Page 36 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

“Sounds good,” Alex agreed.

Rory gave Alex a quick scan, confirming with human eyes what he’d already seen with bird eyes: Alex was healthy and had a long lifeline, just what Rory would hope to see from someone so young.

When Alex caught him looking, Rory hastened to say, “I love your shirt. It looks amazing.”

This was the simple truth. Alex had taken the Read for a Spell t-shirt and completely transformed it. They’d replaced the short sleeves with long ones in a pattern of geometric colors that repeated at the new neckline and hem. Art that was reminiscent of the window display had been drawn on the shirt itself, all in fun colors.

It was so much more interesting than it had been before, when it had just said “Read for a Spell” with the logo of an open book and magical swirls.

Rory’s shirt felt very lackluster by comparison.

“Did you want me to make you one?” Alex asked.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Rory immediately demurred, trying not to look as hopeful as he felt.

“I don’t mind,” they insisted. “I like crafting.”

“Well, if you really don’t mind.” Rory gave in quickly, his eyes going back to the bright colors. It really was so much nicer than the boring shirt. “I don’t have any money right now, and Max and I are still arguing about how much he should pay me because he’s already providing me with room and board. But if I have money eventually, I’d be happy to give it to you.”

Alex waved this aside. “Nah. Like I said, this is fun. Gives me the chance to practice and hone my skills. That’s always a good thing.”

In that case, once Rory had money, he would figure out a present to give Alex.

The bell jingled, and they tag-teamed serving the customer. Alex didn’t seem like quite as much of a people person as Rory was, but they were more polite than Max. They picked up the payment machine quickly, and before they knew it, it was five.

With his enhanced hearing, Rory heard the alarm go off in the back room. Max had cast some sort of spell that muffled sound, so it was harder to hear, but that was no match for Rory’s hearing.

“What?” Max muttered. “How is it five already?”

A moment later, Max appeared, gaze snagging on Rory and Alex behind the counter.

“Alex! You’re here!” He blinked at them. “I was, uh, going to actually be present for your first day. I got lost in a few books. Sorry about that.”

Alex pointed a thumb at Rory. “No worries. Rory showed me what to do.”

“We make a good team,” Rory agreed. “Gives you more time for your research, and I get to talk to as many people as I want.”

“And I get to remind people of the value of the arts and nurture a love of learning,” Alex added. “It’s going great.”

Max looked taken aback. “Oh, well, great. Seriously, though, I didn’t mean to totally abandon you on your first day. You can, uh, always yell for me if you need anything. Sometimes the books I’m working on are delicate and, uh, light-sensitive, so you’d better not come into the back room, but if you yell my name, I’ll come out.”

Rory was pretty sure that wasn’t the best cover ever, but it appeared Max hadn’t given a lot of thought to what they were going to do with a non-magical person in a half-magical shop.

Alex stared at him for a moment and then said, “No problem,” in a very smooth way that told Rory they weren’t buying it but were going to play along.

And really, what was Max going to tell Alex? They weren’t likely to believe that it was expensive texts back there, given that Max didn’t have a door on the room. And Max wouldn’t want Alex to think he didn’t trust them.

Rory had never been a big fan of hiding, but the necessity had been brought home to him on more than one occasion. Individual humans could be perfectly lovely, but they could also be awful, especially collectively, and it wasn’t always easy to tell which was which.

Not that Rory seriously believed that Alex wasn’t one of the good ones, but even if they contravened the Council’s directive and told Alex, what then? Alex would be keeping a huge secret from their mom—and the rest of the world. And while they seemed like an awesome kid, that was a lot of pressure to put on them.

Yeah, he supposed Max’s ridiculous story was the best they could do for now.

They were able to close up pretty quickly, Max showing both of them how to tally and reconcile the receipts for the day.

“I want to go cash free,” Max told them. “Wouldn’t need a till or petty cash that way. It would make a lot of sense.” He sighed. “But we still get kids in here with their birthday money and little old couples who don’t trust plastic cards. So we’re still taking cash for the moment.”

Because Max might be grumpy, but he took his customers’ needs into account, and he seemed to like to look after the ones who sometimes got overlooked. But be wary if you were rude and entitled. Those people got short shrift from Max. (He’d answered three phone calls before he’d gone into the back room earlier today, and two of them had ended with Max hanging up abruptly on whoever was on the line.)