With another bellow, he whirled in search for the source of the pests: me.
I was already rushing him, and as he turned, I rammed the fence post into his lizard maw. My gremlins might lack substance, but that three-foot length of splintered wood sure didn’t.
The darkfae flung his head back, two of his six hands tearing the post out of his throat—but I’d forgotten about his other four hands.
Twenty clawed digits seized my arms and lifted me effortlessly. The touch of his earth-melting magic felt about as awesome as I’d imagined it would, and my vision went white with pain. Hot breath reeking of dead things bathed my face, and that gaping mouth opened wide to chomp my head off like I was a life-size gingerbread man.
Two fence posts flew out of nowhere and slammed into the fae’s head from either side.
His hands opened and I dropped to the ground. As I crumpled, Lienna shouted a final Latin command. Behind the fae, she held a lighter to the pink gum sealing the crack in the skull. The gooey substance came alive in a shower of sparks and flame, and orange light swept over the bony surface.
An unearthly shriek tore from the shadowy darkfae and the green glow that had infused his limbs flared a fiery orange. He launched at Lienna, but before he could impale her on his countless claws, he disintegrated into glowing embers and dust.
A haunting howl, like wind slipping through a window crack in a sixties horror flick, rose from the skull. The beast’s ashen remains swirled into a funnel cloud that was sucked into the eye sockets. The bubble gum fire faded and Lienna slumped onto her butt, breathing hard, with the skull balanced on one palm. Its eyes glowed red, but the crack was gone.
“Holy shit,” I wheezed. “You did it.”
“Agent Morris.” Blythe limped into my field of vision. That’s where the final flying logs had come from. Made more sense now. “How badly are you injured?”
I glanced at my arms. My sleeves had melted away and my skin looked like hot dogs that were roasted in a campfire too long.
Goulding hurried over to me, her brows pinched together. “I can help. I have burn treatments and magical residue neutralizers in my bag. Give me a minute.”
As she rushed off, I picked myself up off the ground and pretended I didn’t want to whine pathetically from the throbbing agony in my arms. Asshole fae. Speaking of which …
I shot a nasty look at the skull. “No commentary from the newly resealed peanut gallery?”
Silence.
“Nothing?” I asked, peering harder at the glowing eyes.
Nope. Nothing.
Lienna handed the skull to Blythe. “I think my seal is stronger than the original one. The fae can’t speak anymore.”
Blythe glowered into those red eyes as though she could pry answers out of it with sheer force of will. Considering what else she could do with sheer force of will, I wouldn’t be surprised if she succeeded.
Lienna leaned toward me and asked softly, “You okay, Kit?”
I forced a smile, like a proper wounded hero. “I’ll be fine.”
“Well,” Blythe barked, sounding remarkably normal despite the way she was listing to one side. I wasn’t the only one in need of healing. “Where are we at?”
“Whoever owned this farm buried a case of dark artifacts in their alchemy garden,” Lienna said promptly. “They were from a mixture of magic classes, including Spiritalis, which suggests the owner is a collector of some kind.”
“The woman who died on the front steps wasn’t the owner,” I added. “And whoever killed her did everything they could to destroy this place as viciously as possible, probably as a big ol’ FU slap to the farm’s real owner.”
Lienna and Blythe stared at me. What? Hadn’t they figured that out yet?
“I thought we had one dark arts master on the loose,” Blythe growled. “Not two.”
“Two highly dangerous rogues who are at war with each other.” Lienna stared at the scorched valley, the beads in her long hair clinking from the cold wind. “With magic that can inflict damage like this …”
“We need to uncover what really happened.” Blythe looked between us. “Agent Shen, Agent Morris, this is your case now. Find out who owns this farm, where they are, and who killed the woman. Find out everything—and report directly to me. Involve no one else.”
Lienna’s eyes widened a fraction, and I suspected we were wondering the same thing. Why did Blythe want us to keep this investigation quiet? Was she hiding something from the MPD or worried someone in the MPD was hiding things from her?
