He expected silence, but his brother coughed and he blinked, too slowly. His glazed eyes searched out Adam’s face and he smiled weakly. “Hallo, Adam,” he said, before he coughed again. Blood spilled out of his mouth, and his eyes widened in fear.
“Shh, it’s okay,” Adam said, cradling Henry’s head against his chest. “It’s just a little blood.” He swallowed, tried not to let his voice crack. He looked around, searching for the man, but he was gone. All Adam had left was a dying brother without his shoes.
Adam had failed his brother.
“Adam,” Henry said, his voice weaker than before.
“Yes, Henry?” he asked, just as softly.
“Can I have some more sweets when we get home?”
Adam laughed, choked on a sob. Such a simple request. He decided it was okay this time to lie.
“Of course, peanut,” he said, using the name their ma had always called him. “You can have all the sweets you want.” Adam petted Henry’s thick blond hair, which had begun to curl at the ends. He had their mother’s hair, her looks. Adam was stuck looking like their father, the big brute, but anyone could tell from their eyes, the shape of their noses, that they were brothers.
Adam swallowed and clumsily stood, hugging a limp Henry to his chest. He had to try to save his brother. He didn’t know how he was going to do it—the closest doctor was several miles away—but he had to. He couldn’t lose Henry too.
“Perhaps I can be of help,” a voice said behind him.
Adam turned around to see an old woman. She wore a long dress, though not dirty, and she wore her silver hair in a long braid down her back. She was bony rather than plump, and while she had wrinkles around her eyes and her mouth, her face was baby-faced, a little like Henry. Her eyes held an ageless quality and yet they seemed to have known many more years than a human being should. Prickles ran down Adam’s arms as he stared at this modest-looking woman with the kind, thin-lipped smile and the sharp eagle eyes. Shadows seemed to cling to her, like the rest of this place, the lone gaslamp casting hardly enough light to see by.
“Who are you?” Adam asked quietly. He wanted his tone to be stronger, more demanding, but his mother had taught him to show respect towards his elders, and the lesson was ingrained deep.
Instead of answering, she leaned forward, the better to see Henry. “Your brother is dying rather quickly. The shaking has stopped, do you see?”
Adam didn’t see, because he didn’t dare tear his gaze away from the woman, but he could feel it. Henry’s skin was cold, clammy, his little body too still for a boy always in motion.
“Tell me, little prince, will you do anything for your brother?” she asked, her head tilting with curiosity.
What the devil?
“Are you saying you can save him?” Adam asked, clutching Henry to his chest.
One delicate eyebrow rose. “Answer my question, little prince.” Her accent was strange, and her voice made shivers crawl down his spine, but if she could save Henry, he could ignore the rest.
“Yes,” Adam said without hesitation. “But I’m no prince.”
The woman tilted her head. “We shall see.” She stepped forward, walking around Adam to stand in front of Henry. She knelt down and passed her hand over Henry from head to foot. Adam didn’t know what the woman had done, but Henry’s eyes closed, his gasps eased into shallow breaths and he stopped moving, as if entirely dead.
“What have you done?” Adam asked, panicked.
“Be easy. Your brother is in stasis. I have bought us a few extra minutes.”
“Are you…a witch?” Adam asked, almost skeptically. Perhaps not a witch, he thought as he calmed a little, but someone like him.
The woman smiled faintly, amused, as if she could read his thoughts. Oh Lord, what if she could read his thoughts?
“Time is wasting, little prince. If I save your brother, will you do anything I say?”
“Anything you say?” Adam asked. He felt as if he were under water, that everything was coming to him too slowly.
“Will you be my servant, Adam Price, for the life of your brother?” she asked patiently.
Adam hesitated. What was this? Was this even real? Or was it a dream? Adam’s head might have been filled with cotton for all the thoughts his mind managed to cling to.
She glanced down, studying Henry with an analytical gaze. “Your brother will expire within the next few minutes. Even my powers cannot defy death. Make your decision, quickly.”
Adam heard the clock winding down on his brother’s life. He opened his mouth, closed it, then shouted, “Yes! Yes, okay, I’ll be your servant. I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t let him die.”
“And you will keep your word?” she asked, watching him through narrowed eyes.
“Yes. Yes, I will keep my word.”
Her lips pulled up into the smallest of smiles and time suddenly sped up again. Adam’s pulse thrummed and his cheeks flushed from the anticipation, the anxiety.
The woman looked down, a long finger tapping her lips. “Yes, this piece will do. However, I need something more.”
“Anything,” Adam said.
“Find me a few small, thin, flat metal pieces, if you please. And do hurry. We have precious few minutes left.”
Adam set Henry gently on the floor. Then he ran.
He searched the first floor frantically. Everything he found was too big, too bulky, the iron used to build machines, not fix hearts. Despair bit Adam hard when he couldn’t find the right pieces, but then he turned around, and there they were, two pieces of flat metal just waiting for him to take them. He snatched them up and sprinted back to the witch. Back to Henry.
“I have them,” he choked out, waving the two pieces of metal in front of her.
She pushed his hand away with an expression of irritation on her face. “Yes, yes, now hold them here and here,” she said, pointing.
Adam looked down and his jaw fell open in horror. What the devil had she done? His brother’s chest had been ripped open, revealing Henry’s heart. The rod had been removed and cut into three pieces, which sat to the side. Adam was frozen, stuck between anguish and rage, until he realized that there was no blood. Except Henry’s skin had been peeled back. Adam could see Henry’s ribcage, his heart and lungs. How could there be no blood?
