"Okay, well, I'm from Texas, which you already knew, since we talked about it during the interview." I wondered for a second if I should explain where Texas was, but he was bound to know that much, even if he wasn't American. At least, he could look it up. "I lived in a small town, way out in the middle of nowhere. My family runs a business there for farmers, selling farm supplies like seed, fertilizer, and food for the farm animals." He smiled, and it looked like he truly understood what I was talking about.

"I worked in the store from the time I was little bitty, and as my folks didn't have much of a head for business, no matter how much they knew about farming, I ended up more or less running the place. Then I went to college to study business so I'd really know what I was doing, and I came back home to get things in order. All my friends from school came up to New York. It was something they'd been planning for a while. They figured that it was the best time to do something like that, before they got settled in anywhere else. But I knew my folks needed me."

"You're a very dutiful daughter," he said with a solemn nod.

"Sort of. Last year, one of my friends got married, so they had an empty spot in their apartment. I came up for the wedding, and they talked me into moving here for good. My parents weren't crazy about that, but I had the systems all in place to run the store. It just felt like my last chance to get out of there and really make something of myself, so I did it. And, here I am."

"I imagine it was an adjustment for you."

"Oh, in a big way. It would have been, no matter what, but then there were all those weird things I kept seeing. To tell you the truth, I just thought that was New York, but nobody else seemed to notice, so I figured I was still a small-town hick."

"No, you have a very special perspective on the world. Don't lose that perspective, Katie. Now, how do you like New York?"

"I love it. I get homesick sometimes, but here I feel alive. There's so much going on, it makes my life seem fuller, somehow. I feel like I'm getting more living into each day than I ever could have back home."

"You don't find it frightening and noisy?"

"Noisy yes, but not really frightening."

He gave me a smile that reminded me of Owen in his more bashful mode and said softly, "Sometimes I find it frightening. It's been difficult for me to adjust, even with the spells Owen prepared for me."

"You just need someone to show you around, get you settled in. That's what my friends did for me."

He nodded. "That is a very wise suggestion, Katie Chandler."

I didn't know if it would count as sucking up to the boss, but I took a deep breath and said, "If you like, I could show you around some. Maybe we could go out to lunch one day and walk around."

He looked genuinely pleased. "Yes, I would like that. Now, we have an appointment for lunch. You need to meet the rest of the executive staff."

I got the impression that it hadn't just been the usual recruitment talk when they told me that I was important. At my last job I'd been introduced to my coworkers, and that was it. But here I'd been introduced to everyone but my coworkers. Maybe it had something to do with me learning about how magic worked and what the company did. If I was going to help them figure out what was for real, I'd need that.

It was still odd.

He stood and extended a hand to help me up, then tucked my arm through his and escorted me out of the office. We went back down the spiral escalator—he seemed pleased when I complimented him about it—and down more stairs and more hallways until we were back at the big conference room where they'd interviewed me.

I'd have to invest in a GPS tracker to find my way around this place.

The same people who'd been at my interview were there, gathered around the table.

There was an empty place setting in front of each seat. Mr. Mervyn sat me at his left hand. Owen sat at his right. Food appeared from thin air, and as everyone ate, Mr.

Mervyn introduced me. 1 had to alternate eating with answering questions about myself. It was more strenuous than the job interview.

After the meeting, Rod walked me out of the conference room. "Don't worry about that interrogation," he said. "They just need to get comfortable with you so they'll know you for verification jobs. Now we'll get more into the day-to-day stuff. Let's get your things, then we'll go to your new office."

I got my purse and briefcase, then we went up another flight of stairs and down a hallway to a suite marked verification.

"I don't suppose you've got a map," I asked. I wasn't sure I'd be able to find my office without help the next morning.