Crunching footsteps approached us. I was desperately hoping it was Goulding with the promised magical pain relief—each gust of wind felt like a thousand bee stings at once—but it was Shane. He carried a brown paper bag that looked about the right size to hold a pair of women’s shoes. At least he wasn’t stroking them anymore.
Weirdo.
“Mr. Davila,” Blythe greeted. “I trust you’ve made some headway here.”
What a nice way to imply that he’d better have made himself useful in the house since his gutless ass hadn’t made a single appearance during our life and death battle.
He gave a thin smile. “I think I have everything I need.”
Blythe nodded. “I’ll call the helicopter. It’s time we returned to the city.”
She strode away, steadier than before. I allowed one tiny, near-silent whimper as a fresh gust of winter wind stung my burns. Lienna inched closer, her face drawn with concern. Maybe I’d keep the burns for a bit longer. Go back home, let her tenderly bandage my wounds. Maybe she’d shed a heartbroken tear over my suffering, bravely earned in the course of—
Shane’s intent stare broke into my happy fantasy. I met his eyes behind those round glasses, wondering what he was thinking—and what “headway” he’d made. Was he investigating this case too, or was he seeking a different prize?
Turning away from the bounty hunter, I asked Lienna, “Do you think there’s another way to get back to the city from here?”
Her brows furrowed. “Another way?”
“Yeah, like another mode of transportation? Maybe a hovercraft? Or a hang glider? Crossing two things off my bucket list in one day is also on my bucket list.”
Ah, the eye roll. I’d needed that. Flashing her my most charming smile—impressive considering the amount of pain I was in—I invited her to join me with a tilt of my head. Together, we started toward the house and wherever Goulding was dawdling with her alchemic bag of healing potions.
However I got home, I wasn’t too worried. This new case promised to be an interesting one, mysterious in a way that made my fingertips tingle with a mixture of anticipation and unfiltered dread. Maybe my travel ambitions would be realized with something crazy like a hot-air balloon or one of those glass balls from Jurassic World, but even if I ended up on something lame—like a canoe or, worse, a tandem bicycle—it’d be a new adventure with Lienna.
And I couldn’t complain about that.
* * *
The mystery continues in
DRUID VICES AND A VODKA
The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Six
- Pre-order now on Amazon -
Coming January 3, 2020
* * *
And introducing an all-new series
featuring unlikely MagiPol agent Kit Morris:
THE GUILD CODEX: WARPED
By Rob Jacobsen & Annette Marie
Coming 2020
Reading Order
The Guild Codex
The Guild Codex includes three series—Spellbound, Demonized, and Warped (coming 2020)—which can be read independently or as one epic, interconnected saga. For maximum awesomeness, here’s my recommended reading order. More books to come in all series!
* * *
Three Mages and a Margarita
Spellbound #1
Dark Arts and a Daiquiri
Spellbound #2
Two Witches and a Whiskey
Spellbound #3
Four Shifters and a Str
anger
Spellbound Short Story
A Damsel and a Demigod
Spellbound Novella
Demon Magic and a Martini
Spellbound #4
Taming Demons for Beginners
Demonized #1
The Alchemist and an Amaretto
Spellbound #5
A Little Warped
Spellbound / Warped Short Story
Slaying Monsters for the Feeble
Demonized #2
Druid Vices and a Vodka
Spellbound #6
(Are you missing anything from this list? Visit the reading order page on my website for info on the bonus stories.)
DRUID VICES AND A VODKA
The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Six
I’ve said it before, but sometimes I’m a bad person. I cheated on my twelfth grade math final, I’ve run countless yellow lights, and I gossip about how hot my kickass best friends are.
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?
He and his nemesis are gearing up to tear each other apart, rogues and vultures are converging with their sights on the spoils, and the guilds that would normally stomp them into the ground are under attack. We’re on the brink of an all-out criminal turf war, and my time to decide is almost up.
Who’s the real bad guy ... and do I dare stand in his way?
