Page 104 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

Rory flashed him a grin. “‘Mostly dead’ makes all the difference!”

Max had known about magic his entire life, and this was still extraordinary.

“I’m also not a magic cure-all,” Rory continued, smiling ruefully. “I couldn’t have saved Mr. Jones even if I’d tried. He was at the end of his life. His body could no longer support him. My purview is mostly accidents and sudden deaths. Occasionally illnesses if the person could be healed over time.” Rory met his eyes, shrugging. “Like we already discussed, there isn’t a guidebook to any of this, so I’ve just figured out what works over time.”

And he’d had a lot of time to make discoveries.

“Uh, can I ask…?” Max trailed off, not sure how to phrase it, and after a confused moment, Rory grinned.

“Yeah, since there’s just me, there’s no rules that anyone’s ever told me forbidding me to tell anyone. I mean, I usually don’t because what I am is a secret, but you and Nōwē and Alex and the D&D crew are all looking good. Though, like I said, that doesn’t actually lock you in to die of old age for absolutely certain.”

“But you can keep an eye on it?” Max couldn’t help but ask. “And you could check my sister? Sorry, I shouldn’t—”

Rory squeezed his arm again. “Of course I’ll take a look at people you care about, Max. You don’t even have to ask. And I’m already meeting your sister when she comes after Christmas, right? I’ll make sure she looks healthy then. Obviously.”

He accompanied the last word with a look that said “you fool” more clearly than if he’d spoken it. Max couldn’t help but grin, feeling immensely relieved.

“Uh, speaking of Evie, can I tell her about this? I mean, she’s bound to notice eventually when I don’t seem to be getting older, right?”

Rory nodded. “I think I’ve already told more people than I’m supposed to, but I wouldn’t ask you to keep this a secret from your sister. I’d like to meet her in person first and actually get to know her myself, if that’s okay.”

Max almost laughed. “Yeah, that sounds totally reasonable. You can definitely get to know the person you’re going to spill all your secrets to.”

Rory grinned. “Great. I think I’m going to like Evie.”

Max groaned. “Oh, yeah. You two are going to get along like a house on fire.” Which made him think of flaming birds which made him think of not flaming birds, and he blurted out, “How are you more than one shifter?”

Rory blinked at him. “Huh?”

“I mean, how can you be both a phoenix and a cardinal? Just another mythical shifter peculiarity?”

Shifters could only take one animal form. That was just… how it worked. Everyone knew that.

Nodding, Rory said, “Oh, yeah, that’s another mythical shifter thing. Another way to keep us safe, I think. Instead of appearing as a creature that people don’t realize exists, we can appear in a more standard animal form.” He hesitated for a moment and then admitted, “It’s not just a cardinal. I can appear as pretty much any bird.”

“No way,” Max breathed.

“Way,” Rory said with a mischievous grin.

Max nudged him, making him jostle on the couch, still smiling. “Any bird?”

Rory nodded. “It’s allowed me to blend in no matter where I was in the world. A cardinal works great here, but it wouldn’t do in Africa or Antarctica.”

Max’s eyes went wide. “You can shift into a penguin?”

Rory laughed. “Yes. I usually shift into a bird with flight capabilities, but I can shift into any bird.”

“That’s amazing,” Max said, and then made himself keep his mouth closed.

Rory’s eyes were dancing with laughter now. “You want to see, don’t you?”

Max couldn’t help but nod eagerly.

Chapter Twenty

Max

Rory pulled back a little, and a moment later, there was a penguin on the cushion where he’d been a second ago. Max wasn’t sure why this transformation was getting to him so much. He’d already understood that Rory was a shifter, and the whole “rebirth from the ashes” had made the mythical part more than evident. But there was something about seeing Rory in a new form, or maybe simply seeing a penguin right there, that really brought this home.