Page 47 of The Frog Prince (The GriMM Tales #6)

He had learned that he could make his home in something as small as a golden ball or a simple frog. His home was where he laid his heart. His home was walking right beside him, holding his hand.

They rounded the corner to his parents’ private rooms and Alwin’s breath hitched as he stopped in the shadow of the door, unable to take that final step.

Otto’s large hand squeezed his fingers, and he cursed the fabric between them, suffocating his skin.

This would be his life now.

In plain sight but still hiding the secret, vulnerable parts behind smoke and mirrors. He supposed that wasn’t so different from how it had been before he had green skin to hide. The mantle of a monarch was a mask, one he had seen his father and mother slip on and off many times.

But Alwin’s looked much different, and he didn’t know if anyone would accept it.

“Alwin?” Otto whispered at his back, stepping closer and pressing them together. He laid his chin on Alwin’s shoulder.

Alwin closed his eyes. “Yes?”

“Whatever reaction they have, be it good or ill, remember that I think you’re beautiful, inside and out.”

Alwin’s throat grew thick, his eyes stinging under his closed lids. Queens and the evils of the world aside, self-acceptance was probably the hardest battle he had ever had to fight.

He turned his hooded head toward Otto, skimming his nose over Otto’s cheek and gaining strength.

“Would you like me to go in with you?” Lorenz asked.

Alwin cast a glance his way and shook his head. “If I cannot even face our parents, how will I help lead a kingdom?”

“One seems a little more difficult than the other.”

Alwin wanted to laugh, but it was swallowed by anxiety before it exited his mouth.

“Just deal with the guards, if you would? That would be entirely bothersome.”

“Give us two minutes, then slip in.” Lorenz nodded, then entered the room before them, leaving the door ajar.

There was muffled talking, and then Alwin and Otto did as instructed, slipping past the guards’ turned backs and through the antechamber to his parents’ bedroom.

Both his mother and father looked up from their seats before the fire at the entrance of the two shadowed figures, his father bursting to his feet and opening his mouth, ready to call for the guards.

Otto closed the door and Alwin lowered his hood.

All the air in the room vanished in an instant.

“Alwin?” his mother whispered, green eyes wide.

“Yes.” Alwin’s voice shook so much over one tiny word. They were in front of him at last, after eight long winters of missing them, but unlike with Lorenz, he couldn’t make his feet move.

His mother got to her feet slowly, her eyes moving over every inch of him as if expecting him to disappear between one blink and the next. She rushed forward, reaching for his face, then his hands.

He reared back on instinct, only Otto’s hand at his back keeping him from falling over in his panic.

His mother frowned, tearful and confused by his reaction. “Alwin? What’s wrong?”

Alwin couldn’t hold her gaze, or that of his father. “There are things you must know.”

“Nothing could be as important as you here, alive, in front of my very eyes,” she declared, bridging the distance as she often did. Always strong. Always assertive.

She grasped his face in both hands and Alwin closed his eyes in acceptance. Her fingers moved, no doubt feeling the texture of the makeup.

“What…?” She swiped at his cheek and gasped. “Alwin…”

“I am not as I once was,” he said, stepping out of her hold.

She froze in shock, still holding her hands up, makeup smeared all over her fingertips.

Knowing it was better to get it all out now, Alwin held his gloved hand out to Otto. He took it gently, cupping the underside of his wrist like it was precious and slowly working the fabric off. He caught Alwin’s distant gaze, love shining through as a reminder of his words.

The glove fell away, but Otto didn’t let go of him, tightening his hold through Alwin’s parents’ reactions of horror.

It was hard to mask, and Alwin didn’t blame them for it.

“Frog Prince…” his father gasped, hand tightening on the back of his chair. “That…that was you all along?”

“Yes.”

“How?” his mother demanded. “How could…”

“Queen Schon.”

“What did she do to you?” his father breathed.

Alwin repeated the story numbly, exhausted and wrung dry from having to relive it so many times in one day.

He wanted to curl into a ball and rest. To find a lily pad big enough for him and Otto and float away.

