Noxx's Arc

Chapter 1 of 7

Noxx wanted to choose her own love, and tonight her father meant to choose it for her. She woke to moonlight on her pillow and sat up, pulling a brush through her long black curls. A knock came at her door. Lola stepped in, braid swinging, her pumpkin-print apron rustling. "Your father waits in the throne room, miss," the maid said. She lingered, twisting her hands. "A messenger came. From another kingdom." Noxx set down her brush. Lola only wrung her hands like that when the news was bad. The throne room of Nightspire Keep swallowed every sound. Red light from the narrow windows striped the black floor. Count Vladimir Dracula stood at its center, her father, cape pooled behind him. His crimson eyes found her the moment she entered. In his pale hand he held a folded letter sealed with wax. "A suitor," he said. His voice filled the room without rising. "A lord from beyond our borders. He asks for your hand, Noxx. He has never seen your face." Noxx crossed the floor and stopped before him. "Then he asks for a stranger." "He asks for a Dracula." Vladimir turned the letter in his fingers. "That is enough for most men. His lands border ours. An alliance would secure both." He studied her. "You will meet him when he arrives." Noxx had waited years for love she chose herself. Not a seal on wax. Not a map stitched to a marriage. She lifted her chin. "I will not marry a letter, Father." The room seemed to hold its breath. Lola froze near the door. Vladimir's jaw tightened, and for a moment his fangs showed. "You would refuse before you have even met him?" "I would refuse any man who wants my name and not me." Noxx stepped closer. Her boots echoed. "Send him your answer. Tell him the daughter of Dracula chooses her own husband, or none." Silence. Vladimir looked at her a long time. Then, slowly, he smiled, and that frightened her more than anger. "Spoken like my blood." He crushed the letter in his fist. Wax cracked and fell to the floor. "Very well. I will not sell you to a man sight unseen." Noxx let out a breath. But her father was not finished. "Instead," he said, "I will invite every eligible lord in the land to Nightspire Keep. A gathering. You will walk among them, and you will choose one before the season ends." His red eyes gleamed. "You wanted the choice, daughter. Now you have it, and a deadline. Refuse them all, and I choose for you." The crushed letter lay between them. Noxx had won the fight and lost the war in a single breath. She had demanded true love. Now she had weeks to find it, or her father would decide what love meant. Lola met her eyes from the doorway. Neither of them spoke. The hunt had begun.