Ink Magic (Ink Sorceress Chronicles) by Erika Gilbert Read Free Book Online Page A

considering the beating his credit card would take.
    “ Lucy,” he said when his girls left the shop. “You need to make a lot of sales today.”
    No pressure then.
    “ I’m going to the bank for some change, I won’t be long.”
    I thought about asking him to show me how to work the cash register but he seemed like he had a lot on his plate. Besides, how difficult could it be?
    “ Hi, I’ll have a skinny latte and a chocolate chip muffin,” said a slightly over weight guy.
    Before I had the chance to consider the logic of buying a low fat coffee and pairing it with a high fat muffin, someone cut into the line.
    “ Excuse me, I ordered a Chai Latte.” A dark-haired girl placed her cup in front of me, sloshing hot liquid all over the counter. “This is coffee. I can’t drink caffeine after twelve PM.” She said it as if someone had served her up a plate full of dog droppings.
    “ Sure, I’ll just whip you up a cup in a second.”
    I quickly scribbled the guy’s order on a notepad the way I’d seen Carrie do and clipped it to the coffee machine before turning to work on the angry customer’s drink. I knew from conversations with Carrie that the Chai was made from syrup instead of authentic herbs and I mentally chastised myself for not paying enough attention when she made them in front of me.
    “ Hey, the girl gave me the wrong change before,” someone else said, butting into the line. “I gave her a twenty dollar note and only got change for a ten.”
    “ Sure, how much do we owe you?” I said, remembering what Carrie told me about having to give in to customers who lied about their change in order to keep the peace.
    She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically as if I should magically know how much money changed hands before I came on shift. “Five dollars.”
    I stared at the cash register, trying to figure out how to open it. Pressing a few buttons did nothing. So I pressed some more. The machine let out a huge scream, showing an error sign on the screen. “Hang on. I’ll just try . . .”
    I pressed the enter key again and nothing happened. So I pressed a few more random buttons but to no avail. It was frozen.
    “ You need to use a key to reset it,” a familiar voice informed me. “It’s over here on a hook by the phone.”
    Nick had arrived and he looked like he knew his way around the place.
    “ Do you work here?” I asked.
    “ Yes, sorry I’m late. I just had something to do after school.”
    Carrie had conveniently left the part about Nick working here out of our conversation.
    “ Looks like you made it just in time,” I said, with relief as he opened the cash register and showed me the reset button.
    He took care of the latte and I watched closely as he filled the other orders.
    “ Here, take this order to table three, will you?” Nick said kindly after I managed to over fill a cup of coffee.
    I carried the tray laden with cups and cake carefully across the room, determined not to add broken china to the list of my mistakes.
    My foot snagged on something and, almost in slow motion, I fell. As I went toward earth the tray flew through the air, sending coffee cups and plates in all directions. When I hit the ground the sound of broken china greeted my ears, and to top it all off a sticky pudding landed on my head, covering me in ice cream and hot chocolate sauce.
    “ Oops. I’m sorry, I didn’t see you coming.”
    I looked down at the leg sticking right out in the gap between tables, following it up to a cruelly grinning face; Leeza. As my eyes took in the faces assembled around the table, I recognized the girl who claimed we got her order wrong, and the one who demanded more change.
    They’d set me up.
    I struggled not to lose my temper. Luckily I didn’t feel anything from my tattoo, and I assumed, after how I nearly strangled her, Leeza was too scared to transform and spark a repeat performance. Thank goodness, I really didn’t need to add sudden hair gain to my