Page 51 of Daemon Master

The watcher vanished into the woods, leaving Adrian standing there alone amid the smoking wreckage of their camp.

twelve

Alone

Don’t stop moving.

That had become Adrian’s new creed. He had no idea how far he’d traveled since Kali’s daemon attacked. His lean-to had miraculously survived, leaving him his sleeping roll, a waterskin, and Crastley’s journal. Everything else, he’d had to scavenge along the way.

Months of training both his body and his aether made it easy to keep moving. His mind, however, proved harder to corral. Every day, he expected to awake to a recovered Blazewing scorching the sky or Kali looming over him with a triumphant grin. Perhaps it was for the best Seymour was gone. No reason for him to hitch his fate to Adrian’s sinking ship.

Thinking of the watcher alternately filled him with an indignant anger and an aching sense of loss. He’d actually started to consider the arrogant man his friend, spirit-cursed fool that he was. Now that Seymour had abandoned him, he felt more alone than ever. Had he really thought he coulddefy Serenity Corp and alter the trajectory of daemon bonding forever?

The idea seemed laughable now. If only Crastley’s legacy had gone to someone who knew what to do with it. Seymour had been right about him. He was little more than an idealistic coward who refused to do what was necessary to survive. He wasn’t cut out to be a hero.

Lost in his brooding, it took him a moment to realize Heartrender no longer walked beside him. He found her a dozen paces back by a fallen tree, her posture tensed.

“What is it, girl?” he asked. A cold sweat broke out over his skin as he looked around. “Is it…her?” Silly superstition kept him from uttering Kali’s name aloud.

Heartrender yipped a negative and pawed at the fallen tree. The wood appeared partially rotten and hollowed out. One end was ragged as if it had recently snapped in half.

“Leave it,” he said. No sense wasting time over a dead tree.

He turned to continue, but Heartrender pawed again at the trunk, whining softly. He didn’t need the deluge of images she sent to understand what she wanted.

“This had better be important.” He crouched and wrapped his arms under the trunk, grimacing at the squelch of half-rotten wood. “I swear, ifshecatches up to us because we stopped to investigate a rotting log…”

Even heaving with all his might, he couldn’t shift the heavy wood. He released the trunk and rubbed his sore back. Heartrender whined again, more urgently this time.

Why don’t you help if you’re so determined to get under there,Adrian sent irritably. Aether flooded his muscles a moment later. He shook his head with a soft snort.

Fair enough.

Flexing his newfound strength, he gripped the trunk. The wood creaked as it rolled aside through the underbrush. He peered underneath. Crushed leaves. Broken branches. And…

He blinked. A daemon lay there, only slightly larger than Heartrender. It must’ve been shrouding its aether, though now that he was close, he sensed its energy bleeding through. About the size and shape of a monkey, the creature had a long tail and hands reminiscent of a human’s. Its saucer-like eyes stared at him with open terror, its azure skin shuddering with what he assumed to be nerves until he spied the splintered shard of wood rammed through its side.

“Are you okay?” he asked, trying to make his voice soothing. “What happened?”

The daemon didn’t respond, but he could guess. The tree had likely collapsed, pinning it here. Its wound hadn’t been severe enough to kill it outright, but its aether also hadn’t been able to recover with the branch still lodged in place.

“Poor thing. How long have you been trapped there?” He hesitated before extending his hand. “Here, let me help you.”

As his fingers neared the creature’s wound, it growled a warning and bared its fangs. He wrenched his hand back, frowning as he imagined Seymour admonishing him for wasting his time saving a wild daemon as likely as not to attack him once freed.

His jaw tightened.Spirits take the watcher!Maybe Adrianwasan idealistic fool, but he couldn’t just walk away. Not when a living creature was hurting, and he had the ability to help.

“It’s all right. I won’t hurt you. What’s your name, little one?” He probed the daemon with his aethersense. “Lockrod, huh? Nice to meet you.”

The daemon stared at him with its enormous eyes. At least it wasn’t growling anymore. He took that as a good sign.

“I want to help, but that means I’m going to have to get closer. Will you let me do that?”

He doubted Lockrod understood—even Heartrender often struggled to interpret him, and they shared a direct mental link. Still, he hoped his tone conveyed that he meant no harm.

Moving with exaggerated slowness, he nudged his hand toward Lockrod’s wound. The daemon froze, every muscle in its body taut. Adrian swallowed.Please don’t maul my hand. Lockrod remained perfectly still as his fingers tightened around the end of the branch.

“Sorry about this,” he murmured. Then, he wrenched the jagged wood free.