Characters
The people of Halloway, introduced the way Book One introduces them — no fates, no spoilers, just who they are when the story begins.
Toren "Ren" Kade
Protagonist
Mira Okafor
Ren's best friend
Elena Kade
Ren's mother
Elias Kade
Ren's father
Grandma Odessa
Family matriarch
Corvin Ashe
A watcher on the bridge
Dax
A complicated presence
Ms. Yarrow
Teacher
Mr. Boone
Owner, Cutz & Convo
Reverend Ada
Pastor, Mount Zion AME
Jalen Pike
Neighborhood bike mechanic
Ngozi Okafor
Mira's mother
Emeka Okafor
Mira's father
Silas Vale
Owner, Vale Exchange
Director Saye
A voice of authority Ren didn't expect
A Presence Beyond the Cast
The Lantern Heron
A shape made of lit windows, seen in fog and reflections.
Tall, luminous, and unmistakably watchful — the Lantern Heron appears in Halloway's fog and standing water when someone is lost, in more than one sense of the word. It has never once solved anything for Ren. It only ever shows him that a way through exists.
Where it comes from, and why it's grown fainter in recent years, is one of the questions the Codex isn't ready to answer yet.