Showing results by author "Annette Marie=" in All Categories

Broke, almost homeless, and recently fired. Those are my official reasons for answering a wanted ad for a skeevy-looking bartender gig. It went downhill the moment they asked me to do a trial shift instead of an interview - to see if I'd mesh with their "special" clientele. I think that part went great. Their customers were complete dickheads, and I was an asshole right back. That's the definition of fitting in, right? I expected to get thrown out on my ass. Instead, they...offered me the job?

Three months ago, I landed a job as a bartender. But not at a bar-at a guild. Yeah, the magic kind. I'm not a badass mage like my three smokin' hot best friends. I'm not a sorcerer or an alchemist, or even a wussy witch. I'm just a human, slinging drinks like a pro and keeping my non-magical nose out of mythic business. Seriously, I know my limits. So why am I currently standing in a black-magic ritual circle across from a fae lord? Somewhere behind me, my three mage friends are battling for their lives.

Once upon a time, I was your average spunky redhead with the lamest employment history ever, a shaky relationship with my only family member, and no idea what I was doing with my life. Now, I'm a pseudo mythic with the best bartending job in the world, the most amazing (and hot) best friends I never knew I needed, and a guild of misfit magic-users who've become my extended family. And I'm about to lose it all. In my desperation to save Ezra, I stumbled into a web of ruthless deception - and seriously pissed off a sleeping hydra.

Piper Griffiths wants one thing in life: to become a Consul, a keeper of the peace between humans and daemons. There are three obstacles in her way. The first is Lyre. Incubus. Hotter than hell and with a wicked streak to match. His greatest mission in life is to annoy the crap out of her, but he isn't as harmless as he seems. The second is Ash. Draconian. Powerful. Dangerous. He knows too much and reveals nothing. Also, disturbingly attractive—and scary. Did she mention scary?

I've said it before, but sometimes I'm a bad person. I cheated on my 12th-grade math final, I've run countless yellow lights, and I gossip about how hot my kickass best friends are. (Good thing my job as a guild bartender doesn't require moral perfection.) But there's bad, and then there's bad. And I'm not sure which applies to a certain dark druid/wanted criminal/reluctant friend of mine. His transgressions include black-magic dealings, kidnapping, and murder, and he's about to add "revenge-fueled killing spree" to his resume - if I don't stop him. Should I stop him?

I'm bound to a demon. For my entire life, I avoided magic at all costs. Now, I'm responsible for a demon who wields magic more powerful than the toughest mage or sorcerer. Demons are evil. That's what my textbooks say. That's what I see. He's ruthless, he's temperamental, he's cold. But he protects me without fail. I wonder if he's hiding a heart behind his hostility. My demon is a monster.

I thought I understood power. My parents taught me that magic attracts equal danger, and everything I've seen since becoming a demon contractor confirms it. I've witnessed how power twists and corrupts - and I've tasted power no human should wield. I thought I knew greed. Ambition and avarice drove my family into hiding. My parents died for someone else's greed. I've never hunted anything in my life, but now I'm hunting their killer - with my demon's help. I thought I'd seen evil. But with each step closer to my parents' murderer, I'm uncovering a different sort of evil.

When Clio conned her way into the Underworld, her job was to steal magic that could protect her homeland. Instead, she escaped with the rebel son of a notorious spell weaver family. And in the process, she exposed his most calamitous spell, putting her people—and all magic—in peril. Now she and Lyre face two impossible feats: recover his creation, and do it before his family catches up to them. But when the spell is unleashed with devastating results, caution is no longer an option.

In the mesmerizing sequel to Red Winter, Emi can no longer hide within the safety of the shrines. The goddess has charged her with a new task, one that will take her deep into the perilous realm of yokai. Shiro is her guide and protector, yet his confusing, captivating allure is a danger of its own. With the fate of the world in her mortal hands, she cannot falter, but is she strong enough to sacrifice everything - including him?

