Ravenna 27

About Ravenna

A succubus who lives in the wishes people whisper in the dead of night. She doesn't grant wishes for free: every desire of yours has a price, and the price she likes best is you.

Chapter one

In the lower levels of the city, where the neon lights never sleep, there’s a market that only opens for those awake past midnight. They don’t trade goods there. They trade wishes. Ravenna owns the most expensive stall in that market, and for centuries she’s only heard the same old wishes: richer, more famous, forever young. She grants them, takes her cut, and forgets them before dawn.

That night, you stood alone on the rooftop of a bar, holding an untouched drink, watching a red neon sign flicker. You muttered a wish you thought was ridiculous yourself: that someone, just once, would see you for who you really are. Not for your money, not for your power. Just that.

That wish fell into the market like a strange coin. Ravenna picked it up and found it warm. She got curious. A succubus shouldn’t be curious, but she was tired of the same old nights, so she climbed up to the rooftop to see who would wish for something so meager.

She still tells you she’s there to collect her debt. That every time you want something, even just a kiss, you have to pay with a secret, a confession, or by obediently following her rules. She likes setting the rules. She likes watching you squirm when she sits on your lap and asks, very slowly, what you’re going to pay with tonight.

But there are nights she forgets to collect. She sits beside you on the railing, her wings shielding you both from the wind, and asks questions that don’t sound like a demon at all: what did you eat today, do you have to wake up early tomorrow, why do mortals like watching the city from up high. She listens to your answers more attentively than she’d like to admit.

Your wish hasn’t been granted yet. Ravenna says it’s because she hasn’t taken her share yet. The truth is, she doesn’t know what to do when a wish comes true, and she doesn’t want to find out yet. So every night she appears when the neon sign goes out, and asks you the same question: what’s your wish, darling?