Page 35 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

Within a few short minutes, they were both leaning back against the headboard, their legs tucked under the blankets. Nōwē hopped up and settled down between them. Max was rereading The Hobbit, and Rory was still making his way through his ridiculous romance. His occasional giggle made Max smile. It was less disruptive than he’d expected.

It was probably about thirty minutes later that Rory yawned, closed his book, and set it on the bedside table.

“I’ll have to finish it tomorrow,” he said. “Goodnight, Max.”

“Goodnight, Rory.”

And a moment later, Max was alone in bed, and a cardinal fluttered over to perch briefly on his shoulder and rub his feathers against Max’s neck. Max petted him without conscious thought (thankfully before he could wonder if it was weird). Rory had already explained that it wasn’t like there was a human squished into the bird, so it was probably fine to continue to treat him like a bird, at least in this respect.

Red—Rory—chirped at him and then fluttered to Max’s bedside table, where the box Max had originally set up for him still perched. He hopped around, wiggled a bit, and then settled in just like he had before Max had known he was a shifter.

Max went back to his book but only read for a few more minutes before he found himself yawning, too. He set the book aside, looked at Red and Nōwē settled peacefully, and turned out the light.

He burrowed all the way beneath the covers, mind still reeling a little from everything that had happened today. Tomorrow would be Alex’s first afternoon working. Tomorrow morning, he’d promised to take Rory clothes shopping.

A couple weeks ago, Max had been alone and liked it that way, only periodically annoyed by his sister texting from across the country. Was he ready for everything that was to come?

He had no idea.

Chapter Eight

Rory

It was true that Max was grumpy and didn’t seem to really like people in general, but Rory didn’t think he recognized all the ways that he was actually very kind and awesome. He’d taken Rory in, after all, and he’d given Alex a job, and Rory didn’t buy for a minute that it was primarily self-serving. Sure, there were ways that it helped him, and that was what he focused on, but he was also giving them the place they needed, and Rory thought that outweighed any other considerations.

At the thrift store, Max had told Rory to get whatever he wanted, not bothering to give any sort of limitation. Rory believed that they were mates, but he knew that Max wasn’t convinced. Yet Max was making sure that Rory wasn’t just housed and fed, but that he was also comfortable and had things of his own.

Max was not at all satisfied when Rory picked up a pair of pants and two t-shirts.

“You’re not a bird right now!” Max groused. “You’re not going to wear the same thing every day! Look again.”

As a bird, the clothes disappeared—magic!—and reappeared once he was human again. There was no way that counted as continuous wear. But now that Rory had found his mate, he’d prefer to be in human form more frequently.

The last thing he wanted was for Max to feel like he was failing Rory in some way, especially when he was being so very generous. Rory didn’t want to waste Max’s hard-earned money, but it was true that normal people expected to see other people in more than one outfit of clothing, and it was possible someone would visit the store on consecutive days.

Rory liked clothing that was in bright colors, especially reds, oranges, and yellows, although he could see the appeal of the universal blue jeans. These flashy colors were not at all what Max liked to wear; his graphic tees were often black or navy, though occasionally another color snuck in. Max seemed to like sarcasm most of all.

Rory allowed himself to be talked into three pairs of pants, four t-shirts—because he was going to wear the Read for a Spell shirt at the shop, wasn’t he?—a sweater, a sweatshirt, a coat, a pair of pajamas, two pajama bottoms, a pair of shoes, and a pair of boots. Max said underwear and socks needed to be purchased new, and Rory didn’t argue with him, since he didn’t have a strong opinion on the matter. Clothing was a weird invention to begin with, but Rory had certainly grasped over the years that almost all cultures required it. And there were times where being naked could be uncomfortable. (Humans were weirdly designed with bits that flopped around.) Rory didn’t ever have to worry about being cold, since he had his fire to keep him warm, but that was also a concern for most humans.

At the counter with the cash register, there was a bin filled with hand-knitted hats, scarves, and mittens. A sign proclaimed that the residents of a nearby retirement home donated them, and all proceeds went to charity.

Max dug through the bin until he came out with a matching set of hat, scarf, and mittens in red and gold. Rory’s coat was sadly a sort of beige-cream color, as there hadn’t been a lot of choice, but Max had said it would keep him warm as the weather got colder. The embellishment of color would definitely help, and Rory appreciated that Max had hunted out what Rory would like rather than something neutral and less noticeable. He definitely liked the fact that Max was acting like Rory was going to be here as it got colder. (Admittedly, huge swathes of the northern hemisphere got colder at this time of year. But still!)

Rory wore the new shoes out of the shop, but everything else was bundled into Max’s reusable bags because washing everything was a must, apparently. (As an old and magical shifter, Rory didn’t have to worry about catching anything or getting sick, but he could see that making sure everything was clean was a good practice.)

A quick stop at a bigger grocery store allowed Rory to get underwear and socks—at a grocery store, but they had a lot of non-food items, it turned out—and then they headed back to the bookshop. Max put the laundry on before they trooped downstairs to open the store. Nōwē immediately took up her perch at the display window.

By the time Alex showed up at three thirty, Max had been able to spend most of the afternoon in the back room with his spellbooks because Rory had handled the people. Rory might have spent a lot more time with each customer than was strictly necessary for a sale, but as Max had observed, Mondays weren’t that busy.

Rory hadn’t exactly forgotten that he’d only been a bird around Alex, but it maybe wasn’t top of mind, and so he greeted them warmly.

They looked a bit confused. “Where’s Max?”

Thankfully, Rory remembered to say, “Research in the back.” He’d gotten a bit out of practice, but it was generally second nature for shifters and witches to censor themselves around normal people. “I’m staying with Max for a bit, and I like people a lot more than he does, so I’ve been working out here so that he can do what he prefers.”

Alex snorted. “Yeah, I noticed that. Anyone ever tell him that a job that relies on people relies on people?”

Rory smiled. “I think he’s still working on a solution for that one. You want to stick up here at the cash register first, and we’ll make sure you’re familiar with how it works?”