Page 44 of Daemon Master

“Do you yield?” he repeated.

Seymour glared up at him. Adrian increased the pressure from his knee, earning a wince. The watcher’s gaze flicked to Heartrender, who’d settled beside his head with fangs bared in an obvious threat. Adrian ignored the ground trembling beneath them from Tremorfist’s approach. It didn’t matter. This one moment would decide the entire fight.

Seymour’s vivid green eyes met Adrian’s. He let out a pained chuckle. “Impressive. You used your daemon’s technique well.”

“No stalling!” Adrian tightened his knee still further. “Do. You. Yield?”

Seymour opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, an ear-splitting scream rang out through the forest. Everything seemed to slow at the sound. Tremorfist’s charge ground to a halt, and Adrian loosened his knee to look up with wide eyes. The scream had been close, within an hour or two’s walk from them at most. It had also sounded unmistakably human.

Adrian staggered to his feet, dimly aware of Seymour doing the same. Winning their duel, which had seemed so important only a moment earlier, was suddenly the furthest thing from his mind. They stood there silently, listening, but no more screams joined the first.

Adrian turned to Seymour. “We have to help them.”

“Perhaps we…misheard,” Seymour said with a frown. “It could’ve been a trick of the wind. Or a daemon causing mischief.”

Adrian fixed Seymour with a glare. “I know what I heard, and so do you. Someone used their aether to bolster a cry for help.”

Seymour crossed his arms and scowled at the nearby trees. “The only people this deep in Overlin Forest are outlaws or those hunting them. And neither is a group we want to encounter.”

“What about all that stuff you said last night about honor and duty?” Adrian countered. “Were those just empty words?”

The watcher sighed as he raked a hand through his ebony hair. “You really are your parents’ son, aren’t you? Spirits above, my life would be so much easier if I’d left you at Kali’s mercy.” He spun and stalked away. Tremorfist lumbered after him.

“Wait!” Adrian shouted, hurrying to catch up. “Where are you going?”

“Where do you think?” He reached the treeline, ducking under a low-hanging branch. “To do something else stupidly noble that I’ll probably regret.”

You really are your parents’ son, aren’t you?

The words rang in Adrian’s head as he followed Seymour through the forest. A second scream came, shorter than the first. By some unspoken agreement, they picked up their pace. At least this time, they weren’t stumbling through the dark, unlike his last rescue mission. The memory brought a prickle of recognition, and he checked the sun’s position in the sky.

“Why have you slowed?” Seymour asked. “We need to keep moving.”

“We’re heading east,” Adrian said uneasily. “There’s only one thing I can think of in this direction that might elicit a horrified scream.”

Seymour’s eyes widened before narrowing to slits. “For the sake of whoever’s in trouble, I hope you’re wrong. Either way, it won’t do us or them any good to waste time.”

Adrian nodded, his thoughts distant, and they continued on. As he’d feared, they soon reached a copse of withered trees, the skeletal remains blackened and drained of aether.

Seymour paced before the trees, brushing his fingers over the tip of a desiccated branch. It crumbled to dust before their eyes. “The dead zone has expanded since we were here last. Souleater’s been busy.” When Adrian didn’t reply, Seymour whirled and stabbed an accusatory finger at his chest. “I told you we should have finished that beast when we had the chance! Now, it’s claimed another victim. Their fate is onourheads.”

“That’s not fair!” Adrian said, finding his voice. “We both know I wasn’t ready to face such a foe back then. Spirits above, I don’t know if I’m readynow.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” Seymour turned back to study the dead zone. “This is no common daemon, easily dispatched. We need a plan.”

“I can use Heartrender’s technique to distract it again. While Souleater’s gulping down aether, we can slip in shrouded, grab whoever’s there, and slip out.”

Seymour shook his head. “Not this time. We need to put Souleater down for good.”

“But—”

“I let you talk me out of fighting before. I won’t make the same mistake again.” Seymour’s hard expression eased slightly into a smirk. “Besides, this is the perfect chance to test your newfound skills against a more formidable foe. Think of it as an extension of your training.”

Adrian took a steadying breath, letting it out slowly. “Fine. I’ll defer to your tactical judgment, since you have more experience with this kind of battle than I do. What’s the plan?”

Seymour thought for a moment, tapping a long finger against his chin. “You still have those old bondstones of yours, right? I think it’s time we put them to good use.”

The desolate clearing at the heart of the dead zone looked much as Adrian remembered. Broken animal bones and withered tree husks littered the space. Souleater lurked in the middle, the uncanny stacks of triangles comprising its body oriented toward the stone outcrop. Assuming whoever screamed still lived, they’d likely sought refuge in the same narrow crevice Seymour had.