Page 3

Chapter Three

M y cheeks ache from smiling all day and I simply cannot wait to get home, sit in my armchair by the fire, and sip some warm ginger tea with a couple of drops of my inflammation tonic. Even though the sun’s light is extending, I don’t begin cleaning up my wagon until the sun has long since set. The celebration that has been in the streets all night is finally done, save a cluster of drunken men singing a street or two over.

I drop the fabric on the wagon to cover the open side and tie it down. With that done and my interior secure, I walk around to collect my donkey from where I tied him this morning.

Pancho grazes at the fence on the edge of a potato farm.

“Did you have a good day being spoiled by the children?” I ask, noticing the flower braided on top of his head with the expertise of a child.

He tilts his head, lifts his lip, and lets out a loud laugh.

I cannot resist a smile.

“A little girl brought me an apple,” Pancho boasts.

“What a lovely treat.” I rub the length of his gray nose. “Ready to go home?”

“Oh yes. I need sleep.” He bounces his head up and down.

“Are you getting old?” I tease, giving him scritches behind his tall ears.

“Me? Are you? Do you not sleep?”

I laugh. It feels good to laugh after such a long and busy day. “Oh, Pancho.” I hug him around the neck and give him a kiss on his cheek. “Let’s go home.”

Pancho drags the rickety old wagon down the road, the only sound at this time of night the grinding of our wheels on the stones and dirt, and an owl hooting from a tree. The frogs have long since gone to bed, as have the crickets.

Acorn crawls out from the pouch he sleeps in during the day and sits on my lap to nibble on some nuts he either found or had stored, and I absently stroke his spikes while I watch the stars.

Kai’s ceremony happened hours ago, before lunch. They probably had a huge table—or multiple—with food enough to feed all of their royal guests. I wonder how many royal friends dined with him. Did he laugh at their jokes? Did he dance for hours with his new wife? Do his feet hurt? He used to laugh as he taught me to dance and always told me I was better than him.

Is he now in his honeymoon suite?

I run my hands down my face and pull the hat from my head. I should be focusing on what to pull together for market tomorrow. With the celebration over, visitors should be leaving and will want last-minute shopping before they go.

Somewhere in my braid my hair is tight and causing a headache, so I untie my braid and tug it loose, rubbing my scalp with my fingers.

I’m lost in the haze of exhaustion and comfort of the familiar journey when I hear someone yell, “Wait!”

I blink myself awake, unsure if I heard correctly, because it’s practically the middle of the night and no one should be awake right now.

“Hold on!” The voice is small, like Acorn’s, so it’s either a small child or an animal.

“Pancho, stop.” I set Acorn on the bench before sliding to the ground and crouching to search the shadows. “Hello?”

A very ordinary bullfrog hops toward me as fast as possible. Why is it out on the road at this time of night?

“Is it you calling for me?”

“Yes. You. I need help. I’ve been turned into a frog!” He sounds out of breath.

I reach out with a little smile. “If you’re a human, what is your name?”

He swallows, pulling his eyes in for a blink. “Kai. Prince Kaison.”

My smile drops and I study the frog over.

I have spoken with animals since I was a child, but I’ve never had an animal claim to have been turned into one.

“A frog prince?” I finally ask. “If you need a sanctuary, you—”

“It’s me, Elowyn! I was with Genoa and she handed me a gold ball, and the next thing I knew...well, look at me!” A part of me genuinely cannot believe that Prince Kai is sitting before me in the form of a frog. I am inclined not to believe him until he lets out a frustrated croak. “El. I came and walked with you this morning and helped you hang your fliers. I need your help now!”

No frog would have known Kai helped me this morning.

I reach out and pick up his cold little body and lift him for a better look. The only thing that looks remotely like the man I know are his golden eyes. “If you really are Kai—”

“I am!”

An overwhelming rush of confusion, worry, and disbelief rushes over me like a wave. If this is Kai...

“Then it’s a curse or enchantment,” I mutter. “Which means whatever you touched has an enchantment or curse on it, otherwise it wouldn’t have turned you. Do you have it?”

“Let me pull it out of my pocket,” he replies sarcastically.

“Right.” I shake my head.

“I hopped out of the window as soon as I realized I’m not me anymore. I didn’t know where else to go but to you, especially since your expertise is enchantments. You must know a way to break it.”

I stand and return to the wagon, holding Kai in my hands. This can’t be real. A frog version of Kai. I look down at him as I take my seat.

He croaks. “I know you’re shocked. So am I. Tell me what to do.”

“I don’t know, to be honest.” I shake my head and set him on my lap. “I’m still wrapping my head around you being a frog. Pancho, head home.”

The donkey doesn’t hesitate to resume his leisurely pace.

