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AURORA WAS SO EXHAUSTED, she didn’t give much thought to Noxor’s words. After her bath, she stripped down to her petticoat and sunk into bed, falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
When she woke up the next morning, Aurora was extraordinarily depressed. She had a dream about Lyric, but she couldn’t remember any of the dream’s details. In a way, she was glad she didn’t remember. The dream might’ve been far more embarrassing than waking up and realizing how much she missed him.
It took her a moment to recall her other reason for being depressed: her main reason for being depressed.
Molly.
She would never see her again.
The thought made Aurora’s stomach clench. She had to summon every ounce of strength to keep the tears away.
And she couldn’t exactly be excited about her current predicament, could she? She was stuck in a castle with a creature named Noxor, who was probably one of Medea’s goons; and who, for some reason or another, wanted her to fall in love with him?
“Well,” Aurora whispered to herself, “he could start by being a little nicer.”
As if summoned by her mutterings, Noxor threw open the door to Aurora’s bedchamber. When she saw him standing in the doorway, she gasped.
Aurora, who was still wearing her underclothes, grabbed the blankets and pulled them up to her chin. “Can you KNOCK?” Either he didn’t understand her complaint, or he didn’t care, because he didn’t acknowledge it.
“I’ve brought breakfast,” he said, holding out a silver tray. Noxor laid it on the edge of the bed and quickly backed away, as if standing too close to her would be hazardous to his health.
Aurora stared at “breakfast” for several seconds. “Um... thank you.” She tried to sound as genuine as she could, but she was staring at a pool of gelatinous scrambled eggs. On the other side of the plate, there was a burnt biscuit and a long, foul-smelling sausage. She picked it up the sausage, sniffed it, and made every attempt to suppress a gag reflex. “Would you like to try a bite?”
“I don’t eat breakfast.”
“Oh, you don’t?” So much for trying to pass the sausage off on him! If he was going to stand there and watch her eat it, she was—to put it bluntly—screwed.
“I don’t eat anything.”
“Oh.”
“My brothers and I... we don’t need to eat.”
Aurora took a bite of the sausage, and it wasn’t as horrid as she thought it would be. It was a bit peppery, but other than that, it wasn’t nearly as rank as it smelled. “You have brothers?”
“Not exactly.”
Aurora patted the bed. “You can sit down, if you want.” She stared at the eggs and wondered if she was brave enough to try them.
“I’m fine here, thanks.”
She plunged her fork into the depths of the eggs and brought a bite to her mouth. They could have been worse.
“My brothers and I are Medea’s creations.”
“Okay. But you don’t work for her... right?”
“Not anymore. I used to.”
“Interesting.” Creations? That word stuck out in her mind.
“We were the result of a reanimation experiment gone wrong. We are...” He turned away from her. “Maybe I’ve told you too much.”
“No! NO! I’m interested.”
“I should leave you to enjoy your breakfast.”
Enjoy? Aurora wasn’t so sure about that word, either. “Please, don’t go! If I gave you the impression I wasn’t interested, I’m sorry. If you know anything about Medea, I want to hear about it!”
After a few seconds, Noxor was ready to divulge more. “She created us... from the corpses of the dead.”
A bit of chewed sausage flew out of Aurora’s mouth. She was lucky she didn’t choke. “Excuse me?”
Noxor started rolling up one of his sleeves. Inch-by-inch, he revealed the fetid flesh of his arm. Part of his skin was hanging off, leaving the ulna half-exposed. There were holes in his wrist, as if maggots had once resided there. As Aurora watched, she could feel the eggs and sausage working their way up her throat.
“To make one thing clear, I am not the man to whom this body once belonged. My brothers and I... we’re cages of rotting flesh. We’re soulless beings, sworn to serve the woman who gave us life.”
“Ohh...” She hoped she didn’t sound too nauseated.
“We are cursed with eternal life. Even if Medea dies, we will continue to live. Her magic has cursed us.”
Aurora moved the plate to the nightstand beside her bed. Noxor pushed his sleeve back down, but her appetite was already gone. “You said you were sworn to serve her, but it doesn’t seem like you’re doing a very good job. Not to give you any ideas, but... she wants me dead, doesn’t she?” Aurora’s eyes flicked back to the half-eaten breakfast. “Wa-aaaait. That wasn’t poisoned, was it?!”
“Of course not. I already told you, I no longer work for Medea. My goals are not the same as hers.”
“Your goals?”
“I want redemption, and I want release.” He turned his back to her as he spoke. “Release from this world. Release from this body.”
“You mean, like... death?”
“In a sense, yes,” Noxor admitted. “I’m just an artificial conscious in a rotting corpse. You can’t call that life, can you? Something like death would be a blessing.”
Aurora scoured her mind for some encouraging words, but she couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t sound patronizing. There was a time and a place for encouraging words, and this was neither. “So...”
