Page 34 of The Elves and the Shoemaker (The GriMM Tales #4)

All the same, Elias dreaded Johan’s quiet but devastating reaction more than the wrath he was sure to receive from Henrik. Henrik’s anger would burn wild and bright but abate quickly—he hoped.

When the section of forest they were in became increasingly familiar, Elias wasn’t sure which was worse, the dread or the anticipation.

He clutched the rock tightly, pressing it into his stomach when he spotted the overgrown track which led home. “Over there, that is the path to our meadow,” Elias said, pointing to it. Elias gulped as Wim turned in that direction and continued on.

“I feel like a horse,” Wim grumbled.

“You are much more handsome than a horse,” Elias complimented, and he liked to believe the wolf was blushing at his words.

Over the course of their journey, he’d grown quite attached to Wim and Red.

While he’d prefer never to cross paths with Hansel and Gerhardt again, he’d decided that he’d quite like it if Wim and Red came to visit sometimes.

Elias had always been sociable in nature, and he knew that even with the company of Henrik and Johan, he would likely get lonely sometimes.

Elias had all but given up on the existence of his Gods, but he couldn’t help but wonder if they’d tried to repay him with this gift. Delivered him safely home to his loves with his rock in hand by the two people who’d rescued him and Henrik in the first place.

Turning another corner, the clearing came into view down the path. It was like a beacon of daylight in the Dark Forest, marking the end of Elias’ journey, and his stomach was a tangled web of conflicting emotions with every step that Wim brought them closer.

What if they were happier without you? the cruellest part of Elias’ brain suggested.

Johan came into view first, perched atop the house, which had come a long way in such a short amount of time. Hammer in hand, he didn’t notice Elias right away, too focused on his task.

Elias’ fingertips bit into the rock nervously. “Can you wait here?” he asked Wim and Red.

They paused so that Elias could climb down from the wolf’s back, and he continued on foot. When he’d pictured this moment, he’d imagined himself running towards the cabin without a moment’s hesitation, but nerves had got the better of him, and he truly feared the reception he might receive.

When he was close enough, he called out, “Johan?”

The shoemaker’s head shot round so fast it looked painful, and for an awful moment, Elias feared he might fall from the house in shock.

Johan scrambled down and ran towards Elias, scooping him up from the ground and crushing him. No words spilled from Johan’s lips but he didn’t let go, he held Elias like he might disappear if he lost his grip.

“Johan, lun—” Henrik called from the doorway of the cabin, his sentence cut short when he spotted Elias and Johan in the centre of the meadow.

Henrik stormed over to them and Johan put Elias down to face him.

“How could you!” Henrik shoved Elias and he stumbled back a few steps. “You bastard. How could you!” Tears streaked down Henrik’s cheeks, and his hands trembled in anger.

“I’m not sorry,” Elias said defiantly.

“You never are!” Henrik yelled.

Next it was Henrik’s turn to stumble back, screaming as Wim approached from Elias’ side, growling at the other elf.

“It’s fine,” Elias said. “He is right to be angry with me.”

Wim huffed.

“W-w-w-wolf.” Henrik pointed at Wim, his face whiter than parchment.

“He’s not like the wolves in Varinien, Rik. He can talk and turn into a man.”

Henrik and Johan stared at Wim with their mouths gaped open.

Embarrassed by the audience, Elias suddenly very much wanted to face the consequences of his actions in private.

“There is a freshwater spring around half an hour in that direction.” Elias pointed.

Thankfully, Red and Wim took the hint and nodded their heads in understanding before leaving to give them some much-needed privacy.

Once they were alone, Elias tried to defend himself. “It wasn’t for nothing. I have this.” He presented the large brown rock to them.

“You left us to collect a rock? Did you hit your head on the rock??” Henrik asked in disbelief.

Elias fought the urge to roll his eyes. “We cannot spend the rest of our lives sleeping in shifts and worrying that one day either the Queen’s men or random outlaws might slit our throats in our sleep. That is not a way to live. I returned to the sorcerer—”

“You did what?” Henrik screeched.

“Shhh, let him speak,” Johan said quietly.

“The sorcerer from the tower gave me this rock. If the three of us drop our blood onto it and leave it near the house, it will activate a spell which prevents anyone who means us harm from being able to find us. It is the answer to nearly all of our problems.”

Johan took the rock from Elias and turned it over in his hands, inspecting it before looking at Elias with the saddest eyes he’d ever seen. “At what cost, kjaere?”

Elias gulped before staring down at his feet. He couldn’t bring himself to say the words.

“What did you do?” Henrik choked out.

“Don’t make me say it,” Elias whispered.

“Eli? What did you give him?”

“I do not regret it!” Elias snapped.

Henrik practically growled.

“I gave it all up okay! Every drop. Magic no longer runs through my veins. She has left me, and I do not regret it. We will be safe now, and that is all that matters.”

Elias shook his head, trying to rid himself of the memory of the moment that the sorcerer had put his hands on him and taken magic from him for good.

It was different from when he’d worn the bangles which suppressed the magic. There was always an awareness that it was there but just not reachable. Now, the well inside him was empty, and it would always be empty.

Elias hadn’t even begun to process the grief that accompanied what he’d given up, and he couldn’t handle Henrik’s anger at him over it. He hadn’t lied, he didn’t regret it, but he would be lying if he said it hadn’t left a gaping hole in his soul.

Johan carefully placed the precious rock on the ground before reaching for Elias and pulling him in close. Elias could hardly stand it, feeling himself fraying at the edges in response to Johan’s gentle touch.

“How could y—”

“Stop,” Johan interrupted Henrik’s next tirade. “It’s done. He is home. We are safe. Stop.” He reached for Henrik then and pulled him into the embrace, the three of them clinging to each other in the cold.

