Page 22 of The Frog Prince (The GriMM Tales #6)

Otto nodded and gestured for him to lead the way, quiet as they traveled, each wrapped in their own thoughts, the magnitude of what had just happened hanging unspoken in the space between them.

He expertly led them toward their goal despite his wandering thoughts, stopping and gripping the back of Otto’s soaked shirt as he passed him to prevent him from running headfirst into a gigantic hedge. It stretched before them like a dark, green wall, curving slightly in both directions.

“What is that?” Otto asked, leaning his palm against it and giving it a push, gasping when it didn’t give a single inch.

“Protection,” Alwin said. “It runs in a circle around a tiny clearing, separating it from the rest of the forest.”

“Why?”

Alwin looked around as if checking to see if anyone was listening. “The elves.”

“The elves built it?”

“I stumbled across them by happenstance,” Alwin said, pointing a few steps behind them. “Just there. I watched as one by one, they walked into the hedge and disappeared from sight.”

Otto frowned. “I didn’t know they could do that.”

“They can’t. There is a hidden passage in the hedge. It shifts and moves and changes places every few moments. I waited for them to come out to ask about it. It was built as a safe haven. For freed elves running from their former masters.”

“So they can’t be found in there?”

Alwin shook his head. “Only those who are allowed entrance can find the passage through. Animals can come and go as they please.”

“And…we’re allowed?”

“I am not close to the elves, but we respect each other. They sensed I needed a place to feel safe so they grant me entrance when it is not in use.”

“They didn’t grant me permission, though. And I do not want to disrespect them or their safe space.”

“Which is precisely why they’d agree with you being here.” Alwin smiled. “Because you mean no harm to them or those seeking refuge.”

Alwin crouched and laid his palms against the ground. He looked around before smiling and reaching out to scoop a tiny frog into his hands. “Anyone in there?”

The frog shook its little yellow head.

Not for a while now , it said, eyes wide.

“Can you tell me where the passage is?” Alwin asked, and the frog nodded, throwing itself off Alwin’s palm and hopping to their right, leading them around the hedge until they reached a tiny slit in the otherwise impenetrable leaves.

Here , the frog said.

“Thank you,” Alwin said, and the frog nodded before disappearing from sight.

“What did it tell you?” Otto asked, looking after the frog.

“It helped me locate the passage. I usually do it by feeling but this is faster,” Alwin said. “Follow me. It’ll be a bit tight.”

He turned sideways and pushed through the tiny slit, feeling as if he’d suffocate at any second as leaves and branches dragged across his skin and made passage even harder. He felt Otto following, grunting and groaning as he tried to fit his muscular body through the tiny space.

Alwin pushed the last of the way through and emerged into a clearing he hadn’t visited in years.

He used to come here a lot. After getting permission.

Foolishly thinking the magic of the place would somehow negate his own.

Thinking if he slept there, it would make him wake up as himself again.

That whatever the elves put in place to keep the other elves safe would somehow extend to him and help him feel like he belonged too.

It had never happened. The place remained beautifully secluded and guarded from nearly everyone else. And over the years, Alwin had stopped resenting it. But he had also stopped visiting. There was very little for him here.

He heard a gasp from Otto and turned around to see him staring at the clearing in awe.

Alwin could understand that. He tried seeing the place through Otto’s eyes. Seeing it for the first time again.

The space was tiny in comparison to the rest of the forest—a circle of short grass surrounded by tall, thick trees and the hedge they’d just come through.

But the air inside shimmered. The sun hit the ground in a wide, sparkling beam, illuminating thousands of insects buzzing around an array of different flowers.

It was a beautiful explosion of colors and scents and textures.

And the most special parts of it were the circles of dark-blue flowers. Barely an inch tall, similar in size to a common daisy, forming perfect hoops in the grass.

“Blue Moons,” Otto whispered in astonishment.

Alwin smiled. “Yes. I’ve never seen them anywhere else.”

“So many of them.” Otto seemed barely able to voice his thoughts as Alwin took a step toward the middle of the clearing. “Are we even allowed to take them?”

“They’re flowers, Otto,” Alwin said. “You won’t be hurting anything by picking a few. They will grow back.”

“I will only take a couple,” Otto said, more to the clearing itself than Alwin. Alwin smiled at that, at how fast he had taken to thinking of magic as a separate, almost sentient entity.

“Go ahead,” Alwin said.

Otto rushed forward before freezing in his tracks and turning back to Alwin.

“Thank you,” he said earnestly, a shy smile on his lips.

Alwin swallowed against the burst of emotion in his chest. “You’re very welcome, young master.”

“One day you’ll have to tell me why you’re calling me that.”

“Go pick your flowers, Otto.” Alwin shooed him away.

Otto chuckled, making the clearing appear five times more magical than it already did to Alwin.