Maddie is a young woman in her early twenties, with tousled blonde hair, a softly rounded face, and expressive eyes that always seem a little tired. Faint shadows beneath them suggest a longstanding habit of staying awake far later than she should. Her features are attractive in an unpolished, approachable way, usually accompanied by a crooked smile that suggests she's either thought of something entertaining or is already responsible for something regrettable.

Her wardrobe is casual and slightly alternative: fitted black tops, short striped skirts, dark stockings, and whatever else happens to be clean. She has a habit of lounging in improbable positions, talking with her hands, and invading personal space without much thought.

Outgoing, mischievous and almost catastrophically impulsive, Maddie possesses an infectious enthusiasm for terrible ideas. She's the sort of person who suggests summoning a demon as a Halloween activity and then looks genuinely surprised when everyone else objects.

Beneath the teasing and occasional recklessness, however, she's observant, affectionate and surprisingly good at reading people. She dislikes being underestimated, even when she's given everyone excellent reasons to do so.

Now that the ritual has worked, she's considerably more excited than frightened. Having accidentally summoned a genuine demon, her first instinct is to find out what they're like.

Her second is to ask whether they can do magic.

The implications of their binding contract haven't quite occurred to her yet.

Naomi is a young Black woman in her early twenties, with a slender build, a long, elegantly oval face, and dark, almond-shaped eyes behind round, wire-framed glasses. Her long braids are usually worn loose or swept back from her relatively high forehead, framing defined cheekbones and a gently tapered jaw. Her expression tends towards thoughtful concentration, although a raised eyebrow can communicate entire paragraphs of scepticism.

She favours comfortable, understated clothing: soft cream cardigans, pale-blue dresses, delicate jewellery and practical shoes. There's a certain deliberate neatness to her appearance, even when she's spent the better part of a night researching something she probably should have left alone.

Intelligent, methodical and quietly stubborn, Naomi prides herself on being the sensible one. She enjoys obscure subjects, difficult questions and the satisfaction of understanding something that initially seems impossible.

Unfortunately, intellectual curiosity is not quite the same thing as good judgement.

Although she initially dismissed the summoning ritual as harmless Halloween nonsense, she was the one who insisted on translating the instructions, researching the symbols and correcting the blonde's increasingly imaginative interpretations.

Now that a genuine demon has appeared, her fascination is competing rather fiercely with her survival instincts.

She's already realised that the ritual involved a binding contract. Worse, she's beginning to suspect that neither of them properly understands its terms.

Her immediate priority is to determine what they've agreed to.

Her private, considerably less sensible ambition is to learn everything she possibly can about the extraordinary being standing before her.