Page 30 of Knox

Adrian stared at the television, his mind struggling to reconcile the image of the Shadow King, the embodiment of chaos and darkness, with this act of apparent heroism as a dark arm made of shadows pulled a woman back from falling off the bridge.

"He’s got to have some ulterior motive," Adrian said.

"Of course he does." Knox shook his head, his disbelief evident. "He thrives on destruction, on manipulating fear, on twisting desires to his own ends. This… this doesn’t make sense."

The camera zoomed in on Caelen, capturing his too-handsome face in unsettling detail. His eyes, usually shadowed and cold, now glowed with an almost beatific light. Even his hair had turned white, belying his dark nature. He turned toward the camera, his gaze seeming to pierce through the screen, and spoke in a voice that was strangely smooth.

"This world," Caelen said, "is a place of new beginnings. I was trapped in a role I never chose, a villain forced to play a part in a story that was not my own. But here," he gestured toward thebridge, toward the city beyond, "here, I am free. Free to be the force I was always meant to be. A force for good, for change, for a brighter future."

Adrian shivered, a strange mixture of fascination and apprehension coiling in his gut.

He couldn’tmeanthat, could he?

Could shadow become light?

Knox, too, seemed disturbed. "What is he playing at?" he muttered, his gaze fixed on the screen as if trying to decipher a hidden code.

Adrian bit his lower lip, his mind racing. "Do you think he believes it?" Adrian asked, turning to Knox, his voice laced with a nervous energy he couldn’t quite control. "That he was… a fictional character, forced to be a villain by the author?"

Knox didn’t seem to understand what Adrian was talking about at first. "What author?"

"N.N," Adrian said. "The person who wrote the webnovel, the story of your life."

"Whoever that person is," Knox’s gaze hardened, "they didn’t create me or Caelen. They certainly didn’t force Caelen to be an asshole."

Adrian wanted to argue with Knox, but how? He could hardly convince the demon that neither he nor the Shadow King were ever supposed to be real.

Frankly, at this point, he didn’t know what he himself believed.

Had Caelen broken out of his story to become something other than the Shadow King?

On TV, he was still saving people.

Adrian’s phone buzzed again.

BookBoyfriendLover69:OH MY GOD HE’S SO HOT. I LOVE A REDEMPTION ARC.

Adrian stared at the message, his stomach twisting with apprehension. Was that really what was going on here?

Had Caelen freed himself from the confines of his story?

He read the message aloud to Knox.

"Redemption arc?" Knox snorted. "Caelen? That’s like saying a viper can shed its fangs and become a harmless garden snake."

"You changed," Adrian said.

Knox looked away, obviously unwilling to concede the point. "Do people ever really change? I thought I had beaten the demon in me into submission, and yet…"

"Yet what?"

Knox met his gaze. "I want to devour you whole."

The words sent a rush of adrenaline through Adrian. He didn’t know how to respond, feeling entirely caught in Knox’s gaze.

His phone buzzed again.

This time, it was a relief, an excuse to break himself free from the spell Knox had put him under.