- Pre-order now on Amazon -
Coming January 3, 2020
THE GUILD CODEX: DEMONIZED
Sister series to The Guild Codex: Spellbound
Introducing the Crow and Hammer’s newest recruit …
Meet Robin Page: outcast sorceress, mythic history buff, unapologetic bookworm, and the last person you’d expect to command the rarest demon in the long history of summoning. Though she holds his leash, this demon can’t be controlled.
But can he be tamed?
- See The Guild Codex: Demonized on Amazon -
SLAYING MONSTERS FOR THE FEEBLE
The Guild Codex: Demonized / Two
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.
Whether he’s heartless or not, my contract with him is illegal and beyond dangerous. Together, we must find a way to return him to his own world before anyone discovers our secret. If that wasn’t bad enough, I’ve come to realize something else:
My demon isn’t the only monster I should be worried about.
- Pre-order now on Amazon -
Coming November 1, 2019
THE STEEL & STONE SERIES
YA urban fantasy by Annette Marie
When everyone wants you dead, good help is really hard to find …
Piper knows the first rule for an apprentice Consul is don’t trust daemons. But when she’s framed for the theft of the deadly Sahar Stone, she ends up with two troublesome daemons as her only allies: Lyre, a hotter-than-hell incubus who isn’t as harmless as he seems, and Ash, a draconian mercenary with a seriously bad reputation. Trusting them might be her biggest mistake yet.
- See the Steel & Stone Series on Amazon -
The Spell Weaver Trilogy
Urban fantasy by Annette Marie
The only thing more dangerous than the denizens of the Underworld ... is stealing from them.
Living in exile among humans, Clio has picked up all sorts of interesting skills. But pilfering magic from the Underworld’s deadliest spell weavers? Not so much.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what she has to do to earn a ticket back home.
Conning her way into the Underworld may have gone pretty well, but now she’s got a new problem. His name is Lyre, and he’s a sinfully alluring incubus and gifted spell weaver—and her biggest obstacle to getting her hands on some forbidden magic.
- See the Spell Weaver Trilogy on Amazon -
THE RED WINTER TRILOGY
YA romantic fantasy by Annette Marie
A destiny written by the gods.
A fate forged by lies.
If Emi is sure of anything, it’s that kami—the gods—are good, and yokai—the earth spirits—are evil. But when she saves the life of a fox shapeshifter, the truths of her world start to crumble. And the treachery of the gods runs deep.
This stunning trilogy features 30 full-page illustrations.
- See the Red Winter Trilogy on Amazon -
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Erich Merkel for sharing your exceptional expertise in Latin and Ancient Greek. Any errors are mine.
About the Author
Annette Marie is the author of Amazon best-selling YA urban fantasy series Steel & Stone, its prequel trilogy Spell Weaver, romantic fantasy trilogy Red Winter, and sassy UF series The Guild Codex.
Her first love is fantasy, but fast-paced action, bold heroines, and tantalizing forbidden romances are her guilty pleasures. She proudly admits she has a thing for dragons, and her editor has politely inquired as to whether she intends to include them in every book.
Annette lives in the frozen wasteland of Alberta, Canada (okay, it’s not quite that bad) and shares her life with her husband and their furry minion of darkness—sorry, cat—Caesar. When not writing, she can be found elbow-deep in one art project or another while blissfully ignoring all adult responsibilities.
* * *
Find out more about Annette and her books here:
Website: www.annettemarie.ca
Amazon author page: amzn.to/2b8ZHlh
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorAnnetteMarie
Facebook Reader Group: www.facebook.com/groups/annettemarie/
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/8546572.Annette_Marie
Instagram: instagram.com/annettemarie.author/
* * *
Thank you for reading The Alchemist and an Amaretto and sticking with Tori and the guys through their adventures. Will you take a moment to leave a review? Word of mouth plays a big role in a book’s success and you can help with just a sentence or two.
- Review on Amazon -
Thanks so much!
Annette Marie
* * *
The Alchemist and an Amaretto: The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Five Page 25