Magic Stone

Meet László, an eight-hundred-year-old demon and the least productive curse manager in all of Hell. From his office beneath Midtown, he oversees the Drakeford Curse, which involves one unfortunate family in upstate New York and a mysterious Black Stone. The curse itself is unusually appealing—it dates back to colonial times and turns its victims into monstrous creatures—but László makes no effort to maximise its potential. He'd rather be lounging in Ibiza, downing martinis, and swindling tricksters on the New York subway. Unfortunately, his office undergoes a change in management, and László's performance review is so appallingly bad that he's given six days to fix things or he'll be mercilessly melted down and returned to the Primordial Slime.

Enter Maggie Drakeford, the nineteen-year-old curse-bearer. She has only ever known a bleak corner of the Catskill Mountains, where the Drakeford Curse has consumed her father's humanity and is rapidly beginning to claim hers. The future looks hopeless until László appears outside the Drakeford house one October night and announces they have a mere six days to break the curse, or he will torment them for all eternity.