Epilogue

Adrian stood on the open deck of the airship as it soared through the heavens. A cold wind ruffled his hair, and a clean, crisp scent filled his nose. Though he couldn't see it beneath the gentle banks of clouds, he knew that, somewhere far below, lay Overlin Forest.

Thinking of everything that had happened there conjured a confusing mix of emotions. He'd broken past his aetheric blockage within those woods. Unlocked the secrets of daemon mastery and aetherforging. Made his first genuine friends since his parents died.

Yet the ancient trees had also witnessed some of the darkest times in his life. He'd faced bitter defeat. Failed to protect those he cared about. Been forced to fight again and again for a future he didn't know if he had the strength or courage to seize.

He tightened his grip on the balustrade. "Hard to believe we made it out in one piece."

Leaning against the wooden railing beside him, Seymour grunted. "Who'd have thought a scrawny whelp like you had what it took to best not one but two Serenity Corp operatives? Our little Adrian is all grown up."

A flush reddened his cheeks. "No need to be patronizing about it."

"I wasn't." Adrian gave him a look, and Seymour chuckled, nudging his shoulder. "All right, maybe a little. But seriously, Adrian—it's astonishing what you've accomplished. I know I haven't always been the most supportive, nor the most optimistic of our chances to confront Serenity Corp. But after everything that's happened…well, you've given me hope."

Adrian blinked back the sudden moisture in his eyes, squinting out at the vast open sky. His next words came out shaky. "You said before that you thought my parents would be proud of me. Did…did you…"

The watcher rested his hand on Adrian's where it clutched the railing. Adrian glanced over to find Seymour's emerald eyes intent on him, their buried flecks of gold scintillating in the sun.

"I meant every word of it. I only wish they were here to tell you themselves."

Adrian held the watcher's gaze for a long, fraught moment before finally looking away. He cleared his throat, grateful for Seymour's touch without allowing himself to dwell too hard on what it might mean. On what he wanted it to mean.

"Me too."

Like so many others, his parents had been casualties of the ceaseless conflict between humans and daemons. No matter what Jasper claimed about the circumstances surrounding their deaths, they'd died fighting for what they believed in. Was Adrian prepared to do the same?

A light brush upon his cheek jerked Adrian from his thoughts, and his heartbeat quickened when he realized Seymour had shifted closer. Seymour's hand, still resting atop his on the railing, squeezed gently, their fingers intertwining. His other hand reached up to cradle the side of Adrian's face. Although Seymour's palm was coarse with callouses, Adrian barely noticed, so captivated was he by Seymour's vivid green eyes.

"What—" Adrian had time to murmur before Seymour closed the remaining distance between them and pressed their lips together.

Adrian would've expected the watcher to approach kissing as aggressively as he did everything else, but the kiss was surprisingly gentle. Seymour's lips felt as soft as the faintest caress of aether and left just as much tingling in their wake as they mapped the contours of Adrian's mouth. Adrian's eyes drifted shut on a quiet moan, his own free hand reaching up to trace the muscled lines of Seymour's side through his tunic.

They parted on a delicate exhalation. Seymour maintained his grip on Adrian's hand atop the rail, his expression uncharacteristically vulnerable as he licked his reddened lips.

"I've wanted to do that since we were kids," he admitted, his voice as rough as his battle-worn hands. A slight flush colored his angular cheeks.

Before Adrian could muster a response, footsteps echoed on the deck. Seymour quickly withdrew his hand and subtly moved away, creating some distance between them. Turning his head, Adrian saw Freya emerging from the staircase leading below.

"He's awake," she said, her voice tight. "The daemonsbane seems to be doing its job for now, but I left Metamire guarding him just in case."

Adrian wanted to ask how she was doing, but he thought he knew the answer. Her losses remained too fresh, too vivid, for her to be okay. It took time for wounds like hers to mend.

Seymour glanced at Adrian, his previous vulnerability buried once more. "It's time."

Swallowing, Adrian nodded. He struggled to prepare himself for what was about to happen as they followed Freya belowdecks, grim determination replacing the pleasant heat of Seymour's lips from just a few moments earlier. He might not be able to undo the tragedy Jasper had wrought, but he could at least make sure he was there for Freya when she needed it…and do his part to ensure no more innocents suffered in the seeker's name.

Jasper looked up at them when they reached the empty room where they'd stashed their prisoner. His bespectacled eyes were as keen as ever despite the daemonsbane dulling what little aether he had left after Ghosttear's stunt. Just to be certain, Adrian checked with his aethersense and verified that the seeker's tattoos remained inert. Without the sacrifice of fresh daemons to recharge them, they should be next to useless, and the daemonsbane ensured Jasper couldn't utilize his own reserve for any last tricks he might have up his sleeve. Even still, Adrian and the others halted beside Metamire in the room's entrance, keeping their distance from where they'd tied Jasper's hands and chained him to a pipe running along the room's far wall.

"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 intended destination 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. "You want to help us? Forgive me, but after everything you've said and done, I find that impossible to believe."

"As I've told you before, Adrian, nothing is 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 bond is the future. If so, I would be a part of it."

"We will never work 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. The aetherforged 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?

"We don't need to work with Jasper to take advantage of his expertise," he said. "That monster also happens to be one of the foremost experts on aetherforging in the entire League. It would be foolish not to take advantage of that resource while we have it. Right?" He glanced at Seymour, silently urging the watcher to follow his lead.

Seymour eyed him uncertainly before letting out a long sigh. "It's reckless, there's no denying that. But as much as I'd love to toss our favorite seeker overboard and let gravity do our dirty work, Jasper did have a point. Should our enemies catch up to us, he could prove a valuable bargaining chip. They let us go once because of him—they might very well do so again."

