Page 48 of The Wonder of You

Henry puts his hands on his hips and sighs in frustration.

“We tell Gabriel, we don’t come back to the mortal world. We can handle those witches.”

“Can we, Henry? Canwehandle them?” Lukas’ voice is high pitched as he asks the important question of the night. They’ve learned they absolutely cannot handle them.

“We know now, we know they’re not just weak bitter witches. I had no idea Claudia would show. I thought… damn it, Lukas, I don’t know what I thought! Claudia was always… some kind of myth. Some kind of story. I never expected them to turn up with a Grand High Witch. We stood no chance against the power she’d bring with her. We’ve been reckless and we’ve lost Renée because of it!” Henry drops his head.

Lukas walks away without further comment.

Henry quickly turns around as he hears the cabin door open and shut again. Toni takes a deep breath and rubs her eyes.

“Toni.”

But all she can do is march away and back to her own cabin, where she cries deep into the night.

Henry stands alone.

***

Phoenix jolts awake on his bed, still in his suit. He sits up, his eyes darting around to every corner of the room. Something feels wrong. Something feels off.

Something… someone is missing.

It was a dream, wasn’t it? An awful dream.

He looks up and sees Henry leaning against his kitchen counter. Lukas sat with his head down looking out the cabin window.

“It didn’t…” Phoenix begins, but he knows it did. The thoughts confirmed as Henry drops his head and Lukas wipes a tear from his eye.

“Oh no.” He begins to cry as the panic sets in. Henry moves forward and hugs Phoenix. His hands tightly around his shoulder as if to stop him falling apart. He leans down kissing the top of his head.

“I am sorry, brother.”

“I should have gone in with her, why did you hold me back?” Phoenix shouts, pushing Henry away from him.

Lukas stands up ready to stop another commotion but nothing comes of it. Henry sighs. He expected an outburst.

“Because she’ll be back one day. You heard the witch; she’ll be back and you two are destined to find each other.”

“I don’t want to live another day.”

“You don’t want to wait for her?” Henry says softly as he crouches beside Phoenix. Lukas retreats to the corner and cries.

Phoenix lifts his head, directing his broken gaze at Henry.

“I’ll wait forever for her,” he says with confidence. “But everything I was before is gone. What am I going to do? I didn’t protect her, Henry. She died.” Phoenix drops to the bed again and curls up into a ball as he sobs. “She’s dead and it’s my fault!”

“It’s not your fault, Phoenix.” Lukas finally comes forward. He doesn’t want his friend blaming this on himself.

“It is!” Phoenix stands and begins pacing between the coffee table and bed. Until he breaks again. An almighty scream erupts from his mouth. He lobs everything off the coffee table in frustration. “Can you imagine if it was Maudie? Wouldn’t you hate yourself? Father or not, you’d blame yourself!”

Lukas drops his head. He knows his friend is right.

“She’s dead!” Phoenix sits and cries into his hands. Henry kneels to his level again after stepping back from his outburst.

“She might not be dead, Phoenix…”

“Isn’t that worse? If she’s not dead, then where is she? Are they hurting her? Is she afraid and wondering when I’ll come save her? I failed her.”

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