Page 49 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

“Well, no,” Rory acknowledged. “Although, you could fit a lot more books in.”

This made Max laugh, as Rory had intended.

“True,” Max agreed. “But somehow, I don’t think Mr. Jones would be delighted if I started filling his room with my books. Let’s get ready for bed.”

They took turns in the bathroom, changing into pajamas while the other person was occupied. Max texted Alex and let them know the two of them had arrived safely, and he cast a ward on the door, locking it and ensuring they wouldn’t be disturbed for the night.

“Can’t someone break it with ‘undo’?” Rory asked.

Max shook his head. “No, wards like this typically have ‘and will not respond to undo’ written into them. Spellsmiths were aware that wards wouldn’t be much good if people could easily break them. Sometimes they added trigger words, so that a ward could be broken with a specified phrase that would be kept secret, or people of the same family or blood might be able to get through it without breaking it. Or they could be set to break after a certain amount of time. Spells also aren’t powered indefinitely, so unless the wards are renewed, they fail eventually on their own. Many wards also have a failsafe in them of a couple people or combination of people who can bring them down.”

“Isn’t there a risk that it could be misused?”

“It’s possible,” Max conceded. “But the caster would usually pick carefully who that is. A well-crafted spell might specify that the caster and the person they indicate are the fail safes. The flip side of not having that exception is that if something goes wrong, the wards are impenetrable until they fail from lack of power, which could be years later if they’re cast well.”

Rory made a face. “Oh, I see how that would be a problem.”

He could just wait out wards like that, no matter how long it took, but most people didn’t have that option.

“Sometimes the spells are written so that they fail with the owner of the wards,” Max continued to explain. “That can help prevent that sort of problem. It can cause other problems, of course, if the ward is protecting something and needs to not fail. That’s why it’s important to know the exact parameters of a spell. And if you can’t afford to have a Spellsmith make you a bespoke spell that does exactly what you want, then you need a Spellreader to read an existing spell and tell you exactly what it does. You can see how a spell that someone just says ‘is a ward’ doesn’t tell you enough about it, right?”

Rory was nodding. “Oh, yes, I see what you mean. I never really thought about it before.”

Rory had spent time with a lot of witches over the years, but he’d never really needed to understand exactly how spells worked. If he’d known it at one point, he’d forgotten it again.

It made a lot of sense, though, and it explained why so many witches called Max to get him to find them the spell that they needed. Rory had grasped the idea before, but these details made it even more clear why it was so important.

“Also.” Max pointed. “That bed has an honest-to-God canopy.”

It really did. There were velvet curtains that had been gathered at each of the posts and tied with gold-threaded rope. There was a mountain of pillows, but the huge headboard rose up even above them. It had been carved into an array of different flowers and vines. There was a frame on top of the posts, and the velvet was draped over that. It looked like it would make a very cozy cocoon if you let the curtains down. It probably helped a lot in the winter, back when there was no such thing as central heating. It made Rory think of times long gone.

Max huffed a breath. “Let’s hope the mattress has been replaced more recently.”

Rory laughed, and they climbed into the bed. Yeah, at some point someone had invested in a pillowtop mattress that had definitely been made in this century. The large quilt in a softly colorful pattern looked like it had been handmade. There were a few moments where Max grumbled and chucked pillows on the floor.

“How is anyone supposed to sleep when they’re being suffocated in pillows?” he demanded.

Rory laughed. It was nice to have a few pillows to prop yourself up when you were reading, but they’d been surrounded by about ten times that number of fluffy accessories.

The bed definitely dominated the room, and while it would have been absurd in a smaller space, it fit this large room with its other antique furniture.

They read for perhaps a half an hour, and then Rory set his book aside. The main characters had just spent the night together, and Rory was pretty sure that things were about to go wrong until everything was finally fully resolved. If he didn’t stop now, he was going to be up all night finishing it.

Max set his book aside, too, and then he fidgeted, the blankets rustling.

“Is everything okay?” Rory asked.

Max blurted out, “Would you sleep in the bed tonight? As a human?”

Rory blinked at him, surprised.

Max blew out a breath and then said, “Platonically, of course. My sister and I shared a bed for a few weeks following the crash, and I’m not in strange places all that often, and—”

Rory laid a hand on Max’s arm. “Of course. And if you change your mind, just let me know, and I can easily turn into a bird, okay?”

Max looked uncertain for a moment, and then he nodded faintly. “Yeah. Thanks.” He reached out and turned out the light, and they were plunged into darkness. Max huffed out a breath. “It’s harder to hear your breathing when you’re a bird, did you know?”

Rory laughed as he lay down in the bed, shuffling further under the covers, pushing more of the pillows off the bed, and getting comfy on the one that he’d kept.