As a former con artist, I love a convoluted, mind-bending scheme as much as the next guy. But as a recently promoted MagiPol agent, I love it significantly less than that guy. Especially when the life of a kidnapped teen hangs in the balance. Between confusing orders and conflicting evidence, this whole investigation has me and my partner, Lienna, spinning in circles. Why is our boss keeping this case off the books? Why is our top suspect, the most notorious rogue in Vancouver, mired in contradictions?

I thought I was a useless witch whose only weapons were a switchblade and a mean disposition. I thought Zak was a rogue druid with waning power and an alluring aura that's impossible for me to resist. And I thought my fae familiar was a harmless shape-shifter who chose me because I'm "mildly interesting". But nothing is what I thought. Nothing is what it seems. Including me. I need answers, and I need them fast - before I sink any deeper in the quagmire of secrets I've fallen into. The Crystal Druid's. The Winter King's. And my own.

Only one thing matters to Kai: getting the job done, and doing it better than anyone else. But when a beautiful thief crashes his security gig, claiming she's trying to protect the valuable artifact he's guarding, all his careful plans go up in flames. He doesn't believe a word she says - until the item is stolen right out from under them.

Once, Emi believed the heavenly gods were righteous and wise, while the earthly yokai spirits were bloodthirsty and evil. But with a traitorous deity poised to destroy her world, and the yokai standing as humanity's only defense, the lies of her upbringing have toppled to reveal a far more terrifying reality. Despite the looming threat, Emi can't escape her greatest distraction: Shiro, the fox yokai who has so deftly claimed her heart for his own.

Clio isn't a thief. She isn't a spy, a soldier, or a diplomat. Aside from her rare ability to mimic spells, her only notable talent is gardening. But with a war threatening her homeland, and her half-brother—the nymph prince—pleading for her help, she agrees to attempt the impossible: stealing deadly magic from the best spell weavers in the three realms. Their stronghold is located deep in the Underworld, which is exactly the sort of place an Overworld nymph like her should never go. Getting in won't be that hard. Getting out alive is the impossible part.

I'm learning to embrace who and what I am, but there's one thing I can't face: the night Zak betrayed me. But even with the mysteries of our shared past hanging between us, I can't turn Zak away when he asks for my help.

As a guild bartender, I can handle pretty much anything - mages, sorcerers, witches, the occasional demon. But show me anything family-related and I'd rather run for the hills. It doesn't even have to be my family. So I have no idea why I thought spending the holidays with Aaron's mom and pop was a good idea. Meeting his famous parents is already terrifying enough, but I've got a bigger problem. Students of his family's renowned mage academy are being attacked on the grounds - and somehow no one has seen a single assailant?

When Clio conned her way into the Underworld, her job was to steal magic that could protect her homeland. Instead, she escaped with the rebellious son of a notorious spell weaver family. And in the process, she exposed his most calamitous spell. Now she and Lyre are in a race to recover his spell before his family catches up to them. Their only hope is to escape to the Overworld, and as an Underworlder on enemy ground, Lyre will have no choice but to trust Clio with his survival. But can she trust him when his seduction magic has the power to erase her will?

Agent Kit Morris. Has a nice ring, doesn't it? It's a big step up from "wanted criminal" or "that weird con-artist guy with weirder psychic powers", both of which recently applied to me. But my promotion to MagiPol agent comes with a few drawbacks. First, supremely talented and effortlessly gorgeous Agent Lienna Shen won't agree to a dinner date with me. Second, my new assignment has pitted me against a guild with very bad taste in pets. Third, those pets are demons, and those demons want to kill me.

When I first landed a bartending job at the local guild, I didn't know a thing about magic. These days, I'm practically an expert on the different magical classes, but there's one nobody ever talks about: Demonica. Turns out they have a good reason for that. My guild is strictly hellion-free, because who wants to risk life and limb to control the biggest bullies on the mythic playground? Well, some people do, and now a demon has been loosed in the city. My three best friends are determined to slay it, but even badass combat mages are critically out-magicked.

Annette Marie presents Book One in the Guild Codex: Warped series. Make sure to check out the companion series, The Guild Codex: Spellbound and The Guild Codex: Demonized, available now.