“I can’t analyze the spell on you without the item it came from.” I massage my eyebrow. “Gold is a powerful conductor for magic, so whoever created it knew what they were doing. Do you think your princess did it intentionally?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know. It seemed innocent enough.” He blinks deeply. “I don’t know, El. I’m confused. After it happened, I felt so strange and I panicked, and all I wanted to do was find you.”

I dig into my pouch to fish out my mother’s grimoire. “I’ve never created a transfiguration enchantment, but maybe Mother has.”

The grimoire is mother’s journal of magical spells, enchantments, and documentation she has collected since she began learning magic. Like my own grimoire, hers has some spells from other witches too. But it’s too dark to read. I search my pocket to produce a black, lightweight stone filled with hundreds of holes. It’s a piece of lava stone Mother traded for, and the first thing I enchanted. With the natural properties from the earth, I was able to enchant it as a stone of light. All I have to do is whisper “ luminair.” The glow offers just enough light for me to flip through the pages and read. At one point the pages were alphabetical, but now there is so much information there is barely room for new entries.

“Enchantments are usually temporary, so we could wait to see what happens. Of course, if it’s a curse then it could get worse,” I mutter.

The rest of the journey home I flip through the pages, searching for anything that has to do with shape-shifting or transfiguration or anything else.

“We’re home,” Pancho whinnies.

“He talked!” frog version of Kai states.

“You can understand him?” I ask.

“Yes! Wait...you’ve always been able to talk to animals. This is what it’s like?”

Acorn leans forward from around my side to take a look at the frog. “Is he always this dim?”

“Acorn,” I say with a sigh. “Be nice. He’s never heard animals speak before.”

Kai’s eyes seem wide, but at the same time, bullfrogs just have open eyes, so I can’t tell if he’s as shocked as his silence indicates.

I climb down, taking Kai in one hand and Acorn in the other, then set Acorn on the top step in front of the door. “Scamper in and get one of the candles lit while I take care of Pancho.”

“Yes, madam!” He scuttles away.

I set Kai on Pancho’s back. “Why wouldn’t you go to the royal sorcerer? Or the university? Especially since you value their education.” I was being intentionally snarky to see how the frog would react.

He doesn’t immediately answer, but then says, “Because I trust you?”

I frown. “You do?”

His sides puff out and his throat swells before he sighs. “Why does that surprise you so much?”

“Considering how I’ve...been toward you lately. I haven’t—”

“Did I not come see you this morning?”

“Well, yes.” I shift my weight.

“You’re my friend.”

“Such a good friend.”

“Maybe I should go back to the castle,” Kai mutters.

My chest tightens. For someone who missed him and felt bad minutes ago, I’m doing a fantastic job letting him know. “It’s dangerous this time of day. We have a hawk that hunts the meadow.”

Kai says nothing more while I take care of Pancho. I add some fresh water to his basin, check his salt block, and drop fresh straw into the paddock before I grab Kai and close the gate behind me.

The tense silence between us makes my heart ache. Today is the most we’ve been near one another in a year, and I’m making it miserable for us both. What makes it so hard to talk to him?

When I enter my home, Acorn has lit the candle beside the sink to offer enough light I can make out the shapes of my home and not bruise my chin again on the chest by the door. He scurries around to collect ingredients for what I assume to be dinner.

I set Kai on the countertop and clap my hands. “ Luminair !” All of the candles, lanterns, and even fireplace light.

My family cottage is everything I could want in a home. The sink is positioned in the corner of the kitchen, where the windows have a curved alcove, which makes it convenient to have the most sun-desperate plants year-round. That window overlooks the frog pond, little barn, and meadow.

To the right is the fireplace, made of beautiful dark stones, which currently has bundles of plants dangling down to dry. On the wall to the right of that is the work bench my mother and I have carefully made over the years. There are shelves hanging the entire length of the wall, packed with jars containing every important ingredient I have collected, all organized in alphabetical order. Bark shavings, sap, roots, leaves, stems, ash, oils, water (different types of water hold different properties like every other living thing), bones, bone powder, sand, and so much more.

The counter in front of the shelves is more organized chaos, with smaller jars and bottles for tonics or poultices, bowls for mixing, mortar and pestle, enchanted crystals, and other such important items. While I have my mother’s grimoire in my pouch, my personal grimoire sits open on the counter. With Mother being gone, I’ve been working on a few of my own ideas. Mother’s strength is in healing with nature, so I’ve kept that close to my heart.

Glancing at Kai, I can’t help but feel a part of me longing for the further knowledge of enchantment. If I knew more, I’d be able to help him. As much as I hate to admit it, Kai is right. I can’t just read how to enchant. I need to be taught. And the only way for that to happen is if I find another witch willing to teach me or attend the university. Mother is no longer here to help. But going to university won’t work for someone like me, not when letters jump around the page as I try to read them as if they’ve made a game of me failing to catch hold of their meaning.

