Page 7 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

There’s facts and everything.

She followed this up with links to multiple websites. He sighed.

Most annoying sibling in the entire world

Just think about it, please. I don’t want anything to happen to you.

Max sighed. This was how she got him every damn time.

Max

I’ll think about it.

He had a terrible feeling that she was going to show up on the 29th of December with a candidate in hand. But she couldn’t actually arrange that from California, could she?

(The internet was a thing, dammit. She really could.)

Ugh. He didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want another person in his space. He had enough trouble with customers being here sometimes.

He wasn’t saying that he wanted robots to take over or anything, but… it might be a little more peaceful if they did.

(Would magic work on robots? Only if they’d gained intelligence? Could robots work magic? Would they end up with witch robots and robot shifters? Or were those, like, transformers?)

It was a relief to flip the sign to closed at five, although he reminded himself that customers were, in fact, essential for a business to run. (Evie was always telling him that it was important to be grateful and that you got back from the world what you put into it. He wasn’t sure that he believed her… but it might explain why he had grumpy customers.)

“I’m going to work in the back room for an hour. An hour and a half tops.”

Nōwē’s gaze was super judgmental.

“It’s only five,” he reminded her. “We stay open until eight some nights. I have a couple calls I need to resolve, that’s all.”

If a cat could roll her eyes, that’s what Nōwē would be doing.

He really did have those calls, though, and he did start with those spells, truly… and then he just kept working. It was easy to lose track of the time in here, because there weren’t any windows, and the work was so fascinating. Who needed a spell that would whiten their teeth only for ten minutes? Weren’t people more likely to notice the difference? Was it only for critical photos or something? It wouldn’t last through a meeting…

Max really didn’t understand people.

Because he was only a mostly terrible cat dad, he set a timer—although it might have been for two hours—and when it went off, he made himself wrap up for the evening, taking note of where he’d been working and then shutting off the lights and activating the more powerful ward spell on his back room that he used when he wasn’t in the shop. One of the benefits of collecting and reading spells was that he sometimes found really cool ones.

He headed back to the front, where Nōwē was still perched near the window. She meowed at him.

“Almost ready,” he assured her. “Two of these were by email, so I’m going to send off the details now.”

He always told his customers exactly what he found and let them decide if they wanted to spend the money on it. This email included info on how to pay him if they were happy with the results.

There was a thud against the window, startling him, but when he looked up, he didn’t see anything. The sun had set, and it was getting dark. He went back to his email, but Nōwē began to yowl again.

“Almost done. I swear,” he told her.

The yowling got louder and more urgent. It was not her normal “I’m starving, you haven’t fed me in eternity” yowl. That one was more indignant and betrayed.

He stopped what he was doing—the email really could wait until tomorrow—and headed over to her.

“Are you okay, baby?”

She was pacing back and forth in front of the window. She looked totally fine—apart from the fact that she was clearly agitated and yowling loud enough to wake the dead.

“What is it?”