Page 73 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

Alex nodded. “And nobody else could see the bird on your shoulder, could they?”

Rory piped up, “He cast a charm on me so I didn’t quite come to people’s attention.”

Alex was nodding slowly, like they were processing all their memories anew. “And because you’re actually a human, you didn’t poop on anything.”

“Yeah, I can use my human instincts on that one,” Rory agreed.

“That’s good to know,” Alex said, sounding desperately relieved. “I really didn’t want to think about bear poop.”

Rory couldn’t help but laugh. Birds might annoy people with sending poop flying in flight, but there just wasn’t that much of it. The same could not be said for a bear.

Alex grinned. “And all those people who were calling for spells? That was real?”

Max and Rory nodded.

Now that the drama was over, Nōwē came down the stairs and went over to weave between Alex’s legs and then accept their pets.

Max explained briefly how Spellsmiths created spells and then anyone could use them.

He continued, “So if someone needs a spell they don’t know, they either have to go to a Spellsmith—expensive and annoying—or see if they can find the spell already in existence somewhere. And that means either finding an already labeled spell and trusting that it’s correctly labeled or getting a Spellreader to find the spell for you.”

Alex made a face. “It must go wrong sometimes.”

Max grimaced. “It absolutely can. The sanctions are harsh, though, for doing anything dishonest as a Spellsmith or Spellreader—or for pretending to be either of those when you aren’t. No one but a Spellsmith can design a spell. No one has ever been able to turn the finger movements of a spell into a language, though many have tried. Making a change to an existing spell can either break the spell entirely—the best-case scenario—or warp it so that something goes wrong. Spells should never be messed with, and while that gets drummed into the heads of witches from childhood before they even know for sure if they’re witches, someone always decides at some point that they know better.”

Alex made a disgruntled noise. “People are fools.”

“Exactly!” Max said triumphantly.

Rory laughed. “People are pretty good most of the time. Sometimes they make bad choices. But lots of them are really wonderful and do wonderful things.”

“You’re an optimist,” Alex told him.

Rory shrugged. He definitely was. He didn’t see how there was any value in dwelling on the bad things. He preferred to work towards a positive outcome.

Alex’s stomach grumbled loudly, and they flushed.

Rory grinned at them. “Told you you’d be hungry.”

Max said, “Magic isn’t exactly linked to your energy levels, but they often correlate, at least when it comes to depleting your magic. If you did enough to exhaust your magic, you’ll probably feel exhausted, too. Or at least I always do as a witch.”

Rory nodded, though this wasn’t something he’d really experienced, or at least not the way normal shifters did. After a burning, he supposed he was tired. But he could normally change forms back and forth as often as he wanted.

Alex nodded, “Okay, that makes sense. It’s like another type of muscle that you’ve tired out.”

Max see-sawed his hand. “It’s not an exact analogy, but yeah, that’s a good enough explanation for now. If you’re really tired but haven’t been using your magic—I mean shifting—you can probably still do it. As a witch, we can still cast, but when we’re tired, we’re more likely to make silly mistakes, so our spells are more likely to fail. I’m not sure if the same is true for shifting, since it’s not really a spell.”

They both looked at Rory, who shrugged. “I’ve never not been able to shift, but maybe I just don’t make those sorts of foolish errors.”

Max nudged him in the side with his elbow, and Alex laughed.

Alex’s stomach rumbled again, and Max pulled out his phone. “Shit, I meant to order food. Sorry. What do you want?”

Alex considered this. “Pizza?”

Max nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

Rory said, “While you order that, I’ll run upstairs and get you a couple sandwiches. PB&J okay?”