Chapter 1
Woke up and my first thought was okay I feel fine actually.
Which was weird because the last thing I remembered was a car hitting me at full speed on a wet street and that is not normally the kind of thing you feel fine after.
I sat up.
Cave. Big one. Red light coming from somewhere under the floor. Dark everywhere except for that red. Cold stone under my hands.
I looked at my hands.
Grey.
Both of them grey all the way to my fingernails which had gone completely black.
I stared at them for a moment.
Then I thought okay so I am dead then. That actually happened. The car thing was real and I am genuinely dead and this is wherever you go after.
I looked around the cave again. The red light. Broken stuff on the floor chains paper a shoe a ring. The ceiling so high up I could not see it.
I thought this does not look like heaven.
Then I thought actually this looks like I got reincarnated into something. I have read enough of these stories online to recognise the setup. Dead person strange place some kind of power waiting for them.
I thought oh.
And honestly my next thought and I am not proud of this but I am also not going to lie about it my next thought was my previous life was nothing. Unemployed broke no girlfriend died jumping in front of a car for a woman whose name I did not even know.
And then I thought this time is going to be different.
I stood up. My legs worked fine. My body felt stronger than before. I patted myself down coat boots trousers three coins in the pocket. Okay. Starting funds.
Then I saw the book.
Floating right in front of me. Dark cover purple black silver lines running through it just sitting there in the air waiting for me to notice it.
I took it. Obviously I took it. It was clearly mine.
The second I touched it the cave shook and something went into me that felt like swallowing a rock whole and then the rock turned warm and melted and words appeared on the cover burning themselves in one by one.
THE CONTRACT LEDGER
Property of Lucien Ash Devil First Rank
Active Contracts 0
Soul Integrity 100 percent
I read it.
Devil I thought. I came back as a devil. Okay.
I opened the book and read the margin notes. Rules about contracts. Both sides agree. Equal value. Breaking it hurts your soul. Strong people can twist the wording.
I read about half of it properly and then I got to the part about power ranks Ash Devil all the way up to Demon King and I stopped reading the rules and started thinking about the ranks instead.
Demon King I thought.
I thought about that for a moment.
Then I thought yes. Yes that sounds correct actually.
I closed the book and looked for the way out. Found it by pressing on walls until one felt thin which sounds stupid but worked immediately and then I was through it and standing in cold night air with pine trees everywhere and a moon above me and the sound of a river somewhere close.
New world. Fresh start. Grey skin which was a bit unfortunate but manageable. Magic book. Three coins. Strong body.
Women I thought. Riches. Power. Become something so significant that the previous life becomes like a bad dream that happened to someone else.
Simple enough plan.
I walked toward the river.
I found the road about forty minutes later.
And I found trouble about thirty seconds after that.
Five men. A wagon pulled across the road blocking it completely. Two horses nervous moving around in their harness. Torches. The sounds of people going through cargo boxes without any particular hurry.
And kneeling in the road with her hands tied behind her
I stopped.
She was okay she was very beautiful. Dark hair high cheekbones this expression on her face like she was furious and thinking at the same time. A bruise on her jaw that she appeared to be completely ignoring.
I looked at her for probably three seconds longer than was necessary.
Then I thought I should help her.
And I want to be clear that this was a logical decision. She had a wagon. She clearly had connections. She would be grateful. These were all practical and reasonable considerations and they are the reasons I walked toward those five armed men with absolutely nothing on me except a book and three coins and the general feeling that things would probably work out.
The book pressed something against my palm from the inside of the cover. Text forming in the margins urgent. I did not read it. I had already decided.
Oy. The big man with the torch turned around. Forties wide the kind of face that had been through a lot. Keep walking.
Hey I said. I want to buy her. The girl. Not like I mean I want to get her out. From you. Pay you.
The man stared at me.
One of the swordsmen made a sound that was almost a laugh.
You want to buy her the torch man said slowly.
Yes. Like a business deal. I give you something you give her to me everyone is happy. I held up the book. I can do a magic thing. A contract. Keep you safe. For a whole year. All five of you.
Complete silence on the road.
The woman was looking at me now with an expression I could not fully read. Something between hope and the specific look a person gets when they are not sure whether the situation has improved or just become more complicated.
The torch man looked at the book. Something about it made him go still.
What kind of safe he said.
Like you will not die I said. For a year. Nothing can kill you. That kind of safe.
This was I want to note a significant overstatement of what the contract actually covered. I had read maybe half the rules. I was filling in the rest from confidence.
The torch man looked at me for a long time.
What are you he said quietly.
I am a devil I said. But like a good one. Sort of. I am new.