“Now, if you please,” the witch said, steel in her tone. “Unless you want your brother to die.”
Adam wanted to stop, to demand some sort of explanation, but he couldn’t risk it, couldn’t risk Henry’s life on his questions. Swallowing down his fear, he knelt and did as she commanded, placing the metal pieces where she directed. A few seconds passed, and Adam tried not to acknowledge that he literally held his brother’s heart in his hands. He tried to ignore how the heart felt, how squishy and small it seemed. And then, right before Adam’s eyes, the metal sank a little, and the ragged, torn remains of the heart, connected to them, meshing with them. The metal became almost fluid and transformed, looking and feeling more natural. The color didn’t change. Henry’s heart looked like a patchwork quilt, the kind his ma used to make before she died.
“And now for the final touch,” the witch murmured, and the rod that had been used to take Henry’s life…now saved it. She took each metal rod and it became like putty in her hands, as she wrapped each piece around his heart. Three iron bands flowed around Henry’s heart, strengthening it even more. The bands remained a bit thick, but in a moment, Henry’s heart started beating again the way it should.
“The iron will not restrict him in any way,” the witch said, sounding pleased. Adam couldn’t stop staring at the beating heart. It was…beautiful.
The witch waved a hand and Henry’s skin flowed back over his chest, becoming smooth and unblemished again. The shirt was ruined, but Adam didn’t care. The stasis had worn off, and Henry breathed normally, as if he were asleep. Adam placed a tentative hand on his chest, just to make sure. The partially artificial heart beat strong beneath his hand and Adam
wanted to cry like a baby.
Henry would be okay. Adam hadn’t failed him after all.
The witch stood. “Now,” she said, “you will come with me.”
“What?” Adam asked and jumped to his feet, even though his whole body ached. “What do you mean?”
The witch stood there, her hands folded in front of her, with a stern expression. “You promised to be my servant, did you not?”
“Of course, mum,” Adam said.
“Then as my servant, I require you to come with me.”
And leave Henry? Alone? His mind flashed back to that dirty boy on the street. “Wait. I—I want to make another deal.”
The woman tilted her head, her interest piqued. “Oh?”
“Please, I don’t want to leave Henry alone. I’ll do whatever you want, just let me be with him. He needs me.”
He could see her considering it, could see the cogs turning in her eyes. “That too will cost you,” she said slowly.
Adam nodded. “I know.”
“You say you are not a prince,” she said after another quiet moment. “But you would sacrifice yourself for your brother. Is that not princely?” Her mouth tilted up in amusement, but Adam couldn’t see what was so damned funny. “I accept your terms, little prince.”
She stepped forward and pressed a kiss to his forehead. It was cold, slimy, and Adam instantly jerked away. But the feeling spread from his forehead to his torso, limbs, his legs and feet. Adam’s vision went black, and when he opened his eyes again, everything looked different, felt different. He bounced and realized that the witch carried him as she walked. Walked away from Henry.
Adam realized too, that he had been turned into a bloody frog.
“We,” the witch said as she strolled down the dark street, “are going to do great things together. Do not worry. You shall see your brother again someday, of that I am certain.”
Adam laughed, but it only came out as a hoarse croak. That was all he’d ever wanted, why he’d gone away to school, so he could learn and do great things. Only now he couldn’t care less about it. He only cared about Henry.
Adam couldn’t help but feel that he had failed Henry, for good this time. I’m sorry, he tried to tell Henry. And then he heard a response. It wasn’t words, but he could feel Henry’s reaction, his surprise and fear. And that’s when he knew everything was going to be okay. Adam wouldn’t be able to be there for Henry like he wanted. Wouldn’t be able to get Henry out of trouble, wouldn’t be able to do too many of the things an older brother should do, but he could still be a good influence on him, and be there in his thoughts if not in body. It wasn’t what he wanted, but it would have to be enough, until they could find each other again.
It would be difficult, just like learning to be a parent had been difficult, but they would both manage. They could do nothing else.
Get up, Henry, he said, and for a second, he could see through his brother’s eyes, see the darkened building and the imposing metal all around him. Henry rose shakily, and the world tilted. Henry didn’t like the building. Adam didn’t think he could remember what had happened to him, but he felt it when Henry rubbed his chest.
Go home, peanut. It’ll be okay. It’s safe there. Adam had no idea if that would be the case, but he knew Henry couldn’t stay there.
For once, Henry listened to him, and left on unsteady feet to find home, and when he arrived, Adam breathed a sigh of relief, though it sounded odd coming from his new frog throat. Henry was safe. Adam lost Henry’s sight then, but he could still feel the connection between them, strong. Unbreakable.
Warmth spread through him, and anguish. He felt his brother’s fear in his mind. It’ll be okay, Henry. I’m with you. Always. Henry couldn’t respond, or if he did, Adam didn’t hear it, but it didn’t matter, because Henry could hear him.
They were brothers. Adam might be a frog and Henry might have an iron heart, but they were, in a strange way, together. And because of that, Adam knew it would be okay.
About Kasidy Manisco
Kasidy Manisco holds two Bachelor’s degrees, one in English and one in Secondary Education, and a Master’s degree in English. Currently she works at a library. In her spare time she writes as much as she can, reads everything she can get her hands on, and spends time with family. She is currently working on an adult urban fantasy novel and a young adult urban fantasy novel, with a few short stories thrown in to the mix. She lives with her hyper dog and two cats who love to make life interesting.
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