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They were all too busy to pay much attention to me, and I didn’t think Roger could see me from this angle. I made it to the shelter of his desk, where I turned to face the MSI team. Rod saw me first, and I gave him a thumbs-up and gestured toward the door. He glanced over, saw reinforcements, and motioned to Merlin, who waved at the door. I beckoned for the frog team to join us. As soon as they were inside, Merlin waved his hand at the doorway again.
The MSI team was motivated and the frogs were angry, so Roger was rather outgunned and outclassed. Even so, he seemed remarkably calm, and not even with the kind of icy stillness Owen got in a crisis. At least that was an emotional reaction. This was the absence of emotion, like he wasn’t at all alarmed that he was in danger and his plans might be destroyed. That was probably what made him so hard to fight. He wasn’t dismayed enough to give up. He just kept going.
He wasn’t fighting so much as defending, it seemed. He’d put up a pretty good magical shield around himself, so he just needed to wait them out. They didn’t dare stop attacking him, though, lest he be able to come back at them. What they needed was a spell to break up his shields or enough combined power to crack them.
That was when I noticed the terrarium in the back of his office. I’d never bothered to study it before. I’d assumed it was part of the office decor. Now I wondered if it was where he kept his most valuable prisoners. I inched my way around the desk until I was barely behind the corner adjacent to the side where Roger was. If I moved any farther, he’d see me.
There was a particularly violent burst of magic from the other side of the room, one that required Roger to do something to counter it, and I took advantage of the distraction to dive across the floor, coming up right in front of the terrarium.
There was a frog in there, one that sat staring at the view outside, with a very non-froggy look of consternation on its face. I lifted the terrarium lid and reached inside to pick up the frog.
“Hey, stop that!” Roger called out. I ignored him, knowing he’d have to resort to physical violence to hurt me, and kept the frog shielded with my body. “No, don’t!” Roger shouted, and I could hear his footsteps moving toward me.
Knowing I didn’t have much time, I gave the frog a quick kiss. Nothing happened. It was just a frog. “Damn,” I muttered, dropping the frog back in the tank. It must have been wishful thinking that made me see expression on its face.
Was there another frog in that tank? I didn’t have time to look because Roger was already upon me, grabbing my shoulders and yanking me back, away from the terrarium. I kicked at his shins, but that wasn’t very effective, since I’d left my shoes downstairs at the frog pond. I elbowed him in the gut, which got him to loosen his grip on me enough for me to worm my way free.
Meanwhile, his focus on me had given the MSI gang and the frog army an opening. I couldn’t see what they were doing because my back was to them, but I felt the tingle of strong magic being used very close by, and Roger didn’t grab me again.
I had other things to worry about, so I didn’t turn around to see what was happening, figuring that Merlin had it under control. I stood on my tiptoes so I could reach all the way into the terrarium and dig around. There had to be another frog in there.
Finally, my fingers encountered something cool and smooth at the back of the tank, under some leaves. When I touched it, it didn’t respond the way I’d have expected a frog to. It didn’t jump away or twitch. But still, it felt like a frog.
I got my fingers under it and moved my hand until the frog was resting in my open palm. It seemed awfully limp, but I was pretty sure it was still alive. When it moved one leg ever so slightly as I lifted it out of the terrarium, I heaved a huge sigh of relief.
I was afraid of what the frog’s lethargy meant if this was Owen, but I was even more afraid that it might not be him. If it wasn’t, I was out of ideas. He wasn’t in the frog pond, and if he wasn’t in Roger’s office, then where would he be?
“I swear, this is the last frog I ever want to kiss,” I muttered as I bent to brush my lips across the top of its head.
This one was definitely enchanted. It began to glow,
and when I released it, it hung there in midair. I turned to see Rod, Trish, and some of the others standing by my side. “Is this…?” Rod asked, the rest of his question trailing off.
“I don’t know. I hope so,” I said, my voice plaintive. I didn’t know what I’d do if it wasn’t Owen. Almost afraid to look at the frog for fear of being disappointed again, I checked on what was happening around me. Merlin seemed to have subdued Roger, who now lay immobilized with silver chains wrapped cocoon-like around his body. The rest of the team was watching the warded doorway, where Collegium forces had the exit blocked.
With a lump in my throat, I turned back to see that the frog’s nimbus had taken the shape of a man who seemed like he could possibly be Owen—just a bit below average height and a slim frame that was solidly packed with muscle.
Finally, the glow around him faded so that we could see that it was, indeed, Owen. I cried out in joy, but my joy quickly turned to dismay when he slumped to the ground.
Eighteen
Rod reacted while I was still in shock, jumping to catch Owen before he hit the ground. He lowered him gently to the floor, and I knelt beside Owen, reaching to hold his hand. He was awfully pale, but I couldn’t see where he’d been hurt. His clothes looked fine, with no tears or blood showing, and his limbs seemed to be in the right places at the proper angles. There weren’t any bruises on his face. I placed my hand against his cheek, and his skin was clammy—not too different from the way the frog had felt. Had something gone wrong with breaking the enchantment?
I brushed his hair off his forehead and glanced at Rod. “What do you think is wrong?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” He gave Owen a light slap on the cheek. “Hey, buddy, snap out of it. Come on, we’re counting on you.” Owen stirred slightly, but didn’t wake up.
“You know, if that frog prince stuff is true, then maybe Sleeping Beauty is, too,” Trish said.
“A sleeping spell would explain how Roger was able to overpower Owen,” Merlin said.
It was worth a shot, and kissing an unconscious Owen was way more pleasant than kissing a frog, so it wasn’t as though there was a downside. I bent and brushed my lips against his, thinking very hard about how much I loved him as I did so, in case there was something to that True Love’s Kiss idea.
His eyes opened immediately, and he sat straight up with a gasp. “What happened?” he asked. Then he glanced around the room, noticing the MSI gang, me, the frog army, and a thoroughly trussed-up Roger. “Where am I?” he asked, frowning.
“Roger’s office,” I said. “The attack’s under way. Are you ready to fight?”
“Well, um, yeah, I guess.” Rod extended a hand to help him to his feet. “How did I get here?”
