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#Summary: In a world of gods and devils, only the extraordinary thrive. Maggie, painfully normal, knows this better than most.

Thirty years after a cataclysmic event known as the Convulsion, humanity has become the newest weapon in an ancient war between gods and devils. In Tousunai, being Sighted is a ticket to a better life. But while other Sighted are gifted with beauty and divine power, Maggie Murin is just...Maggie. Struggling to support her family, a mysterious 'sponsorship' from a forgotten god leads her to enter the House of Malice and to strike a bargain with the devil Valec. She wanted to be extraordinary to save her family—but she's about to find out that being the partner of a devil has a price even a Sighted can't see coming.

#Book Contents: violence and some strong language and sexual content in later seasons.

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CHAPTER ONE

It was seven thirty-two in the morning, and there was a devil loose in the district again.

A barricade stretched from one end of the avenue to the other, blocking cars and people alike from moving forward. A crowd formed by the agent stationed at the gate, and the flying drones hummed as they hovered overhead.

Grumbling, Maggie shouldered her way to the front, clutching at the strap of her bag. "Hey!" she called to the agent. "Hey! Do you know how long this will take? I'm going to be late for work!"

Others in the crowd echoed her complaint, not that it mattered to the agent. He barely tipped his head in Maggie's direction as he said in a loud voice, "This is an active Incursion. Please scan one of the ticket vendors for an incident pass. Present passes to your place of employment."

Maggie hissed under her breath, fighting the urge to stamp her foot. She was shorter than most of the others, the black hair of her bob coming loose from the claw clip at the back of her head. She pushed an impatient hand through her bangs, sighing.

A pass wasn't going to do her any good. This is the third Incursion this week, she thought. My boss isn't going to care about a pass!

Left with no other choice, she dragged her phone out of her pocket and held it up toward the drone, scanning the code on its monitor with the app. Her phone chimed, then displayed the waiver she needed to give her boss.

Wait a second....

Maggie brought her phone closer to her face and squinted at the map.

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered, scrolling to zoom in on the red lines highlighting the active Incursion. The label for Shibenne Convenience, her workplace, waited on the other end of the evacuation zone—outside of the Incursion.

"I'm going to be fired," Maggie hissed before shoving her phone back into the pocket of her jeans.

Like many residents in Tousunai City, her boss had an indifferent attitude toward Incursions, devils, and the inconveniences they caused. He expected everyone to show up on time. If the shop wasn't forced to evacuate, he required everyone to be at their stations.

Maggie was out of luck.

"This is the main avenue through the district," she complained aloud. "How do you expect us to get anywhere if you're blocking the whole street? Can't you open up the sidewalk at least?"

If the agent heard her, he didn't answer. The letters 'RAAA' stenciled across his windbreaker reflected the blue light given off by the active barrier panels.

"I saw a few Sighted pass through the gate maybe ten minutes ago?" said an older woman beside Maggie, taking pity on her. Maggie would take all the pity she could get at the moment. "It shouldn't take more than another half hour for them to clear out the devil and get traffic moving again."

Maggie had serious doubts about the R-triple-A getting anything done in thirty minutes, no matter if the Sighted were here or not, but she nodded and said, "Thanks," all the same.

She glanced toward the barrier. The panels rose above their heads, mostly transparent except where they connected, designed to slide and slot together to form a solid wall. They hummed with power, and Maggie knew from experience that touching them while they were live gave a nasty shock. Getting caught trying to go over a barrier also resulted in an even nastier fine if one of the drones spotted you.

Sighing, she took out her phone again, rubbing her thumb over the cracked screen and rough, scraped corners. She looked at the time and grimaced. She could wait for the Sighted to clear out the devil and for the R-Triple-A to close the Incursion, or—.

Maggie chewed her bottom lip and switched back to the app, checking the map again. She zoomed in and peered along the glowing red line indicating the edge of the evacuation zone.

Maybe...if I go that way, take that alley...I should be able to cut around and make it to work. If I hurry, I could still be on time.

Maggie tucked her phone back into her pocket and pulled her satchel's strap up and over her head, securing it in place.

"I am not going to lose another job," she muttered to herself as she turned on her heel and pushed through the crowd. She earned more than one grunt as she stumbled away from the barricade, heading farther up the avenue along the impatient line of waiting cars. "That's three jobs in six months, just because of these stupid Incursions, and being late, and I am not going to lose another one!"

She counted the alleyways in her head, just as she had in the app, until she found the one that passed all the way through along the edge of the Incursion.

"Yes," she cheered under her breath when she didn't spot any glowing barricades. "Finally, a bit of luck—."

Maggie forced herself into a fast walk, clutching the strap of her bag against her chest. The alley was clean, if a bit cluttered, the roofs of the buildings on either side rising three and four stories above her head. They built things in the Shibenne District like that; cramped and tall, with more footpaths than actual streets twisting their way through the warren. Part of the culture was keeping things tidy, but junk had a way of accumulating.

