Page 65 of Daemon Master

Truth be told, Adrian wasn’t surewhatto make of the daemon. It didn’t appear bondsick, though its aether was so tumultuous, he wasn’t certain he’d be able to tell. It reminded him of the sorry state his own aether used to be in, always threatening to slip free of his control.

Then, there was the creature’s obvious resemblance to Heartrender. The most likely explanation was that Ghosttear was Heartrender’s broodmate—another of the daemons bred for Project Paragon. Crastley had said the majority of specimens proved unstable, which might explain Ghosttear’s flawed aether. But why would Kali bring a failed experiment with her?

“What do you plan to do with it?” Seymour asked, snapping Adrian out of his reverie.

He returned his attention to Ghosttear. The pathetic-looking daemon hadn’t moved. It flicked its mournful gaze to regardhim, then snuffled and closed its eyes as if it lacked the energy for any of this nonsense. Poor thing, forgotten and discarded.Just like me.

“I’m going to try to bond with it,” he said.

Seymour let out a long-suffering sigh. “Of course you are. Setting aside the obvious issues with its aether, youdorealize you’ve already got two bonds, right? No daemon master in the history of the League has ever been able to support more than two bonded daemons at a time.”

“No daemon master in the history of the League has ever used the true bond either,” Adrian said, his gaze still fixed on Ghosttear. “We’ve already disproven many of the other limits we typically ascribe to daemon bonding. If manifesting multiple daemons at once or performing a reverse Surge are possible, then why not bonding more than two daemons?”

Seymour’s only response was a grunt. Taking that as reluctant agreement, Adrian crouched beside Ghosttear and raised his hand. Aether gathered about his fingers, coalescing into the runic circle of the true bond.

“What do you say?” he asked Ghosttear. His hand hovered above the daemon, his aether poised to sink into its flesh should it accept his offer. “Care to give this ‘true bond’ thing a shot?”

Ghosttear didn’t visibly react, remaining curled up on the ground where it had appeared. Adrian’s runic circle flickered, and his breath caught. For a moment, he thought Ghosttear had accepted the bond. Then, his aether began to shudder and unravel. Within a matter of heartbeats, it had entirely broken apart.

“Well, so much for that,” Seymour said. “Now what?”

Adrian frowned, trying to sort out what had happened. Had his bond failed because Ghosttear rejected it? Or was there something else at play? Perhaps Ghosttear’s own unstableaether rendered such a bond impossible. Or perhaps this was proof that two bonds remained the limit after all.

Regardless, he had no intention of leaving the poor daemon here alone to fend for itself.

“We take it with us,” he said firmly.

He’d expected Seymour to protest. Instead, the watcher rolled his eyes. “Your sympathy for wild daemons is going to get us killed one of these days.”

“Mysympathyfor wild daemons revealed the truth about Serenity Corp.”

“Exactly my point!”

Ignoring Seymour, Adrian stooped to scoop Ghosttear into his arms. “Come on, little guy. If the Enclave’s as good with wild daemons as they say, perhaps they can find a place for you.”

The daemon didn’t move or even acknowledge him as he leaned over. The second his fingers touched its skin, however, it tensed and began to shake, letting out a pitiable, whining growl. He quickly withdrew his hand.

“Easy there. It’s all right.” He studied the daemon curiously. “You don’t like being touched, huh? That’s going to make this difficult.”

After a moment’s hesitation, he steeled himself and tore a long strip off Kali’s tunic. Seymour raised an eyebrow but didn’t interfere. Once he had a couple lengths of cloth, Adrian fashioned them into a makeshift sling.

“How about this?” he asked, holding his breath as he nudged the sling toward Ghosttear’s folded front paws.

To his relief, the daemon seemed unperturbed. Perhaps only direct contact with living beings upset it? Now, he just had to get Ghosttear onto the cloth. He was about to risk picking the daemon up when it edged forward and draped itself over the sling.

Adrian grinned. Ghosttear must’ve intuited what he wanted. He carefully raised the sling and tied its edges around his neck. The result left Ghosttear nestled in a cloth hammock against his chest. Ghosttear languidly cocked its head to regard him before settling into the sling to sleep.

He let out a breath. “One problem down.”

“Indeed,” Seymour said as he began gathering Kali’s scattered relics—the two empty containment cylinders, the aetherforged daggers (one caked with dried blood), and the badge. He offered that last to Adrian. “Before, you had some sort of revelation about this. What was it?”

“Oh, right.” He held out a hand. “Here, let me see it.”

Seymour passed him the badge, and he fumbled with his aether until he found the proper activation spot. The badge flared to life. The effect, however, felt strangely faint. He furrowed his brow, turning the badge over in his fingers. Had corruption worn it down like Ghosttear’s cylinder? He couldn’t tell. Despite its weakened state, however, it still appeared to function. Working off his earlier hunch, he pictured Seymour. Easy enough to do with the watcher frowning impatiently at him.

Greetings, he sent.Can you hear me?

Seymour’s eyes went wide. “Spirits above, how did youdothat?” He glared at Ghosttear. “Did you somehow bond a third daemon after all when I wasn’t looking?”