Page 72 of The Frog Prince

“Magic reacts to magic. Even when it’s not from the same source, I can feel it.”

“Oh,” Otto said, staring at Alwin with clear interest.

Alwin felt his skin prickle at how good it felt to be seen for anything other than the ugliness he carried on the outside. Anything other than the monster he was.

“Yes.” Alwin’s voice cracked slightly at how fast his heart was beating. “But here it all stems from the well.”

Otto’s eyes moved that way. “The fate of this castle…was it…?”

“Wishes can be dangerous. People bargain with more than they have for things they should fear instead of want,” Alwin said.

“Is that why you refuse people like Henne?”

“I’ve learned much being here. Most of all that not all things can be wished for, or should be. I try to be fair. To find those truly worthy or in need, but even I do not know if I make the right decisions.”

“That’s a heavier burden than I imagined,” Otto said softly. “How did you and the well come to be linked?”

Alwin’s eyes moved to the graves hidden behind the well, heart crying enough tears to make up for the ones that couldn’t fall. “I cannot say.”

“However it was, you guard it,” Otto ascertained.

Alwin looked back to him. “Yes.”

Otto glanced between his eyes for a while. “I want to ask so many more questions, but I know you cannot answer.”

Alwin smiled. “Answers will come eventually, I hope. Let’s rest and eat first, the journey was long.”

Alwin led the way into his home like he was touring a visiting noble around his castle grounds.

The dichotomy was strange, but not unwelcome.

He didn’t have expensive paintings or impressive sculptures to show off, but the sprawling ponds and wildlife were no less beautiful in his opinion. A different kind of beauty that was more difficult to discover, which made it all the more valuable in Alwin’s eyes.

All manner of frogs slipped from the water to welcome him home, their excited croaking creating a song that drew others until they could hardly place their feet for slippery bodies.

Otto laughed. “They seem pleased to see you.”

Alwin felt shy under his scrutiny, even if his ears rang with the truth of it. “I believe they are.”

“Your loyal subjects,” Otto teased, watching them cling to his clothes.

“My disorderly rabble,” Alwin corrected, looking down his nose at their happy faces, trying to be stern but failing, if Otto’s laugh was anything to go by.

“I wonder how they became so unruly. You clearly rule with an iron fist.”

Late, Jurgen ribbited deeper than everyone else from a nearby rock, looking unimpressed by Alwin’s entrance.

Alwin narrowed his eyes. “Hush, you.”

Jurgen blew up his throat sac rudely.

Alwin’s mouth dropped open, scandalized. “Jurgen!!”

Otto continued to laugh at his side, clutching his stomach, unable to hear the amphibian side of the conversation but clearly catching the gist of it. It was uninhibited and so lovely that Alwin found it hard to be even a little mad.

“I’m happy you find this so amusing,” he grumbled.

Please never stop laughing.