Adrian gave Seymour a grateful look. Freya, however, appeared less than convinced. She clutched at the balustrade as if desperate for its support.

"If that's what you think is best," she said, her tone brittle.

"We don't need to keep him with us forever," Seymour assured her. "Just a couple days more to deter pursuit until we're further away from that watcher fortress and Adrian's had a chance to pick his brain. Then, we can be rid of him once and for all."

That brought a flicker of a smile to Freya's face cold enough to send an uncomfortable shiver down Adrian's back. It was a bit too similar to Kali's smile for his liking. Still, he was glad to have delayed any final decision on Jasper's fate for at least a few more days.

"They might still come after us," he cautioned. "Hostage or not, those watchers will contact Serenity Corp for new orders, and an airship is too visible a target to remain hidden for long."

Seymour squeezed his right hand into a fist. Aether flared around his knuckles. "Let them. We'll figure something out. Maybe Heartrender can create an illusion big enough to hide the ship. Or maybe we can rig a smaller flier with some of the airship's daemons so we're harder to spot. It can't be that difficult to manage."

Adrian looked down at the wooden deck and swallowed a burst of nerves. Though Freya and Seymour had figured out enough of the airship's controls to get them moving and had assured him they didn't need anyone monitoring the bridge while traveling in a straight line, he didn't like thinking about the precarious magic holding them aloft. They'd reluctantly agreed to leave the bound daemons powering the vessel in place for the time being. If even a single one of them broke free or disobeyed its orders…

"And then what?" Freya asked, jarring him back to the present. She stared at Seymour, a strange tension in her posture. "Do you have a destination in mind?"

"We put as much distance between us and this region as we can," Seymour said. "There are plenty of other places along the League's outskirts we can lay low while we regroup."

Freya's eyes narrowed. "What about the tournament?"

"The tournament?" Seymour scoffed. "After everything that's happened, you can't honestly still expect us to compete."

Adrian's hands tightened around the balustrade as if it was one of Lockrod's Unbendable Rods. "Why not? Unless Jasper was lying about Heartrender's importance to Serenity Corp, they'll never stop hunting us. The Diamond Cup remains our best chance to reveal the truth in a way Serenity Corp won't be able to contain. Once we've dragged their dirty laundry into the cold light of day, they'll have no choice but to reform or go down with the sinking ship."

He paled a little, trying not to dwell on the image that unfortunate phrase conjured.

Seymour gave him a hard look. He met the watcher's examination unflinchingly. Now that he'd stated the desire out loud, he felt certain it was the right course. The massacre at the Enclave and Jasper's revelations since only proved how important their mission was. Adrian's cause might differ vastly from his parents', but he liked to imagine they would have supported his motive. Ultimately, it was the same as theirs: peace, in whatever form he could manage it.

At last, Seymour nodded. "In that case, you'd better pick Jasper's brain quick so you can finish those relics of yours. We'd also better see if we can coax this spirit-cursed thing to go any faster. We've no time to waste if we want to reach Haven before the qualifiers." His mouth twisted into a playful sneer. "Though just so there's no confusion, I'll be the one making it to the championships."

Adrian managed a small smile. "I guess we'll see."

"Count me in," Freya said, her expression distant as she watched the setting sun dye the sky a watercolor of reds and yellows.

Adrian eyed her. "Look, I know we pretty much dragged you into this mess, but just so you know, you don't have to come with us. We're the ones Serenity Corp wants. You could settle into a small village somewhere, become part of a new community. You don't need to—"

"Yes. I do." She met his gaze, her eyes ablaze with fiery passion. "I wanted to come with you even before…" She swallowed. "Before what happened. Now, I don't have a choice. Serenity Corp took everything from me. I intend to return the favor."

He frowned at that before deciding now probably wasn't the right time to discuss the dangers of revenge. Besides, could he honestly claim no feelings of vengeance drove Seymour or him? Serenity Corp had betrayed them all—lied to the entire League. That, more than anything, was why they had to bring the organization down before their deception brought further ruin.

Jasper's daemoforgings offered a terrifying look at the future for which Serenity Corp strove—a world of superpowered humans capable of mass annihilation with a snap of their fingers. Forget the fate of daemons. Humans, too, would be at the mercy of such monsters. No matter what Jasper claimed about making the world equal, it was Serenity Corp who would control access to their technology and decide who was worthy of it.

That wasn't a world Adrian wanted to live in.

Leaving the others to watch the sunset, he ambled across the deck to where his two daemons lay resting from their ordeal. Lockrod barely had enough aether to reconstitute but had insisted he'd rather finish healing in his corporeal form than remain cooped up. Adrian supposed it made sense. Heartrender might be used to lengthy melds from her time with Crastley, but Lockrod was a new breed of bonded daemon—one that had never known slavery, only freedom.

Heartrender sensed his attention on her and raised her head, eying him sleepily. He reassured her through their bond that everything was all right, and she settled. After a moment's hesitation, he sat down beside his daemons, gathering them close.

In the near distance, he spied Ghosttear, curled up in his own section of deck. They'd freed him from his confinement after dealing with Jasper, and Adrian hadn't been surprised when he wandered up here with the rest of them. Despite the daemon's strange aether and antisocial tendencies, Adrian got the sense Ghosttear wasn't as opposed to company as he pretended. After all, he'd come through for them when it mattered most. Adrian wouldn't soon forget that.

Tomorrow would bring with it more challenges. Assuming they reached Haven unscathed, there was still the tournament itself, and despite Seymour's bravado, Adrian knew they faced an uphill battle. Even with the advantages of the true bond, they'd need to train harder than ever to stand a chance. Watching the sunset with Heartrender snuggled on one side and Lockrod on the other, however, he couldn't hold back the warmth of hope, certain they'd find a way.