Page 122 of The Frog Prince

“No need,” the voice said, sounding frustrated and tired.

Otto nodded, pulling himself back inside. He was about to close the curtain when Alwin finally glimpsed over his shoulder.

His eyes widened, his breath froze in his lungs, and his heart threatened to beat out of his chest. He knew that face. He knew that golden hair and those red lips.

Cin.

And if he was here, then…

“Lorenz,” Alwin whispered. His hands shook as he placed them on Otto’s shoulders to keep himself from falling apart.

He stared at Cin as he talked to a group of men and women behind him, and then watched as if time had slowed down as he turned back toward their carriage. Setting his eyes on Otto’s face. Then his neck. And finally his shoulder where Alwin’s decidedly non-human hand lay.

“Frog Prince.”

The words echoed through the forest—a whisper in actuality, but in Alwin’s head, a shout from the mountaintop.

Cinder rushed toward their carriage. “I knew my flock led me here for a reason. Do you know where…”

He stopped, frozen in his tracks. Eyes wide. Mouth slack. And looking right at Alwin. At his face. His pink skin and the same green eyes he saw on his lover’s face each time he looked at him.

“Prince Adalwin?” Cin said, voice shaking as realization settled. “It’s you. You’re… How?”

Alwin swallowed against the panic rising in his throat and nodded, trying to speak. Trying to say anything. Explain things.

“Is he here?” was the only thing he managed to push past his lips. The only thing his mind would allow him to focus on.

“Yes.” Cinder looked to his side and nodded to someone. The men and women shuffled around, making space to let someone through.

Someone who came running.

Alwin had a distinct vision of a child bursting through his door searching for him to play. Wayward hair and a smile so big itthreatened to fall off his face. Always running from here to there, never wanting to stop.

This person ran straight through it, shattering the image into a thousand pieces and leaving behind someone Alwin wasn’t fully familiar with anymore.

“Cinder? What did you find?” the man asked, hope weaving through the words. “Is it him? Is it…”

“Lorenz,” Alwin whispered, rushing to turn his collar up over his marks and tuck his hands into his pockets out of sight.

“Do you want privacy?” Otto whispered.

Alwin shook his head. “Stay, please.”

He needed him there. He would need someone who knew him to remind him that he was worthy if Lorenz shunned him.

“I might go introduce myself to the handsome men of Hallin,” Gisela said tactfully, slipping out of the carriage on the other side and disappearing from view before either of them could say anything.

And then it was just the two of them and the fast-approaching footsteps of the person Alwin had missed the most.

“Brother,” he whispered as he watched Lorenz shake Cin off before he could even try to explain what he was about to see.

Their eyes locked, Alwin’s human face the only thing Lorenz was focusing on.

He ran the rest of the way to the carriage. Dust rose from the ground behind him, and Cinder’s birds rushed away before him. Time slowed down. Alwin’s existence distilled into Otto’s hand on his back and Lorenz’s arms thrown around his neck through the window.

“Alwin!” Lorenz called into his shoulder.

Alwin wanted to return the hug so badly that he thought he’d die from the ache of it. His fingers balled into fists inside his pockets and he clenched his eyes shut, turning his nose intoLorenz’s neck and inhaling him as if it would be the last breath he’d ever take.