Three Mages and a Margarita (The Guild Codex: Spellbound, #1)

by Annette Marie

“So, new girl,” Aaron said, distracting my count so I overpoured a vodka. “Are you a natural redhead?” “Are you a natural pain in the ass?” I shot back without thinking. Cursing my runaway mouth, I shoved the accidental double at the customer. “Confirmation via temper,” the dark-haired one remarked.

“I’ve been working my ass off without so much as a thank-you from a single goddamn person, and you’re jerking me around like a five-year-old with no impulse control. If you so much as open your mouth again, I’ll shove my soda gun down your throat and see if you can crack jokes while you drown!”

Aaron slumped at a table, his head in his arms, while Kai and Ezra watched him sulk with the caring sympathy of close friends. Nah, just kidding. They looked entertained as hell, zero sympathy in their smirks.

“I’ve never met three guys who are this ridiculously hot but so undateable,” she whispered vehemently. “Kai is always seeing like five women at the same time, Aaron only dates girls he thinks his parents will loathe, and Ezra practically runs and hides if you flirt with him. It’s not fair.” Rant over, she primly sipped her drink.

“Conflict surrounds you. You’re caught in the midst of a violent change, and deception lurks in the shadows, calling the conflict ever closer. Your past stands in the way of your future, but though you’ve walked this far alone, others are waiting to join you. Even greater change awaits you, but its form”—she lightly touched the Eight of Swords—“will be shaped by the fear that rules your heart.”

I like to think I’m a pretty chill person, but right now? I was fretting worse than a granny with her best china in a room of hyperactive toddlers.

I pulled out my phone, checked it was on silent, then crept down the hall one terrified step at a time.