Page 31 of The Frog Prince

Alwin tried not to let it hurt.

No one.

A nobody.

A monstercould be heard silently.

They were familiar words by now, the reaction like slipping on a well-worn shoe. But hearing them implied by that deep, comforting voice was like killing the roots of the quiet hope and optimism that had awakened in Alwin oh so briefly.

He knocked again, harder this time.

“Young master,” he called.

“What are you so afraid of?” Gisela asked.

“It is…” Otto faltered. “It is…”

“Who? You act as if the devil is at our door.”

“It is the Frog Prince.”

Gisela gasped, and something croaked from his tattered pocket at the address, like a herald. He looked down and saw Farwin’s big eyes peering back at him innocently.

He sighed.

The devil indeed, Alwin thought.

“I told you to stay at home,” Alwin whispered to him.

Farwin blinked one eye and then the other.

“What did you do?” Gisela asked breathlessly, panicking. “You didn’t… Tell me you didn’t…”

“I had no other choice, Gisela!”

“Of course you did! Better me dead than bargaining with the Frog Prince himself!”

“That was out of the question,” Otto said.

“What did you offer?”

“M-myself…”

“Your life?” she gasped.

“Of a sort. I promised companionship. He let me return the cure to you, and then I was set to go back to his lair in three days. I…chose not to. I couldn’t bring myself to return willingly. I didn't think he could leave his waters and the forest beyond. Now…he has come.”

Alwin clenched his jaw, long fingers twitching at the blunt explanation. The confirmation that he had been completely wrong about Otto.

Yes, he could be kind. Alwin had seen it. But even the sun was eclipsed sometimes. Wrapped in darkness and devoid of its glow.

Otto could be golden. He could be bright. He could be warm.

Just not to something like Alwin.

Still…there was no choice. Even if for no other reason than because they were now tied by magic. The contract could not be broken.

“Young master, open the door for me,” he called, beguiling and soft. “Don’t you recall what you promised me down by the well three days past? Young master, open the door for me.”