Showing results by author "Annette Marie" in All Categories

Emi has dedicated her life to preparing for her destiny: to become a living vessel for her goddess’s spirit. With the fulfillment of her divine duty only two months away, she’s never once questioned the strict rules that control every aspect of her daily existence. Until the day she discovers her entire life has been built on lies.

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.

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.

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?

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.

When I arrived at my uncle's house, I expected my relatives to be like me - outcast sorcerers who don't practice magic. I was right about the sorcery, but wrong about everything else. Rule two: Don't listen to the demon. My uncle chose a far deadlier power. He calls creatures of darkness into our world, binds them into service contracts, and sells them to the highest bidder. And I'm supposed to act like I don't know how illegal and dangerous it is. Rule three: Don't talk to the demon. All I had to do was keep my nose out of it.

When I found myself facing down the scariest black-magic felon in the city, practically daring him to abduct me, I had to wonder exactly how I ended up here. It all started when I accidentally landed a job as a bartender - but not at a bar. At a guild, populated by mages, sorcerers, alchemists, witches, and psychics. Good thing this lame-o human is adaptable, right? Then my favorite guild members - three sexy, powerful, and intermittently charming mages - asked for my help. Did they want access to my encyclopedic knowledge of cocktails? Oh no.

The weirdness level of my life has reached an all-time high. Which is saying something, considering I started out as a psychic conman and somehow ended up as a MagiPol agent. And not just any agent. Lately, I've been Captain Blythe's right-hand man and most trusted confidant.

My greatest enemy has always been myself. Over the past few weeks, I've painstakingly put my broken pieces back together, from the dark mysteries of my past to the heartrending conflict of my present. But just when I finally start to feel whole again, everything around me falls apart.

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.

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?

I promised to avenge my parents. But their killer is still on the loose, and he's stolen more than my parents' lives. Now, as he draws closer to his mysterious goals, he's poised to destroy what little I have left. I promised to translate an ancient grimoire. But it holds the secrets of my family - and the secret history of demon summoning. I fear its answers as much as I need them. Who was the foremother of Demonica...and who am I?

Between Agent Söze, the treacherous Internal Affairs tyrant whose taken over my precinct, and the super illegal sorcery my partner Lienna was hiding in said precinct—which is now missing—my usual routine of busting magical criminals has fallen apart in favor of hectic damage control. But that went out the window too when a respected Guild Master was found dead. Agent Söze is trying to cover it up, which is all the reason I need to make solving the murder my top priority.

I'm not your average girl. My best friend is my switchblade. My favorite hobby is using it on the cruel, the abusive, and anyone who gets on my bad side. I'm a convicted murderer with a chip on my shoulder and a dangerous lack of restraint. And then there's Zak. His rap sheet makes mine look tame. The bounty on his head is worth more money than I'll ever make, and the deadly fae that shadow his every step wield more power than I'll ever know. He's the Crystal Druid, and his first mistake was setting foot on my turf. His second was saving my life.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

As a con man-turned-MPD-Agent, I'm fairly new to the whole "upholder of justice" thing, but even for me, there are some lines you just don't cross. Agent Söze of the MPD's Internal Affairs department, on other hand, seems determined to slime his way across every ethical line in existence like an over-sized eel on a power trip.