"I imagine it will take some getting used to."

"By the way, I'm Isabel, Rod's assistant."

"Nice to meet you, Isabel."

"We are so glad to have you." She glanced toward the doorway, then turned back to me and said in a conspiratorial tone, "That was young Owen Palmer who brought you here, right?"

"Yes, it was."

She fanned herself with a piece of paper from her desk. "Oh my. Now, he would be quite the catch. Brilliant and gorgeous. That boy is going to go places. If only you could get him to talk to you when he's not talking business." Now, this felt like the kind of gossip session you'd find at any other company. As different as things promised to be when working at a business that was essentially Magic, Inc., so far there wasn't anything different at all.

"He seems nice," I said, trying to keep my tone neutral. The last thing I needed was to start a new job as the subject of office gossip. If I agreed he was gorgeous, there was a good chance that by noon word would have spread throughout the company that I was interested in him. Businesses were a lot like small towns in that respect.

"In fact, everyone here seems nice, so far," I added.

"We are a good bunch, though we do have a few skeletons in our closets." I had a sick feeling she meant that literally. "And what workplace doesn't have a monster or two?" She probably meant that literally as well. But I'd worked for Mimi, so as long as the monster didn't try to eat me, I'd still be better off than in my old job.

Rod came through the doorway then in a snazzy suit right off the fashion runways. It didn't go well with his otherwise sloppy personal appearance. I wondered what illusion he wore. Whatever it was, he used it as a disguise and didn't even bother with his real appearance. The illusion must not have covered clothes. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered with the nice suit. I decided I was grateful for that. If magical people could dress themselves with illusion, I'd have been exposed to more nudity than I really cared to see. I also would have probably turned around and left New York as soon as I got here. One of my mother's scare stories involved naked people freely roaming the streets.

"Katie, you're here already!" Rod said when he saw me.

"I didn't want to be late on my first day."

"Come on back to my office and we'll get you started."

I picked up my briefcase and followed him. He got settled at his desk and gestured me toward yet another overstuffed chair. I had to give these people credit for having decent office furniture. A mug of coffee appeared on his desk, and he took it between both hands.

"We just have a little paperwork to do—IRS forms, health insurance, and the like—and then we'll do an orientation so you'll have a better understanding of how all this works. After that, we'll get you set up in your office."

I nodded while I tried to process the unlikely juxtaposition of tax forms and learning how a magical firm operated. "You deal with the IRS?"

"Of course. The IRS has their own set of wizards, and they never let us get away with anything." It had never crossed my mind that I might not have to file taxes, so that wasn't a big letdown, even if the idea of taxes and magic still didn't go together in my brain. I was even more unnerved about the idea of the IRS having wizards working for them.

He had me fill out all the paperwork, then handed me a packet on the health plans.

"Just look that over later, fill out the forms, and get them to Isabel," he instructed.

Then he grinned, opened a desk drawer, and pulled something out. "And here's your MetroCard."

I took it from him and tucked it into my purse. Now I had transportation freedom without having to think about the balance on my card. It was almost as good as having my own car again. That had been one of the biggest adjustments for me in moving from Texas to New York.

Rod settled back into his chair and said, "Now, do you have any questions?"

"About what?"

"About anything."

"To be honest, I'm not even sure where to begin."

"Then let's take a tour. You can leave your things here."

I followed him to the outer office and out into the hallway. He talked as he walked.

"We do everything here from researching, developing, and testing new spells to distribution and monitoring of the spells."

I felt like I was struggling to keep up, even if the struggle was more mental than physical. "How do you distribute your spells?" I asked. "In other words, how do you make money?"