Succubus Diaries: 1. The Inheritance

The letter arrived in the middle of a storm.

Rain lashed against the cracked windowpanes of my tiny apartment, the thunder growling like some caged animal in the clouds. I had been curled up on my sagging couch, drowning in student debt and instant noodles, when I heard the mail slot rattle. Bills, maybe. More bad news. I almost didn’t get up.

But there it was: a thick cream envelope, wax-sealed in crimson, my name written in looping script that looked too extravagant for the likes of me.

“Miss Eveline Blackthorn.”

I froze at the sight of my last name. No one used it anymore. Not since Mother changed it after my aunt—her estranged sister—vanished from the family record like a scandal better forgotten.

I cracked the seal with trembling fingers.

“To Miss Eveline Blackthorn, the rightful heir—

It is with great regret and greater duty that we inform you of the passing of Madam Selene Blackthorn. By blood and by writ, her estate and her establish