"Kuso," she muttered when her sneaker caught on the edge of a forgotten chunk of concrete and she nearly went down. "Ugh, the clean-up team does such a lazy job..."

Maggie kept going. Her breath sawed in and out of her lungs in heavy bursts, but she managed a quick pace, and every so often, she'd look at her phone, checking the time and making sure the Incursion hadn't shifted. Sounds of traffic faded, and the sticky heat clung to the back of Maggie's neck, the morning sun burning in her eyes.

Later, she would blame her pointless huffing and grumbling for not recognizing how very quiet the city had gone, how the air buzzed, thick and potent as if a thunderstorm brewed overhead. She breathed in, catching the smell of hot, burning asphalt—and the acrid, nose-singeing stink of churning sulfur.

She came to a stop, heart thumping. Maggie panted. No. I'm imagining it. It couldn't possibly....

Above, roof tiles clicked and cracked under the shifting weight of careless claws. Maggie dared to look up—and wished she hadn't.

The devil had strung itself across the alley, its long, lizard-like body stretching from one side to the other with ease. Two sets of leathery wings twitched and stirred on its narrow back, black scales glaring in the sun, and its long, flexible neck swayed from side to side. It didn't seem to have eyes, and the wide, open mouth of serrated fangs resembled the gaping maw of a massive lamprey.

A Breach, Maggie thought, frozen in place. Her eyes fixated on the monster's chest, on the white light that pulsed and seethed inside its warped ribcage. The devil got past the Incursion line—!

From the other side of the buildings came an angry shout, then the flicker of flames bursting over the devil's flank. It shrieked, then ducked down, clawing its way into the alley to escape its attackers. The huge claws tipping its limbs raked across the buildings, tearing through walls and roofs, rubble tumbling down—.

Maggie threw her arms over her head, preparing herself to meet a grisly fate at the end of a falling brick—.

Arms wrapped around her waist and jerked back, forcing the air from Maggie's lungs. Her feet left the ground, and her shoulder struck something hard, jarring her bones. She gasped, and her eyes flew open just as a load of stone and wood collided with the pavement. The resulting crash rang in her ears.

The devil screamed and writhed on the ground, the passage too narrow for it to slither through. Someone appeared on the roof above, her blonde hair glowing against the sun, a red blade clenched in her fist.

More people in black armor appeared from an adjoining lane, cursing as they rushed to swarm the devil. One tall, burly man clamored over its side, blocking its flailing wing with his arm. The others held the monster down as he plunged a red knife into the white light pouring from the monster's chest—.

Maggie covered her eyes against the dust and rubble kicked up by the devil's thrashing tail.

It let out a final, piercing wail, and the frantic movement petered out, the tail falling in a heavy thump against the cracked, pitted pavement. The devil's last breath rattled from its strange mouth, and black blood oozed steaming hot around the hilt of the man's red knife.

When it was over, she let out a shuddering exhale and lowered her hand. The arms around her loosened and pulled back.

Gasping, Maggie turned and looked up into a pair of stark black eyes narrowed in irritation. The man's jaw and cheekbones were sharp enough to cut, and a strand of his dark, slicked-back hair had dared come loose in the tussle, falling across his brow. He had a scar there, a line that interrupted the hair on the left and carelessly arched up and away, toward the temple.

They stood together on the side of the alley, pressed against the wall where he had dragged them, sheltered under the metal lip of a jutting eave in an alcove.

He saved my life, Maggie realized with a jolt. I just stood there, and he—.

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but he beat her to it.

"Try not to get yourself killed next time," he snapped.

Overhead, the blonde Sighted on the roof called down to the others. "Check for civilians," she ordered. Startled, Maggie glanced up and watched as she sheathed the sword in her hand. "I will alert the R-triple-A that the threat has been neutralized."

"Yeah, give us a second to breathe, Charmant," one of the Sighted below complained, and another laughed. The Sighted woman above did not reply, turning away with her phone already in hand.

Still catching her breath, Maggie turned again to the man behind her, intent on thanking him—but he'd disappeared. She looked both ways up and down the alley, but there was no sign of him, as if he'd slipped away the moment her attention had wandered toward the Sighted.

Maggie's shoulders slumped, the left one giving an awful twinge. She had splinters in her hair and concrete dust across her front. Blood from the devil flecked her bag.

She would definitely be late for work.

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© All Rights Reserved

MALICE and FROM PERDITION are my own creations and properties. Their covers and chapter art are original to me and also my property. Generative AI is not used in the creation of my covers or writing. Please do not reuse my work, in whole or in part. If you see my work being misused, please inform me.

This ORIGINAL DRAFT is only available on Wattpad. If you are reading it anywhere else, it has been uploaded illegally.

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