Page 110 of Daemon Master

“Ah, Adrian. I wondered when you’d come to visit me.” Ignoring the others, Jasper focused his intent gaze on Adrian. “Congratulations on your victory. It was certainly well-deserved.” A faint tremor coursed through the wooden floor. Jasper glanced down, raising an eyebrow behind his spectacles. “I take it we are no longer at the watcher fortress?”

“That’s enough out of you,” Seymour said. Though he’d left his daemons unsummoned in the ship’s tight confines, he looked ready to manifest them at a moment’s notice. “We’re not here to answer your questions.”

Adrian, however, couldn’t resist the opportunity to put the smug seeker in his place. “That’s right,” he said, earning an annoyed look from Seymour. “We’ve escaped. Your plan failed.”

Jasper surprised him by chuckling. “Indeed! There’s nothing quite so exciting as an experiment that doesn’t go at all to plan, is there? I’m so rarely proven wrong that I can’t help but appreciate the occasion.”

“Shut up,”Freya said. Seymour rested a restraining hand on her shoulder as she stepped forward, her fists clenched. “You won’t be laughing much longer—not when you get what’s coming to you!”

Jasper glanced at her before raking his eyes over the three of them. “I see… Judging by your tensed postures and nervous energy, I assume you’ve deemed me expendable. A pity.”

“That’s right.” A hint of a cruel smile played over Seymour’s lips as he regarded the chained-up seeker. “Thanks to you, we had a surprisingly easy time of it. A few threats to harm your illustrious person, and none of the watchers dared interfere with our escape. Either they were worried about reprisals from Serenity Corp if they allowed a chosen representative to be killed on their watch…or they were as eager to be rid of you as we are.”

“A mixture of both I suspect,” Jasper said with a shrug. “Either way, you shouldn’t discard me so hastily.”

“Why not?” Freya demanded. “You didn’t think twice about killing my mother!”

Jasper spared a chiding glance for her that only seemed to infuriate her more. “You mistake me, Freya. I don’t mean to imply you lack good cause to kill me. I’m merely pointing out that the benefits to keeping me alive outweigh them.”

“Oh?” Seymour crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. “How do you figure?”

“Well, for one, there’s my continued value as a hostage. If we’re still in the air, you must not have reached your intendeddestination yet, which means you’re still at high risk of being caught.” His gaze once again sought out Adrian. His faint smile made Adrian shudder. “Then, of course, there’s the matter of my potential aid.”

Adrian’s eyebrows shot up.“Youwant to helpus?Forgive me, but after everything you’ve said and done, I find that impossible to believe.”

“As I’ve told you before, Adrian,nothingis impossible. Case-in-point: your improbable victory over me. I am not one to ignore results, no matter how unexpected. In light of recent events, I have little choice but to acknowledge the potential offered by your true bond. Perhaps you were right—perhaps daemoforging was a flawed concept from its inception. Perhaps the true bondisthe future. If so, I would be a part of it.”

“We willneverwork with you!” Freya said, her eyes flashing with rage.

Seymour snorted and jerked his head toward her. “What she said.”

The seeker ignored them both, keeping his gaze fastened on Adrian. “With my patronage, you and your friends would no longer need to run and hide. You could return with me to Serenity Corp as equals rather than prisoners and help me convince the Executive Board of the true bond’s merits. Why, you could bring about the change you so desperately crave without lifting a finger! Just think, Adrian, of all the good we might accomplish together.”

Slowly, Adrian shook his head. “I’m sorry, but they’re right. How could we ever trust you or Serenity Corp after everything that’s happened? There’s only one way this ends.”

His stomach twisted as Seymour stepped forward. Metal glinted in the watcher’s hand: one of Kali’s daggers recovered from the same crate containing Crastley’s journal. Theaetherforged blade should be more than adequate for the grisly task that lay ahead.

An image of Kali’s corpse flashed before his eyes, and he shivered as a wave of nausea rolled over him. He shoved the feeling down with a grimace. As much as he loathed the idea of killing another human being, Jasper was simply too dangerous to leave alive. Adrian had already insisted they wait until the seeker woke rather than butchering him in his sleep. If they were going to do this, there was no reason to delay any longer.

Even faced by the prospect of his own impending death, Jasper appeared eerily unperturbed. He barely even glanced at the dagger before focusing back on Adrian. “I suspected you might say that…which is why I’m prepared to make another offer. You clearly have a deep interest in aetherforging, though I can only speculate why. Keep me alive, and I’ll teach you everything I know about aetherforging and daemoforging both.”

Seymour ignored the seeker, continuing his approach. Adrian, however, stilled. It was a tempting offer. Back in his cell, he’d had to hide his true intentions, and Jasper had always been especially tightlipped when it came to his own research. There was so much more he might still be able to tell them…if he could be trusted to keep his word.

“Wait!” Adrian said, bringing Seymour up short. He scrutinized the seeker’s face, searching for any hints of deception. “You would really help us?”

Jasper met his gaze, his expression unusually solemn. “I swear it. And as you know, I always keep my promises. Believe it or not, our goals are now more aligned than you realize. I am not one to continue a flawed line of research when a more tempting option presents itself.”

“Spirits below, you don’t honestly believe this rubbish, do you?” Freya demanded. Beside her, Metamire quivered angrily. “He’d say anything to save his own hide!”

Studying the calm seeker, Adrian wasn’t so certain. Oh, he had no doubt Jasper would sacrifice the world if it meant achieving his twisted goals. But so far, Adrian had to admit that the seeker had never once lied. If Jasper said he’d help them, might he actually mean it?

And even if he doesn’t, am I really prepared to stand here and watch a man be murdered in cold blood?

Adrian turned and strode from the chamber, gesturing for Seymour and Freya to follow. After a brief pause, they trailed after him. Jasper watched them go without a word. Adrian could feel the tension roiling off the others as they traced the route back to the upper observation deck.

The instant they emerged into warm sunlight, Freya rounded on him, her expression furious. “I can’t believe you’d even consider working with that spirit-cursed monster after everything he’s done! We should deal with him like you did Kali.”

Adrian winced at the barely restrained rage in her voice. He couldn’t blame her for wanting revenge against the man who’d ordered her mother’s execution. Spirits below, Adrian had originally agreed to the seeker’s death himself. Yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this risked setting them along a dark path. If they ruthlessly executed anyone who opposed them, how were they any better than the Serenity Corp executives they sought to overthrow?