Page 11 of The Frog Prince

He thought briefly of his other patients in the village and had to swallow more shame. He couldn’t risk asking for too much and being denied. He would live with the guilt and try harder for them if he returned. He just needed his sister safe first. Nothing mattered if she wasn’t around anymore.

“The loss of a young life is always tragic,” the Frog Prince said, voice void of any emotion.

“You can help!”

The Frog Prince leaned forward. “Can I?”

“People say you can,” Otto said desperately, shuffling closer on his knees through the mud and water. “They say you have magic that can make things happen.”

“I do have magic,” the Frog Prince said. “And I suppose you could say that magic can be used to…make things happen, as you so eloquently put it.”

“Will you, then?”

“Will I what?”

“Will you help her?”

The Frog Prince was quiet once again as he stared through him, leaving Otto in agony.

“I might,” he said eventually. “Or I might not. That would depend on you.”

Otto was ready for this part. For the trade. For the counteroffer the prince made to those who asked for his help.

“I’ll do anything,” Otto said. “I swear.”

“A foolish oath to make without even knowing the person you’re dealing with. I could ask for the most nefarious things.”

“Anything,” Otto said. “For her, there is no cost too high or price I would not pay.”

He was observed again for a stretched moment. Assessed. Picked apart like a bird on a carcass.

“You sound sincere.”

“She is the only family I have left.” Tears formed in Otto’s eyes with the depth of his fear. “Our parents are gone and we have no other family. I’ve taken care of her our whole lives. I can’t lose her too. Please. I am begging you. If you save her, I will do anything you ask. Just save her.”

Otto couldn’t guess at the expression on that unfamiliar face. It made his chest feel tight with terror.

“For saving a life so dear to you…I’d want something that holds the same significance to me in return.”

Otto couldn’t do much else but nod, fast and jerky, stomping down on that voice at the back of his mind screaming at him.

“Companionship,” the Frog Prince said.

Otto blinked at him in question, sure he had misheard. “What?”

“I have been living in this place for years now, alone.” He looked around himself before fixing his gaze back on Otto. “I have my loyal frogs, but I desire closeness to another. A true connection.”

“I…how?” Otto asked, breathless.

“You come back to me.”

Otto’s heart skipped a beat.

“I will give you a cure for your sister, and in return you will come back and stay with me. We will eat together, sleep together, spend time together. Be inseparable. Your presence for her life,” he said, coming closer with every word until Otto knelt at his feet. The Frog Prince put a single finger under his chin as he spoke the last part softly.

Otto’s blood was frozen in his veins, his head spinning as he tried to reason out the request. As if it was a normal thing to ask of a human. To come live with a monster inside an abandoned ruin in the middle of a dark, terrifying forest. It was the last thing he wanted. The last thing he had ever imagined himself being able to do.

He shook his head instinctively, and the cold, damp spot that felt like soft, sucking pressure fell away in an instant.