Page 99 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

When he finally emerged from the shower, he quickly dried his hair and body with a rapid burst of flames. He hadn’t remembered to bring his clothes with him, so he pulled the robe back on and then passed into the bedroom to dress.

A few minutes later, he was in the kitchen with Max, seated at one of the bar stools. In addition to making coffee for himself, Max had made a spicy chai for Rory, as well as granola covered in hot sauce. Rory would have preened if he was still in bird form, and he happily started consuming both as Max sat down beside him.

“So phoenixes aren’t affected by heat?” Max said wryly. “I did wonder a bit why you never seemed to burn your mouth gulping down hot liquids.”

Rory paused, abashed. “Oh, yes, there isn’t any fire or heat that can harm me. I mean, I can be consumed by my own fire, as you saw, but that’s about it. There’s nothing hotter than phoenix fire.”

“And what exactly is phoenix fire?” Max wanted to know. “How many phoenixes are there? Why do none of my books tell me anything about this?”

Rory couldn’t do anything but smile at the barrage of questions. “I’ll answer everything, but it might take a bit of explaining. We call ourselves mythical shifters, by which we mean shifters who are a creature that is commonly considered to be a myth.”

Max caught the nuance immediately. “You consider yourself to be a phoenix who can shift into a human?”

Rory nodded slowly. “Mostly? I didn’t really think about it in any sort of detailed way for quite a long time. But I came into being as a phoenix, which is not how it works with other shifters.”

“Came into being?” Max repeated.

Rory nodded. “There may only be one of each of us. We’ve never been certain. But we didn’t have parents, and we’ve never had children—not that any of us have confessed, anyway. I’ve certainly never had any. The Magic created us, and we just are. I can’t even tell you how long it was that I was a phoenix before I became a human for the first time. I don’t think it was an issue of maturity or difficulty, it was more that I didn’t see any need to be anything other than what I was, until one day, I wanted to be human, and then that’s what I became.”

Max was staring at him with wide eyes. “But if there’s only one of you, then aren’t you each the most endangered species ever? Always on the brink of extinction?”

Rory tilted his head back and forth in a so-so gesture. “Sort of? I think many of us consider mythical shifters to be a sort of collective race, though we mostly each go our own way. We live for a really long time, and we’ve sort of been drifting around the world all this time, hoping one day to find our mates. So we don’t encounter one another all that often. It’s like a really long-distance family of like fifth cousins or something.”

Max snorted a laugh.

Rory grinned at him and continued, “We all agreed not to talk about what we are except with our mate. So I’ve kind of messed that up.”

Max was frowning now. “Surely, that’s happened before, where people have seen you or another mythical shifter do something inexplicable.”

Rory nodded. “That’s why the myths exist. Someone sees something they can’t explain, and they make up a story about it. But we aren’t really supposed to linger and corroborate.”

Max’s back went suddenly straight, and he looked alarmed. “You’re leaving?”

Shaking his head emphatically, Rory said, “Absolutely not. I mean, not unless you’re leaving with me.” He frowned. “Or I guess if you ask me to go. I won’t stay where I’m not wanted.”

Max reached out to grab his arm and give it a gentle squeeze. “You’re definitely wanted.”

Rory grinned. “Yeah, so, I’ll have to figure out something else here. Alex has already guessed I’m a phoenix.” At Max’s raised eyebrow, he explained about the drawing. “I don’t know if the others have figured it out exactly, but it’s not like it’s something that I can really hide given the drama of last week. We still haven’t heard from Tom?”

Max had been keeping him up to date on everything, mostly, but it was nice to actually be able to ask questions that Max understood.

With a shake of his head, Max said, “He told Sam he needed some space, and he’s been ignoring everyone else. He even removed himself from the group chat, which nobody took very well, especially David.”

“I’m sorry,” Rory said, feeling a bit terrible for the drama he’d caused.

Max eyed him. “Are we going to blame me for getting stabbed?”

“No!” Rory exclaimed. “Of course not.”

“Then we’re not going to blame you for saving me, either,” Max said firmly. “Oh, speaking of, I think I found the books that the jerk was trying to have the thief steal, the ones from his father that he was claiming were his.”

Rory perked right up. “Ooh, what’s in them?”

“I didn’t look yet,” Max said, smiling faintly. “I didn’t want to look without you.”

“Aww, you’re so sweet,” Rory told him.

Max rolled his eyes. “Actually, not to take away from the moment, but I thought I could invite everyone from D&D. Maybe it would be enough to get Tom back?”