale. He held a blazing torch in one hand and waggled his other arm, slick with blood, in Adrian’s face. “Think you’re clever siccing your daemon on us? We’ll see who’s laughing once we tear you apart,traitor.”

The watcher kicked him again in the stomach. Adrian strained against the paralysis as he hunched into a protective ball. A few droplets of blood from the watcher’s arm splattered across his cheek.

“Enough,” Seymour said, forestalling the next blow. “He’s not worth the energy, and I’d rather not spend all night out here. Any sign of the rogue daemon?”

The enraged watcher glared at Adrian a moment longer before giving Seymour a puzzled look. “The daemon’s dead, sir. You helped me kill it.”

Seymour rolled his eyes. “Notthatdaemon—the one we were sent here to find! The one spitting out those illusions like a spirit-cursed magician conjuring cheap tricks.”

The watcher shrugged. “It must’ve run off before your daemon usedStunning Howl.Or maybe it resisted the effect.” He spat into the grass beside Adrian. “Even a runty daemon like that’s got more aether in it thanhim.”

“So much for an early night,” Seymour sighed. “All right, help me tie him up. I know, I know,” he added at the other watcher’s snort. “The precaution hardly seems necessary, but I don’t want to have to chase him if he tries to run.”

The second watcher produced coiled rope from a pack. By the time they’d finished binding Adrian’s hands and feet—the other watcher taking pleasure in tying the knots painfully tight—he’d regained enough control over his body to wiggle his fingers and toes.

Seymour spoke quietly to the second watcher out of Adrian’s earshot. The watcher didn’t appear happy, but he nodded and gave a curt salute. It was easy to forget that Seymour, young as he was, had already risen to the rank of captain—an appointment he’d earned by passing the stringent exam barely a year after joining the Watcher Division. Just one more way he’d left Adrian far in his wake.

The other watcher passed Seymour his torch and flared his aether. That’s when Adrian noticed the daemon hovering beside him. It looked like a cross between an owl and a snake, with a sinuous feathered body, curving talons, and wide wings. In aheartbeat, the watcher’s flesh disintegrated into a flow of aether and melded with his daemon. Letting out a half-cry, half-hiss, the daemon slithered into the sky and vanished into the night.

Shifting away from the sight, Adrian found Watcher Seymour staring at him, his lips curled into a disgusted scowl. All at once, Seymour’s petty hatred of him seemed one too many indignities to accept on what was shaping up to be one of the worst days of his life.

“What’s your problem?” he snapped, his speech slightly slurred by his awakening muscles.

Seymour’s emerald eyes narrowed. “My problem? Myproblemis that you’re a disgrace to daemon masters everywhere! Your weakness was a bad enough blight on your parents’ legacybeforeyou betrayed every ideal they held dear. That such noble patriots could give birth to a pathetic wretch like you is proof of the spirits’ cruel sense of humor.”

Every word the watcher spat twisted in Adrian’s gut like a knife. Hadn’t he often laid awake at night, wondering what use the spirits had for such a failure in their grand design? Yet, faced with Seymour parroting his greatest fears back at him, anger gripped him rather than despair.

“I amnotweak! I struggle every spirit-cursed day to overcome my lack of aether. The rest of you have the world handed to you on a silver platter. Not me!” Adrian bared his teeth in a savage snarl. “Nothingcomes easy.Nothingcomes free. But I give it my all anyway because the alternative is giving up, and I willnevergive up.Thatis how I honor my parents’ legacy!”

Seymour’s mouth hung open as ifhe’dbeen the one paralyzed. Adrian’s breath came in quick gasps, practically panting from the turmoil of emotions roiling within him.

A shadow of Seymour’s sneer returned as he recovered. “Maybe the worldhastreated you unfairly. But so what? We all face our own challenges. What matters is how we rise to theoccasion. And what haveyoudone?” He leaned over, his intense gaze boring into Adrian’s. “You’ve hidden. You’ve cowered. And now, you’ve revealed your true colors. What were you thinking, running off with a stray instead of doing your duty? A traitor like you deserves your fate.”

“I’m no traitor!” Adrian writhed against his bonds, stretching toward his half-open satchel. “The proof is in there, written in Old Man Crastley’s hand. He discovered a truth Serenity Corp would kill to protect.”