I busy myself in the kitchen by setting a pot with water on the rack over the fire into which I sprinkle some salt, then I turn to grab some small yellow potatoes. I pause and glance at Kai. “I imagine you won’t be able to eat human food like this. You must be hungry.”

He croaks in response.

I purse my lips and look at Acorn.

He pouts immediately, pinching his brows forward so his spikes almost cover his eyes entirely. “I don’t want to share my worms!” He scuttles over to the little jar beneath the window where we store his worms.

“He only needs a few, and we can look for more when he’s back to being human. Just enough for dinner and breakfast.” I lean on the counter. “I noticed some plump caterpillars on the apple tree yesterday. We can go get some of them too.”

Acorn huffs. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Fine,” he grumbles.

I take the container and pull out a worm, then set it on the counter a little bit away from Kai. “There you go.”

Kai looks at it, then up at me and back. “How am I supposed to eat that? It’s a worm!”

I shrug and resume washing the potatoes. “You’re a frog now. Use your tongue?”

“I wasn’t asking about logistics.” He groans out a loud croak. “This is going to be disgusting.” He hops forward, clamping his mouth around the worm, and desperately flicks his head to force the worm into his mouth and down his throat. His eyes suck into his head as he swallows.

“Well?” I ask, dropping my diced potatoes into the water to boil. “How does it taste?”

“Like dirt,” he mutters. “But also a little bit gamy like...lamb.”

“Lamb? Hm.” I lean over, untie my shoes, and pull them off. “That’s better.” I rub the big toe on my left foot. I desperately need a slightly bigger pair of shoes, but that will have to wait until I have enough money. Maybe I should have gotten shoes instead of the dress. “So explain to me again why you didn’t just run to the royal sorcerer?”

Kai hops closer. “We don’t have one. Father fired him months ago.”

I raise both of my eyebrows. “I suppose that shouldn’t surprise me, but it does.” I tug out the stems and scrub some portobello mushrooms.

He grunts—or croaks.

“Then why did you run away from your bride?”

“I panicked.” He stops at the edge of the counter.

“Why?”

“We finished the marriage celebration and were in the bridal suite. I had just started talking to her about sleeping arrangements, but she cut me off saying she had a wedding gift made just for me. When I opened the box, there was a golden ball inside. It didn’t seem significant and I picked it up. It felt like I got struck by lightning. I couldn’t breathe, and it actually hurt my entire body. When I could see again, everything was enormous and I was a frog.”

I dry my hands on a towel. “Being tricked by a fairy surprises you?”

Kai blinks at me. “A what?”

“Fairy. I mean, if marrying one was your plan all along, you could have just told me. You didn’t need to keep that secret.” I start mixing the ingredients together to stuff into the mushrooms.

“El, what are you talking about? She’s just a princess.”

I stop to look at him. “You couldn’t see her wings?”

Kai’s frog face scrunches. “Wings?”

“She has pointed ears too.”

When he doesn’t respond, I draw the conclusion that Kai must not have seen because of some kind of glamour. I have heard fairies can disguise themselves as humans to lure human victims, but as far as I know, fairies have been locked away in their realm for as long as I’ve been alive.

He shakes his head. “All I know is that after I touched the orb, she didn’t seem surprised I was a frog. She only reacted when I started hopping away and tried chasing me down.”

“Do you think she intentionally did it?” I wonder.

He heaves a sigh. “I don’t know. My head hurts.”

“Why do you think she would make you a frog?” I shove the last of the mixture into the last mushroom and set it in the pan beside the others.

Kai lowers his body against the counter, making his belly squish out. “I’m too tired to know. I thought about it the whole time hopping to you, but the only idea that keeps coming to mind is motivation to take the throne. I barely know her.”

“I think we should take you to your father first thing tomorrow.”

“Uh I wouldn’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Think about it. This morning you hung fliers advertising a rally against my father, I’ve been missing all night, and then you show up at the castle with me as a frog in your hands?”

Realization dawns on me and I lean my back against the counter. “Your father will think I turned you into a frog as some sort of leverage?”

“Exactly.” He nods.

I massage my temples. My night has become far more complicated than it should be. “Okay. Then the only thing I can think of is to sneak me into the castle so I can get that orb. There has to be residual magic, and I may be able to figure out the spell. If I can reveal the enchantment or curse, we can figure out how to fix things from there.”

I hear his body plop against the counter as he moves closer. “Elowyn?”

“Hm?” I drop my hands and turn my head to look at him.

“Thanks.” I can’t tell if he’s trying to smile. Frog faces don’t move the same way human faces do, but I think that’s what he’s going for. “I really didn’t know where else to go.”

I smile back. “I’m glad you thought of me.”

“I guess I ended up sneaking off to you anyway.”

“This is not exactly how I imagined you showing up.”

“I am technically naked,” he teases.

“Kai.” I press my hand to my forehead.

Kai chuckles, but it sounds more like a croak. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out. How complicated can it be?”