Page 31 of Knox

He found a notification from "The Book Nook," the online forum where he and his friends discussed the latest chapters ofMonsters of Veridia. Distracted, he opened the app, his thumb scrolling through the flurry of new posts.

#ShadowSavior is trending worldwide! Anyone else think he’s actually a good guy now?

OMG, Caelen is so hot! I’m totally on board with this redemption arc.

Do we think other characters have crossed over too? Has anyone spotted Knox?

Forget Knox, I’m Team Caelen now! He’s got that tortured soul, bad boy turned hero vibe going on.

Adrian’s stomach clenched. "People are really buying into this."

"How do we get to this bridge?" Knox asked with some urgency.

He wasn’t going to be stopped from this confrontation.

Adrian swallowed hard, his throat dry. The thought of facing the Shadow King, even with Knox at his side, filled him with a terror he couldn’t quite articulate.

He wasn’t someone who ran out and fought real-life bad guys. He preferred to sit at his desk and fight internet trolls.

But this was important. Possibly more important than anything he’d done in his life.

He took a deep breath, trying to quell the panic rising within him. "We’ll get a taxi," he said, his voice steadier than he felt.

"A taxi?"

"A car," Adrian explained. "One of those metal things that nearly ran you over last night."

Knox hesitated, but only for a moment. "As long as they’re fast."

Adrian nodded. "C’mon."

Together, they left the hotel.

As they reached the street, Adrian hailed a taxi. The driver, a middle-aged man with tired eyes, eyed Knox’s horns with curiosity. "Is there a convention in town?"

"Not quite." Adrian licked his lips as he sat in the backseat of the taxi. "Please get us as close to Bay Bridge as you can."

"Bay Bridge, huh? Awful what’s happening there. Are you looking to take pictures?"

"No, just, please go. I promise a good tip."

"All right, all right. But I don’t know how close I can get you."

As the taxi pulled away from the curb, Adrian glanced back at the hotel building, quickly reflecting on everything that had happened that morning.

How was this his life?

Chapter

Nine

The metal carriage rattled along the uneven road, a jarring symphony of noise and motion that set Knox’s teeth on edge. He pressed his hand against the cool glass of the window, watching the buildings they passed, the other metal carriages rush by.

Everything felt off-kilter—too fast, too loud, too bright. Even the air tasted wrong, a metallic tang mingling with the scents of exhaust fumes and something he couldn’t quite place but instinctively recoiled from.

He shifted restlessly on the seat, missing the weight of his armor, the reassuring feel of his sword against his thigh. He felt exposed without them, vulnerable, and that only added to his sense of feeling out of place.

But at least he knew what he had to do now. He had a goal, a mission.