Most bills had gone electronic decades ago, but the United States Postal Service wasn't totally defunct. A lot of high magic users didn't totally trust E-shit of any kind so they stuck to traditional methods, like mail or courier—that wasn't a bad thing. Courier work had kept me fed for quite a while.

Another business enterprise that still relied on the USPS? Junk mail. A couple of flyers, a request for my presence at a very important seminar for small business types. Junk, junk and more junk.

Then something that burned when I touched it.

High magic in the mail wasn't an unusual thing. Since you had to be human to work in most government jobs outside of Banner, sending stuff like this wouldn't even catch the attention of a postal worker, but it seemed a little weird to waste a spell of this caliber when a courier would have gotten it to me quicker and made the spell unnecessary.

"What's that?"

Justin had caught the magic coming off it already, moving my way as I leaned back to study it. The envelope looked like something out of another century—like two or three of them past. The handwriting was a broad, elegant scroll and totally unfamiliar. Tapping the edge of it against my desk, I met his gaze.

"It would appear to be an envelope," I said.

"Ha-ha." He held out a hand.

"I know how to handle my own mail." I reached inside a drawer and pulled out a thin strip of leather. On it were a series of beads. It was one of the charms I'd bought from Green Road over the years and like most of the inactive spells, it didn't do anything until it sensed my touch. Magic lasted longer when it wasn't constantly wasting its energies. Colleen crafted most of the spells and charms I used and she keyed them all to my touch. Once I touched it, the magic in it hummed to life.

"Too much magic in that thing to rely on a charm," Justin said.

I shot him a look. "Justin…this isn't how I work…letting you do the job for me." I waited until he backed off before I did anything else.

If I was getting a bad vibe from it, I'd let him handle it, but I wasn't.

There was plenty of power pulsing from the thing, but it was neither malevolent nor harmless. It just…was. Odd as it seemed, the thing just pulsed with power, like it wanted nothing more than to get my attention.

I placed the charm over it and waited.

The beads on it glowed as the magic within flared. Finally, the beads flashed green, signaling it should be safe to proceed. If magic of the nasty, dark kind had been sensed, the beads would have gone black. Scooping up the charm, I dumped it back in the drawer and reached for the envelope. Justin stood close by and I could feel the tension crawling off him. "Tone it down," I muttered. He was freaking me out and wasn't I messed up enough already?

Slipping my knife under the top edge, I broke the seal. Then waited. Nothing but that steady pulse of magic. Okay. I sliced it open and set my knife aside, blowing out a breath. "I feel like an—" I started to say as I reached inside to pull out the document inside.

I never managed to finish the sentence because magic shrieked, splitting the relative quiet of the morning with a wail like a dying banshee.

Hurling the thing down, I shoved back from my desk and braced myself. Magic built around us, harder, higher, hotter. Tighter--somehow, the feel of the magic grew tighter, wrapping around us like a bubble. Oh, hell, I hope that bubble didn't pop with us inside.

I put myself at Justin's side, noting yet again that the silver on his sleeves had started to spark. His dreads whipped around in an unseen wind. "What the hell is this?" I asked, but my voice was lost in the magic maelstrom.

"Old magic," he shouted. "Not felt anything like it in a while. Just stay by me."

I felt the odd, static warmth of his magic wrap around me—it had a strange, metallic sort of feel and made me think of blades clashing, shields flashing in the morning sun.

The two magics built and built—that foreign presence that I didn't like at all and Justin's familiar magic, like a giant warrior mantling over us, shield lifted and ready.

And then, as abruptly as it had started, it died. It didn't fade; it just ended.

Justin cut a dark look my way and snapped, "Next time I tell you there's too much magic to trust to a charm, will you listen? You know blades. I know magic and--"

I put a hand on his arm.

Somebody was coming.

I could hear her.

Felt each footstep like an echo on my soul.