Page 7 of Knox

"This has to be some kind of elaborate prank," Adrian muttered under his breath as he guided Knox back to the apartment. He shot a sideways glance at the man walking beside him. Even with his clothes torn and mud-splattered, the man looked so much like the real thing it was uncanny.

He looked exactly like Adrian had always imagined he would.

"This world…" Knox muttered, "it’s so devoid of magic. Like a song with no melody." His gaze swept over the streetlights and passing cars, a frown creasing his brow.

Adrian shivered. He was starting to regret not calling the police—or at least a mental health professional. But how did you explain to a psychiatrist that a fictional demon had fallen through your roof?

He pushed open the door to the building, ushering Knox inside.

When they made it up to the apartment, Evelyn walked out of Adrian’s room to welcome them back. "Adrian, dear," she said, her voice calm despite the chaos that had just unfolded. "I’m afraid your room is out of commission for the night."

"I gathered as much, Grandma," Adrian replied, suppressing a groan. He didn’t even want to think of the damage the storm and the broken skylight must have caused.

Evelyn patted his shoulder. "I’ll ready the sofa bed for you and our guest. Don’t worry, we’ll sort this out in the morning."

"Wait, hold on—" Adrian started to protest, but Evelyn was already bustling toward the linen closet, leaving him alone with Knox—who he was supposed to be sharing a bed with tonight?

Yeah, no.

That was not going to happen.

Adrian swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry. Maybe the damage to his bedroom wasn’t all that bad? Maybe he could sleep there after all?

He’d have to check.

Without another word or an explanation to the man who’d quite literally fallen into his life tonight, he opened the door to his room.

Shards of glass glittered on the floor, rain had soaked his carpet and his bed, and the storm had whipped various little figurines from his shelves. Adrian gathered them up, checking each one for damage. He was turning a likeness of the Shadow King over in his hand when Knox entered the room.

"What do you have there?"

"Nothing." Adrian put the figurine down on his desk.

Knox didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, but his gaze was drawn away from Adrian and to the posters on the wall.

Well… that wasn’t better.

"These are paintings of me and my friends."

Right. Knox was going to keep up the act. Heat crept up the back of Adrian’s neck as he glanced at his bed where he had a large body pillow with a print of a very naked Knox on it. At least the man hadn’t seenthatyet.

He needed to get the incubus, or cosplayer, or whatever he was out of this room.

"They’re not paintings," he said. "They’re posters." If he could keep the man’s gaze fixed on the posters, at least he might not notice some of the other things in the room. Adrian’s skin heated.

How the hell was this happening to him?

Whatwashappening to him?

Was someone playing a very elaborate prank? Had his last blog post pissed someone off and this was their revenge?

That didn’t make sense. None of this made sense.

Knox turned to him. "Why do you have these… posters… on your walls? Is this a place of worship of sorts?" Knox looked at the pendant around Adrian’s neck again, eyes narrowed. "Do you work for the Night Court? Do you worship the Lady of the Night?"

The Night Church wasn’treal.Adrian wanted to scream.

Except that he didn’t think that Knox would be very impressed with him if he screamed.