Page 40 of The Wonder of You

Mortal Land

Bath, England

2023

Phoenix puts the table of painted rocks out for the first time in years. The stall had been taken down not long after Renée’s death. A few people considered putting it back up, laying out her rocks. They didn’t want to risk a bad reaction from Phoenix though. Phoenix is glad Toni suggested this, it might help him.

He admires the rocks, running his hand over each of them.

“How long are you going to be?” he whispers to no one. He feels like he’s connecting with Renée, even though she’s been gone for so long. And yet still, the pain he feels in his chest is too much. Even after all this time, he can’t see a world without her. But he must wait for her. He must.

Henry and Lukas watch him from one of the tents nearby.

“She was everything to him, wasn’t she? And to all of us. She never failed to raise a smile from us all.” Henry smiles, though tears are threatening to unleash. Renée was like a little sister to him.

“I want to thank her for saving Maudie. She was like a mother to her. She did more than her actual mother did, to be honest,” Lukas says as he sighs .

“You will get to tell her one day.”

***

Phoenix sits in his cabin, alone as usual.

He stares at the photographs on the wall. The memories captured there feel like a distant dream now, after so many years. And yet, when he looks at her beautiful face, he can convince himself that she’s there with him. He tries to hold back the tears, but her presence feels so real to him when he stares at her for long enough. It almost makes him feel happy again.

He closes his eyes and forces himself to believe she is actually here, their arms wrapped around one another. He wishes he could feel her in his embrace so he could keep her safe, keep her where she belongs.

The feeling, for a moment, makes him smile. He knows that the second he turns away from his memories to the present, his pain will return. He’ll probably end up screaming, collapsing into bed and wishing death upon himself. But for now, he just wants to close his eyes and enjoy it.

He grits his teeth when his door flings open. Does the intruder know the good thoughts they have just disturbed?

Lukas doesn’t wait to be invited in. His face pale, he finally says it, the words everyone has been waiting for.

“She’s back Phoenix, Renée is back.”

They have been coming to this small city for years and she was never here. Of course they could anticipate her return, especially after seeing her grandfather. How could they be sure though? What if Beau followed a different life this time around and never had children? What if Renée had come into existence but they moved away from this place? Just because it was here which she was taken, here that they had seen her grandfather, it didn’t mean it was here in which she would come back. The thought would seize too much panic in Phoenix. What if it was all a hopeless dream that she would be back?

It’s okay, though , Henry would always say, Phoenix and Renée are soulmates, they will always find each other . They couldn’t keep coming back to one spot so many times though, they had to mix it up otherwise someone would notice. They were The Golden Valley Circus , not the never-aging circus. They couldn’t let people catch on, ask questions. If that was the case, Gabriel would stop them coming to the mortals at all. Until they had Renée, they couldn’t risk it.

Phoenix sits and stares at Lukas, his expression clearly showing he is afraid that this is some cruel dream. Could his imagination be teasing him? Making him believe this is truly real? That Renée is actually here. Maybe Lukas is lying, but why? Why would he do such a thing?

Lukas doesn’t leave and Phoenix starts to believe this is real.

This is happening.

It’s been nearly a hundred years, is his love finally home?