His name was Garrett Mole and he pressed his thumb to the contract page with the slow and considering manner of a man who was making what he believed to be a smart decision.
The book sang when it sealed. Low and deep one note felt in my back teeth.
Active Contracts 1
Soul Integrity 98 percent
Two percent gone already. I looked at that number and thought fine. Worth it. First deal done road is clear woman is free. Strong start.
I climbed back onto Mira Calloways wagon that was her name she told me while cutting the rope off her wrists with a knife she had hidden in her sleeve the whole time apparently feeling genuinely good about how the first hour of my new life had gone.
The woman was beautiful and capable and had a wagon and connections and owed me a favour.
The contract was done.
The road was open.
I thought this is going well. I am good at this.
Twenty minutes later the book fell open on my lap by itself.
I looked down.
CONTRACT ALERT Garrett Mole is currently dying.
I stared at that.
Natural causes. Choking. His companions are not helping. Estimated time under four minutes.
I read the word natural.
I thought about the contract which said unnatural death. I thought about how I had read half the rules and filled the rest in with confidence. I thought about how I had told the man nothing could kill him for a year.
I thought oh no.
Stop the wagon I said.
Mira stopped it without asking why.
I was running before it had fully stopped.
I found the camp by the firelight and the sound of men doing nothing useful while their captain turned the colour of a bruised plum on his knees by the fire with both hands at his throat.
I crossed the camp grabbed him from behind and did the Heimlich maneuver three times with everything I had.
Third try a piece of dried jerky came out of his throat at speed and hit one of his men directly in the forehead.
Garrett Mole dropped against me sucking in huge ragged breaths. His men stood in a circle staring. The one who got hit by the jerky touched his forehead very slowly.
I put the man down. I straightened up. I looked at everyone looking at me.
I did not say anything because there was nothing to say that would not make me sound like an idiot.
I walked back to the wagon.
The book had new text in the margin when I climbed back up.
The word unnatural requires revision in all future survival contracts.
I read this.
I thought yes. That is fair. That is a reasonable note.
Ashwell was a proper town walls gate torches market sounds people still moving around even this late. Mira got me a room at an inn called The Copper Hinge which smelled like old beer and sawdust and felt almost comforting after the cave and the road and the dying bandit.
She put fifteen silver on the table between us.
Three days she said. I am going north after. If you want to talk business before then.
Yes I said. Definitely yes.
She looked at me for a moment with those dark measuring eyes.
You did okay tonight she said. Roughly.
I accepted this. It was accurate. I had survived my first hour made a contract freed the woman earned fifteen silver and nobody was dead. That was a strong start by any measure.
I went upstairs and sat on the bed in the dark and opened the book and read the parts I had skipped before.
First Rank devil without protection has average lifespan of six weeks.
Four Senior Devils in this region. Detection within three weeks.
First contractor is a convicted murderer.
I read all of this. I thought about six weeks. I thought about three weeks. I thought about convicted murderer.
Then I thought okay but I handled the road situation. I handled the choking situation. Six weeks is a long time. Three weeks is enough time to build something solid. And Garrett Moles past was not information I had at the time of the contract so that is not really my fault.
Things were moving in the right direction.
I lay back on the bed still in my coat.
Through the window the crescent moon was moving slowly across the sky small and pale and not caring at all about any of this.
I thought about the woman with the freckles back in my old world the one I had died for. I thought about how I never learned her name.
Then I thought about Mira Calloways dark eyes and her knife hidden in her sleeve and the way she had cut that rope off her own wrists with the flat efficiency of someone who had already decided she was getting herself out regardless of whether I showed up or not.
I thought I am going to be very successful in this world.
I closed my eyes.
I woke up to the sound of my window moving.
No wind. Just the quiet careful shift of the shutter like someone making the smallest possible adjustment to something.
I was on my feet with the book in my hand before I was fully awake.
I went to the window and looked down into the stable yard.
A woman. Standing in the exact center of it looking directly up at my window. Silver hair long and loose. Long dark coat. Maybe twenty years old or maybe much older the kind of face where the number kept changing the longer you looked at it.
She was not surprised to see me. That was the first thing I noticed. She was looking up with the expression of someone who had already known I would be there.
In her left hand she was holding a piece of paper loosely at her side.
Even from up here even in the dark of very early morning I could see my name on it in silver ink.
I could see the thumbprint already at the bottom.
A contract. Already signed on her side. Waiting only for mine.
She looked up at me.
And I thought she is extremely beautiful.
And then almost in the same breath I thought this is clearly a business opportunity.
I put on my coat and went downstairs.