Page 103 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

“If we bond—”

“When we bond,” Max corrected, and it was totally worth it for the way Rory’s face lit up.

“When we bond, we’ll be able to sense one another’s emotions like witches and familiars can.”

“Let me guess: it’s more intense.” Max was getting the hang of how this worked.

Rory laughed. “Actually, I’m not sure. It’s hard to compare and measure intensity of emotion that different people are experiencing.”

That was fair enough, Max supposed.

Clearing his throat, Rory didn’t quite meet his eyes as he said quickly, “We’ll, uh, actually be able to communicate telepathically.”

Max’s thoughts ground to a halt. “We’ll what?”

“Be able to communicate telepathically,” Rory repeated a little more slowly this time.

What on earth?

There were some spells that Spellsmiths simply couldn’t create. It had never made much sense to non-Spellsmiths, but they’d just say they couldn’t create the spell. In the annals of their history, there’d been some gruesome torture thanks to nefarious witches that had proved pretty categorically this wasn’t just the Spellsmiths’ version of wouldn’t. They really couldn’t create such a spell. Mind reading was one of them. Divination spells were another. Mental coercion was out (no forcing someone to do your bidding), but memory charms were a gray area—and unfortunately, people had been spending centuries coercing people in non-magical ways, or threatening people with other kinds of magic.

“It’s not mind reading,” Rory said hastily. “Not really. At least, not the way I understand it. We can’t just wander through one another’s minds. But we can basically… think thoughts to one another along with feeling emotions.”

“It sounds amazing,” Max assured him.

Rory’s gaze flew to him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Max agreed, voice soft. Back at the beginning of September, he couldn’t have conceived of it, but being this intimate with Rory didn’t scare him. Their gazes caught and held, and as Max stared into Rory’s amber eyes, he wondered how he’d ever thought the man was ordinary. Well, a shifter, but still.

“What else?” he asked.

Rory blinked. “Oh, uh, I think that’s actually it? I mean, I’m sure there’s some details that I haven’t thought of, but I’m pretty sure those are all the big ones that would impact you if—when—we bond. Oh, but I didn’t finish explaining about fate. As a phoenix, I can sort of see how long people are going to live.”

Ah. “So when you were talking to Mr. Jones, you knew he was going to die soon.”

It had seemed natural enough, given how old and frail he’d seemed, but looking back, Max could see Rory’s absolute certainty.

Rory nodded. “But the thing is, it’s not usually as simple as that. Some lines have nearly reached the end; those are easy to see. But someone who’s perfectly healthy might have a long lifeline… until they’re in an accident or a terrible person comes into their life or they contract an illness. I think I see more… probability than anything. So it’s not one certain fate that will happen no matter what. Just like we can choose to accept our mates or not, there are many ways our lives could go, although some ways are more likely than others.”

Slowly, Max nodded. That actually made a fair bit of sense. But—

“You can see all our lifelines? Mine? Alex’s? The D&D crew? Everyone who walks into the shop?”

Rory nodded his head. “Yes. But I mostly see it kind of casually. Which sounds ridiculous, I know. But as we’ve discussed, I’ve been doing this for a long time, and so the same way you see blond hair or brown eyes or dark skin, I see lifelines.”

Max couldn’t help but ask, “Isn’t it terrible sometimes?”

Rory huffed a bit of a laugh. “Sometimes, yes. But it’s like seeing a really sick person. With my magical gift, maybe I see it when others wouldn’t, but otherwise, it’s just a part of them, and it’s our job as decent human beings to interact with everyone with dignity. And there are occasions where I’m able to sort of… prod someone to see a doctor or go to the hospital before it’s too late.”

Max swallowed. “Or sometimes, you die in their place.”

Rory nodded, reaching out to squeeze Max’s hands. Max clasped them back gratefully.

Rory explained, “I’d have done it a hundred times over to keep you safe. I can’t bring someone back if they’re long dead. I do better if they’re not quite dead or have only just died.”

Wow. For a moment, Max’s brain scrambled at this matter-of-fact admission, but then he rallied.

“I think I know why you like The Princess Bride so much.”