He wanted to be somewhere his skin wasn’t starving for moisture and his throat sac wasn’t pinched and trapped.

Where his fingers could breathe and his face didn’t itch from makeup.

He had nothing left when he finished. He was a hollowed-out husk as he stared at his parents, silently begging for them to accept him.

“And the others? Jurgen?” the queen asked, searching his eyes.

Alwin closed them, unable to speak it again.

“They have a fitting burial site. Alwin did everything he could.” Otto came to his rescue. “The queen tricked him and them. She cursed Alwin and murdered the others. He’s been alone all this time, trying to find a way to break the curse and return to you.”

“My son,” his father said, gentle as ever.

Alwin opened his eyes to find him stepping forward, reaching a careful hand toward him.

Alwin wanted to take it like he was still a child, but at the same time he wanted to shy away and hide behind his sunshine. The conflicting instincts were tearing him straight down the center.

But he had to know. He had to see if there was enough love left in his parents for them to embrace who he now was.

He stood still as his father’s fingers wrapped around his own, holding his hand up in front of his eyes and looking at his green skin in silence.

Alwin startled when his mother’s hand joined theirs, connecting them the way she always did when he was a little boy.

“You said the curse would allow you to turn back to your former self if you were loved,” his mother said before turning to Otto, face hardening. “Do you not truly love him?”

“Mother—”

“I love him more than I love myself.” Otto spoke over him, stubborn chin jutting. “ Every part of him.”

The stress on that word wasn’t subtle, it was pointed and sharp.

“I chose this myself,” Alwin said, mediating as best he could. “I gave up parts of myself for a greater cause.”

“What cause could be greater than your humanity, Son?” his father asked.

“Lorenz,” Alwin said. “Otto. My frogs. I gave up pieces of myself willingly so their safety and happiness were guaranteed.”

“For Lorenz?”

“That story is not mine to tell. I wanted to do something for him, even though I was far away and he would never know it was me. I would make every sacrifice again.” His parents stared at him in silence.

Alwin’s heart slowed to a crawl before he finally broke it.

“If you cannot accept me, I understand. If you do not want me…”

“You speak like a king,” his mother said, stunning him once again. “More so than when you left.”

Alwin hitched a breath, unable to hold her gaze. “I…”

“Not only do I have my son back, Hallin has its future king back.”

“Lorenz…”

“No, thank you.” A voice came from behind the closed door. He was eavesdropping. Insolent little brat.

“He has already declined,” his father said, shaking his head fondly. “He promised he would find the future ruler. He has kept his promise and found you.”

“You can have the crown,” Lorenz called, making them all laugh.

“She will come for Hallin if she hears I have returned,” Alwin warned and his mother squared her shoulders, the shadow passing over her face transforming her from the mother Alwin knew to the queen she was to everyone else.

“Let her. She hurt my son. She dared to try taking you away from me, and that is something I will not forgive. She caught us unprepared and off guard before. This time, I will be waiting. This time, I will do what I failed to do the first time. I will keep you safe.”

Alwin’s eyes filled with tears once again, and his voice shook as he said, “Mother.”

“Enough with the tears, Alwin.” Her own glistening lashes contradicted her words. “We have so much to do.”

“First,” Alwin’s father said, “I’d like to get to know this young man, here.”

Otto’s previous resolve and strength crumbled under the sudden attention as the king turned to him, and he fumbled for words. “M-me?”

His father smiled. “Let’s all sit down and enjoy the afternoon before we jump into the fray, hm?”

His mother frowned. “Warner, we have to…”

“Easy, dear. We can afford one day to bask in our son’s return, no? We have only just got him back. Nobody will fault you for this.”

Slowly, she allowed herself to relax, leading them all to sit down and making sure Alwin was by her side. Alwin could barely swallow past the lump in his throat as he listened to her order food and drinks, sending for Lorenz as if he weren’t still pressed against the door.

His brother walked in with Cinder, and they both settled with them around the small table, completing the picture Alwin had imagined so many times during lonely nights.

Home wasn’t a place, he thought to himself once more.

Home was the people he loved, and he had all of them within arm’s reach.

He was home.