Page 55 of Daemon Master

Heartrender chose that moment to flood his mind with images. He struggled to sort out her meaning while avoiding Shadowlash’s blind attacks through the illusory cloud. When he finally understood, he grinned. Shadowlash was nigh invincible, and Blazewing remained out of reach overhead…but onlyafterKali summoned it. Even she couldn’t manifest a daemon more than a few paces away. That might be just the opening they needed to turn the tide back in their favor.

Adrian feigned retreat, dodging away from Shadowlash and using his two daemons to cover him. As he expected, Kali recalled Shadowlash and summoned Blazewing.

Now, Lockrod!

TheUnbendable Rodvanished from Adrian’s hands, reappearing anchored in the air above Blazewing. The daemoncollided with the horizontal rod, straining to push past it and rise into the sky. Adrian poured aether into a Surge to bolster Lockrod’s technique. Simultaneously, he infused Heartrender with still more of his aether as an Enhancement. Gritting his teeth at the strain, he had her dismiss herMirror Imageto clear their vision.

Heartrender leaped onto Kali’s struggling daemon, followed a beat later by Lockrod. As it had before when cornered, Blazewing crackled with wild flames. The unshaped aether wasn’t enough to incinerate either of Adrian’s daemons outright, though their pain reverberated through him.

Unable to recall her daemon while its aether was in flux, Kali could only watch in frustrated fury while Heartrender and Lockrod tore it apart. When Blazewing died, Adrian reveled in their victory. One daemon down, only one to go.

Then, he noticed Kali’s thin smile.Spirits below, she’d beenwaitingfor us to finish Blazewing off!Before he could shout a warning, a freshly summoned Shadowlash crushed Lockrod beneath a mass of shadowed tentacles. His aether already thinned by Blazewing’s flames, Lockrod burst apart, flowing into Adrian to regenerate.

A sharp pain stabbed through Adrian an instant later. At first, he thought it was a physical reaction to losing Lockrod. Then, he spied the metal jutting from his flesh. Kali had taken advantage of his distraction to close the short distance between them and ram a dagger—perhaps the same one he’d stolen during their last encounter—through his chest.

Vaguely, he heard Heartrender’s anguished yowl as he staggered to his knees.

Kali loomed over him. Her face split into a self-satisfied smirk. “It’s over. Order your daemon to stand down.”

Tears blurred Adrian’s sight as his vision wavered. He was fading fast. Given time, his aether could probably mend thewound in his chest, but there was no way he’d be able to keep fighting in the meantime. He thought of Crastley hiding from Serenity Corp for years. Of Seymour helping him escape Hillvale. Of his parents and their noble sacrifice. When it mattered most, all of them had held fast to their convictions. How could he do any less now?

Mustering what strength remained to him—along with some extra aether fed to him by Heartrender—he shook his head. “No,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

From the tightening of Kali’s lips, he knew she’d heard him. She gestured at Shadowlash with her bloody dagger. “Subdue his daemon. Hurt it if you must but keep it alive.”

Tentacles writhed across Shadowlash’s back. A dark haze enveloped its body as it dashed forward. Heartrender bared her fangs and readied herself to meet the daemon’s assault head-on. Illusory copies sprang up around her to help deflect Shadowlash’s attacks.

She won’t win.

Adrian knew this truth down to his core. Unlike the ferocious daemon bearing down on her, Heartrender excelled at distractions and battlefield support, not direct combat. His heart ached at his daemon’s readiness to give her life for his, and he bowed his head. How many times had he sacrificed Trailseeker to save himself? Perhaps it was time he balanced the scales.

Heartrender, return!

His daemon shimmered into a cloud of aether right as Shadowlash slammed a pair of tentacles where she’d been. Kali’s daemon skidded to a halt, clearly unsure how to respond.

“You spirit-cursedfool!”

Kali’s eyes blazed with barely restrained fury. She took a step toward him before jerking to a halt. She breathed out, visibly composing herself. When she looked at him again, she wore a mask of cold indifference.

“I told you my employers want you alive. They’re…curious about you. Release your daemon, and I’ll deliver you to them, safe and sound.” She took another step, brandishing her dagger still dripping with his blood. “Refuse, and I’ll capture the daemon when it unmelds from your corpse.”

Adrian stubbornly set his jaw while his addled mind raced for a plan. It’d be hours before Lockrod recovered enough to be resummoned. Could Heartrender outrun Shadowlash? Not that it mattered—he was fooling himself if he thought he could sustain a full Fusion right now. But maybe she could at least save herself.

The orderly flow of his aether rippled. He gasped, clutching at his chest—not at his stab wound, but at something deeper within him.Spirits above, what’s happening?It had been weeks since he’d struggled with his aether, and it had never felt likethis.

Aether burst from him in a blazing penumbra of blue light. For a moment, he feared he was dying. Then, the light cleared, and his eyes widened as they locked on Heartrender standing beside him. She’d unmeldedherself.

“No!” he shouted.

He reached for her, flinching at a spike of agony from his wound. Heartrender cast a sad look back at him. Reassurance mixed with dread through their bond as she padded forward until she came to a rest at Kali’s feet.

“It seems your daemon has more sense than you do,” Kali said. “Still, I suppose I should make sure this isn’t another of your tricks.”

In a swift motion, she bent and jammed something into Heartrender’s back. His daemon went rigid. The bond between them shrank, and for a horrified instant, Adrian thought it would snap completely. To his relief, a single trembling thread remained. Had Kali been trying to kill Heartrender? That didn’t make any sense, not when she wanted Heartrender alive.

Kali rose, revealing the bondstone glistening within Heartrender like a dark tumor. Its corrupting influence pressed on the edges of Adrian’s mind, smothering Heartrender’s will, and he shuddered.Are you okay?he sent through the thin filament that still connected them. He received little more than a flicker of disjointed emotion in response.

“Better,” Kali said. “It is as it should be—the daemon domesticated and obedient.”