To Elias, Johan added, “No more secrets. Enough now.”

Elias nodded his head. “No more secrets.”

Back inside, Elias set the rock in a safe spot, then quickly washed up and ate a few pieces of dried meat as he explained to Johan and Henrik about how he’d come to be escorted home by Red and Wim.

Neither of them had been very impressed at the part where Elias nearly drowned in a river, but Henrik was as shocked as Elias had been to discover that Red and Wim were responsible for setting them free in the first place.

A little while later, Red and Wim knocked on the door to say goodbye to Elias.

“Thank you,” Henrik said to them. “For bringing him back to us. And for… for setting us free. We are in your debt.”

Red smirked. “Elias has already cleared your debt. He is quite the storyteller.”

“Don’t be strangers,” Elias said. “So long as you mean us no harm, you will always be able to find us. It will be nice to have some friends in the forest.”

“I’m sure we shall pass through from time to time. I hope your rock was worth it, Elias. Good luck.” Red smiled before climbing onto Wim’s back, cloak billowing out behind him.

“Don’t fall in any more rivers,” Wim grumbled in his own version of a farewell.

Elias was a little sad to see their retreating backs as they left the clearing.

“I know you are angry,” Elias said to Henrik. “But it is done now, and we should activate the spell before the sun sets.”

“I suppose it would be nice to sleep without worrying,” Henrik conceded.

Johan patted Henrik on the back as if he was proud of him for not continuing the argument.

Elias collected the rock from where he’d stored it safely and retrieved a knife while he was at it, then they all headed outside.

“How does this work, then?” Henrik eyed the rock sceptically.

“The sorcerer said to make a shallow cut, just enough to draw blood, on one palm each, and then we all press the wound to the rock at the same time. He said we will know when the spell is done,” Elias explained. “I’ll go first.”

Elias sat cross-legged on the cold ground and picked up the knife. He winced when the metal cut into his palm, but once satisfied the cut was sufficient, he passed the knife to Henrik.

Henrik and Johan quickly copied the action until both their right hands were dripping crimson onto the grass.

Elias gulped a lungful of air. “Here goes,” he said, picking up the rock he’d survived almost drowning in a river for.

He was worried for a moment when nothing happened, terrified he’d been swindled and had gone through all this for nothing, but when Henrik and Johan pressed their cuts to the rock as well, Elias felt it then.

His hands quivered a little as he continued holding it, and a tingling sensation began in his fingers and travelled through his body until it felt like his heart skipped a beat.

Henrik and Johan both stared at the rock wide-eyed, evidently feeling it too, and then right as Elias was about to say “Do you think that’s it?” the previously dull, brown rock glowed like a star in the night sky.

They were silent as they witnessed the light trickle out of the rock and sink into the ground beneath them. It danced across the grass like fireflies, more and more of them bleeding out of the stone and spreading out to surround their home until finally the rock had returned to its original state.

It was unlike any magic Elias had ever encountered. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the way the light appeared to guard them, and he was so relieved he could hardly hold his exhausted body up. Because it had worked. It hadn’t been for nothing. It had worked .

Like a reflex, though, Elias reached inside himself to brush against his own well of magic, only, it was no longer there.

Elias hadn’t even realised he’d started to cry until Johan wrapped an arm around him and Henrik brushed his thumb under Elias’ eyes.

“I really don’t regret it,” Elias sniffled.

Johan cleared his throat. “Even without regrets, you… you still get to grieve, sweetheart. We will grieve with you. To have sacrificed this for us…” Johan choked up at the end. “You don’t have to mourn alone.”

Henrik held Elias’ hand and squeezed it tight while they sat in the quiet together for a while.

“This was quite an extreme measure to get out of doing any work, you know,” Henrik said, and they all burst into laughter, bringing some much-needed levity to the moment.

“Come on, it’s freezing,” Johan said, and in a swift movement, which took both Elias and Henrik by surprise, Johan scooped them up and carried them inside.

They all landed on the bed, and Johan squished Elias between the two of them. “This is where you belong.”

Belong.

Had Elias ever truly belonged anywhere?

“Are you okay?” Henrik asked him softly.

Elias smiled a watery smile. “I will be. The whole time I was enslaved, I only ever dreamed of escaping and getting my magic back. And when we did? It was like my anger tarnished it. I shaped it into something it was never supposed to be.”

Johan stroked Elias’ hair and stared at him with so much understanding it was hard to finish what he wanted to say.

“In the mills, it never even occurred to me to dream of having a family of my own. A home with people within who care deeply for me. My life with the two of you is literally beyond my own imagination, and if the price to pay to keep it safe is my access to magic? So be it. I would have paid more.”

Elias blushed, feeling slightly embarrassed by his emotional theatrics for the first time in his life.

Maybe because there was a vulnerability to them this time.

A truth that he kept buried. Johan and Henrik had the power to destroy Elias, and he had to try and trust that they wouldn’t.

Not an easy thing when your own parents sold you to the worst people the world had to offer.

“Will you forgive me, Rik?”

“Johan will need to build us a bigger house just to fit your head inside if I tell you what this truly means to me, Eli.” Henrik sniffed.

“Come here,” Elias said to him.

Elias curled into Henrik’s front like he had so many times before, tucked into the slightly bigger elf’s embrace. An embrace that had been the closest thing to safety that Elias had known in years, only, this time a large body pressed up against his back as well, cocooning him.

Life would not suddenly be perfect. Food was still scarce, and they would need to find a way to make money.

Their relationship had bruises that needed time to heal.

But for the first time in his life, Elias was truly safe and loved.

And he decided that the warmth of Johan and Henrik’s love running through his veins felt even better than magic.