“Medea likes to toy with people,” Noxor went on. “When she created us, she must have imagined we would one day become restless. She must have expected us to tire of our servitude, to tire of our very existence. So she devised a way to make death impossible for us.” Noxor turned toward Aurora, but it didn’t matter what direction he was facing; either way, she couldn’t see his face. She could only imagine what sort of horrible visage lurked beneath Noxor’s dark hood.
Noxor continued quietly, “There is only one way to break the curse: a woman must fall in love with me. A woman’s love is the only thing that could take my life.”
His words from yesterday were starting to make sense. “Oh.”
“I know what you must be thinking. You must have imagined what my face looks like, and I assure you it is just as hideous as my arm, if not more so. For a woman to fall in love with such a monster... she would have to be a saint, wouldn’t she? Medea must have realized this.”
“So...”
“Do you think you could?”
Aurora’s hands involuntarily clenched. She didn’t know how to answer.
“Do you think you could fall in love with me?” Noxor asked again. “I’m not... I don’t... I don’t know much about women, but I know you would be repulsed by the way I look. But if you never see my face, isn’t it possible that you might—”
“I’m sorry,” Aurora interrupted. “I’m really sorry, but it’s... it’s just too much to ask of someone!” As soon as she spoke, she was flooded with guilt. “You can’t just ask a woman to fall in love with you. It doesn’t work that way! You don’t choose who you fall in love with... at least... I don’t think you do. I’ve never been in love before, but that’s what I’ve been told.” Noxor didn’t say anything. He didn’t budge. “Besides, let’s say I DID fall in love with you? You would die, right? Do you have any idea how sad that would be? You can’t ask anyone to do that!”
Without a word, Noxor rushed to the door. “Good day.”
“Wait!” she gasped. “Don’t just leave like that! We can discuss... where are you going?”
He left without letting her finish.
When Noxor was gone, Aurora smashed her face against a pillow. She spent the next several minutes trying to imagine herself in his position. He was cursed with a decaying body, and there was no way to escape from it. “Maybe,” Aurora whispered to herself, “Maybe Medea could... undo the magic? Or... or maybe Meg would know something?”
Aurora always wanted to fix the problems of others, but in this case, she had no solution. She didn’t know the first thing about magic, and to think that Medea would revoke the curse was laughable. Her aunt was a truly evil person.
Hoping to make amends, Aurora got up and went looking for Noxor. She traveled from one dreary room to another, squinting to see through the darkness. No matter where she went, there was a strange musty smell: a mixture of iron, blood, and mold. After a few minutes of scouring the castle, she needed fresh air. She stepped outside for a moment, relieved that the castle wasn’t locked up—she was free to leave. At the moment, however, she had no place to go.
After enjoying the fresh air, Aurora returned to the castle and resumed her search, eventually finding him in the library. The fireplace was lit with the weakest flame, but it was bright enough that she could see the dust-and-cobweb-covered bookshelves. “Um, hi.”
Noxor didn’t bother to greet her.
“I just thought I’d see what you were up to.”
He was silent.
“You aren’t mad at me, are you?” She took a few steps into the room. “I just thought I’d explain what I was trying to tell you earlier. You see, I just—”
“Go away.” His voice was raspy, not unlike the voices of his brethren. It sent a chill down her back.
“But I didn’t want to leave you hopeless. I just wanted to say—”
“GO AWAY!”
Anyone else might have run from the room as fast as their legs could carry them, but not Aurora. Maybe it was her experience with Lyric that made her so persistent. She was used to impossible men. “No, I’m not going! You can growl at me all you want, but I’m going to do what I want! I’m going to say what I want!” Aurora waited a few seconds to see if he’d yell at her again, but he didn’t, so she continued. “If you work on it, I think you could get someone to fall in love with you. Maybe me, maybe someone else. I don’t think it’s outside of the realm of possibility. If you just work at it... you never know. It might happen. I wouldn’t give up hope.”
“That is...” Noxor shook his head.
“What?”
“That is the single most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Don’t give up hope? Look at me!” He rolled up his sleeve and thrust his arm toward the light. “Do you think I ever had hope?”
“I-I’m just saying... it’s possible. You don’t to have to be rude! I want to help you! And maybe you can help me in return?”
“What do you want from me?”
“Medea. My aunt.” Aurora’s voice was practically a whisper. “Do you think you could help me find her?”
Before Noxor had a chance to answer her question, there was a loud banging noise. It was so loud, it shook the castle walls. Noxor ran to the window to investigate.
Aurora gasped. “WHAT in the world was that?”
“Hmm. How interesting.”
“What? What is it? What’s interesting?”
“A battering ram.”
“A battering ram?!” Aurora ran to the window to see for herself, but she couldn’t see around Noxor’s broad shoulders.
“It appears they’ve come for me. It was going to happen sooner or later.” As Noxor turned around, he drew his sword from its sheath. “You better brace yourself for the worst.”