The Characters

Katya Stevens

The Balancer

Eighteen-year-old Bostonian Katya Stevens just wants a normal life — but she possesses a rare prophetic power that can bring balance between the living and the dead. She can see the dead in their most grotesque forms, a gift she never asked for and spent years ignoring. When she meets Gregor and is pulled into the hidden war against The Want, she must choose between the life she knows and the destiny she cannot outrun. Her power is not a weapon — it is a responsibility. And it may cost her everything she is.

Gregor

Major, Kyrios (Grim Reaper)

Scottish, ancient by any human measure, and bound to a war most people will never see. Gregor is a Kyrios — one of the Grim Reapers tasked with maintaining the balance between the living world and the dead. He is Katya's guardian, confidant, and the person who first tells her the truth about what she is. His love for her is as complicated as his duty. He stands by her not because he was assigned to, but because she is worth standing by.

Cynthia

Katya's Best Friend & Power Made Flesh

Cynthia appears to be Katya's best friend — and she is. But she is also something more, and stranger: a portion of Katya's own power, made flesh because Katya's body could not contain it. She exists because Katya needed her. That truth, when it comes, reshapes everything about their friendship — and everything about what Katya understands of herself.

Lamar

General, Kyrios

The warm, reassuring general who oversees security at Ager. Dark-skinned and kind-eyed, he is the general Katya instinctively trusts most, quick with a sympathetic word when the others press her too hard

Nabil

Lead General, Kyrios

Head General of the Kyrios. He oversees everything in Ager and is one of the few who speaks directly with God. Charming, calculating, and unsettlingly smooth, with dark curls and a smile that never quite reassures. He has little patience for the Archs

Michiko

General, Kyrios

General of Scouting and Intelligence. Soft-spoken and elegant, with almond-shaped eyes and midnight hair. She is the scholar among the generals, and it is her research that finally uncovers what Katya truly is.

Raf

General, Kyrios

Raf runs combat training in Ager, and he does it his own way, which mostly means coming at you full force until you learn to defend yourself. Silver-white hair, ice-blue eyes, and a face and arms marked with old scars give him the look of someone who has been fighting for centuries. Under the menace he is sharp, patient in his own brutal way, and one of the first to believe Katya might actually be the Balancer.

Young Jae

Lieutenant, Kyrios

The easygoing Korean Kyrios lieutenant who first shows Katya around Ager. Dark-haired and quick to grin, he walks Katya through the realm's history and is one of her warmer early guides. A nice detail he reveals: thanks to Ager's power, all tongues speak as one, so he speaks only Korean while Katya hears him perfectly.