Page 95 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

It was sometime in the wee hours of the morning, probably, when accompanied by the snores of his witch, Rory had remembered Max as a name and a more complete concept, had remembered the fact that he’d died so that Max would live. He hopped up and down the whole bed, inspecting Max as best he could, even as he told himself that Max had carried him up to the apartment, that Max had got ready to sleep and climbed into bed and cuddled Rory, so he was totally fine.

Rory could see Max’s lifeline again, and it was long, just like it was supposed to be, instead of that horrible rending that had occurred earlier.

Rory knew what he was capable of, knew that as a phoenix, he had a certain measure of control over death and life… but he still needed the visual reminder, needed to watch the rise and fall of Max’s chest to be absolutely, one hundred percent certain that he was unharmed.

Rory would be forever grateful that he’d been able to protect Max, but he wouldn’t complain if he never needed to do it again. Max needed to be safe. Rory would make sure that Max was safe.

(If Max was a little confused in the morning when he woke up and found that a small bird had surrounded him in pillows from head to foot, well, these things happened. Pillows were soft and protective. They were obviously a good idea. They had been very awkward to move when Rory was so small and couldn’t fly yet, but he’d managed. Max was most important, after all.)

“Good morning, Rory,” Max said, voice rough and sleepy-sounding.

Rory chirped at him, making Max smile. He reached out to scoop Rory up, pausing for a moment after he clasped his hands around him.

“You’re bigger already. You don’t fit in my hands the same way anymore,” Max observed.

Rory trilled at him. That was right. He was growing all the time! How smart of his mate to see that.

“Okay,” Max said, clearly thinking as he spoke, “so I’m going to assume for now that you’re, uh, growing back to full size. And maybe when you’re fully grown again, you’ll be able to turn back into a human?”

Rory rubbed up against Max’s hands and sang some more.

Max laughed. “Sounds good to me. I mean, it’s all super weird, but we’re just going to roll with it.”

Max got ready for the day, letting Rory perch on the bathroom sink while he showered. Rory loved how warm and steamy the room got, and he trilled his happiness.

Once Max was dressed, he carried Rory out to the kitchen, where Nōwē was crying out that she needed food and she needed it right now.

“Cool your jets. I’m coming,” Max grumbled.

Nōwē didn’t think much of this excuse, and she waited impatiently until Max had set her filled food dish back down on the floor.

Max pulled out the bird seed for Rory. “Will this still work for you?”

Rory hopped over and pecked at the bag. Max smiled, gently nudged him away, and poured the seeds out onto a saucer.

“Do you need anything else?” Max asked. “You don’t know how relieved I am that you don’t need chewed up worms or something.”

Rory could agree that wouldn’t be ideal.

Max pondered for a moment, and then he scooped Rory up, away from the seeds.

“You chirp if you want to eat anything else, okay?”

Chirping in agreement, Rory let Max hold him out to various food items on the island, in the cupboard, and finally in the fridge. Rory liked bananas, apples, and oranges, so he’d indicated he wanted to eat those. Max seemed to think that was normal. The one that really puzzled him was the hot sauce.

He set Rory down on the island and held up the bottle. “Seriously?”

Rory trilled at him, fluttering his stubby little wings.

Max’s face expressed his doubt, but he said, “Okay. Do you want some on the seeds?”

Rory let out more happy sounds, glad his mate was so smart, and headed over to the saucer, then looked back at Max expectantly.

Still with a weird expression on his face, Max nevertheless poured hot sauce over Rory’s seeds. Rory gobbled them up happily. His sense of taste wasn’t the same between bird and human, but he could feel the heat lighting him up inside. It was glorious.

Max brought him a bowl with a little water that he could bathe in afterwards, and he laughed as he helped Rory get the hot sauce off. (Apparently, eating hot sauce as a bird wasn’t something he’d completely mastered yet.) Max bundled Rory up in a soft towel and cuddled him close. Rory burrowed into the warm fabric and relished being tucked up against Max. It wasn’t the same as when he was human, but it was still really good.

Max wasn’t willing to have Rory perch on his shoulder when he couldn’t fly, but he seemed equally unwilling to leave Rory alone, so he used a towel to fashion a sling to tuck Rory into. He then cast a spell on it so people wouldn’t notice it. Once Rory was settled, he asked, “Alright?”