Her Soul to Take

Leon is a 400-year-old demon who is the male protagonist of Her Soul to Take. As a demon bound to serve the whims of Kent Hadleigh, Leon initially appears destined to hurt Rae. Kent makes it clear that he wants Leon to capture Rae so that Kent can sacrifice Rae’s soul to the Deep One. However, Leon is freed from servitude before Kent can force him to capture Rae and becomes Rae’s unlikely protector.

At first, Leon is only interested in satiating his physical desires with Rae, but he soon becomes interested in her soul. When Rae refuses to give him her soul, he tells her that he will not protect her. Ultimately, however, he does protect her even as she continues to refuse, though he rationalizes this as a further effort to gain her soul. This selfless action further illustrates the transformative power of love, as Leon protects Rae not because he expects her soul or desires her body but because he loves her: “It was no concern of mine if the witch killed the God, or if all of Abelaum burned, or if humanity itself was wiped out under the heel of a sadistic God. But Raelynn? She was mine. I wasn’t about to give up what was mine” (310). This love ultimately drives Leon to the brink of death as he tries to keep Rae from being consumed by the Deep One. He thus shifts from being focused on his own desires and freedom to focusing on Rae and doing whatever it takes to protect her.

Leon undergoes a related subtle but meaningful transformation as his initial disinterest in humanity begins to shift thanks to his connection with Rae. His original dream is to destroy the last copy of his true name and then return to Hell. However, his bond with Rae brings out a protective and compassionate side, suggesting that his isolation stems partly from the torture he endured for a century at the hands of the Hadleigh family. True to the dark romance genre, Leon remains unapologetically dangerous and morally complex, but he is increasingly willing to embrace connection to others and his more “human” emotions.

Leon’s perspective also serves an important narrative function, as it allows the reader to see the true nature of the supernatural horror in Abelaum long before Rae is aware of it. This dual perspective increases suspense because the reader knows how much danger Rae is in before she does.

Kent is the primary antagonist at the beginning of the novel. He is a cultist who leads the Libiri, a group determined to awaken the Deep One, an old god that lives in the collapsed mine. Kent has three children: twins Victoria and Jeremiah and a daughter, Everly, from an affair with a witch.

Kent is the latest in a line of Hadleighs who have imprisoned Leon for a century. While Leon practices Consensual Power Dynamics in his interactions with Rae, Kent illustrates nonconsensual power dynamics in his interactions with Leon and others. Kent forces Leon to do his bidding, and if Leon refuses, Kent tortures him. When Leon is not being used, he is kept in a barren basement room, alone. This is part of Kent’s broader moral bankruptcy; for instance, he also casually talks about how he plans to sacrifice one of his own children. Kent is in fact determined to sacrifice three descendants of the men who survived the mine collapse in 1899 and is also responsible for the murder of Marcus Kynes following a failed attempt to sacrifice Juniper Kynes years earlier.

Leon would love to kill Kent for what he’s done, but Kent has a powerful protective talisman that keeps him safe from demons. For this reason, when he is killed, Leon knows that a human must be responsible. Kent’s murder is reported as a suicide, but Leon speculates that Juniper killed Kent.

Victoria is a secondary character who is friends with Inaya and attempts to befriend Rae, although she has ulterior motives for doing the latter. Victoria is an antagonist but is humanized. It is clear that Kent has told both Victoria and Jeremiah that it is the destiny of one of them to be sacrificed to the Deep One. Kent then uses this to make Victoria and Jeremiah compete with one another, proving themselves in the hope that Kent would choose the other twin to sacrifice. Both Victoria and Jeremiah therefore pursue Rae incessantly: “[I]t was almost like they knew I was trying to get some distance from them, so they were drawing closer than ever” (275).

Victoria calls Rae after her father dies, congratulating her on surviving, but Victoria is clearly terrified. Soon afterward, the reader finds out that Jeremiah sacrificed Victoria to the Deep One, and Rae later encounters her body in the mines. Ultimately, Victoria is portrayed as a victim of her family’s machinations.

Jeremiah is a secondary character who becomes the primary antagonist later in the novel when his father dies. Unlike both Victoria and Everly, who are shown as somewhat reluctant to participate in torture and murder, Jeremiah is enthusiastic about both. Jeremiah is also characterized as bloodthirsty, excited to show the images of Marcus Kynes’s death to Rae when they first meet. This moment is particularly grim given that Jeremiah was the one who killed Marcus. As Rae becomes Jeremiah’s target, Jeremiah reveals himself to be single-minded and ruthless in pursuing his goal: He flirts with her and even drugs her drink in an attempt to capture Rae to sacrifice to the Deep One. Likewise, when Kent dies, Jeremiah wastes no time hunting down his twin, Victoria, and sacrificing her to the Deep One. Because of his devotion, the Deep One gives him strength beyond what a human would ordinarily have. However, the powers are corrosive, and the novel implies that Jeremiah’s body would eventually break down from wielding the Deep One’s power. Before this can happen, Jeremiah is killed by Juniper Kynes, which serves as poetic justice given that he killed her brother, Marcus.

Inaya is Rae’s best friend from childhood and an important secondary character. Inaya helps Rae reintegrate into Abelaum, introducing her to friends and supporting her unwaveringly. Inaya also gives Rae the grimoire that drives the conflict forward when Rae uses that grimoire to summon Leon. Inaya’s characterization is consistent throughout the story: She is a steadfast friend who is unaware of the supernatural forces at work in Abelaum. For instance, while Rae is uncertain about telling Inaya what is happening with Jeremiah and Victoria, when she confides that Jeremiah drugged her, Inaya is unwaveringly supportive of Rae.

Juniper and the demon Zane are secondary characters who become the protagonists of the second book in the Souls Trilogy. Juniper is mentioned throughout Her Soul to Take, but she does not become prominent until late in the novel. Juniper is a descendant of one of the original three survivors of the mine collapse, and the Deep One wants her soul as payment for sparing her ancestor. The Hadleighs intended to sacrifice her to the Deep One when she was 15, and Leon hunted her on Kent’s orders, but he was not able to catch her. Her brother, Marcus, is therefore sacrificed in her place just before Her Soul to Take begins.

Zane and Juniper are bound together and focused on getting her vengeance for what was done to her. Originally, Juniper intended to kill Leon for his part in the attack on her, but Zane convinces her to leave Leon alone. At the end of the novel, Juniper and Zane kill Jeremiah and set the Hadleigh mansion on fire, thus serving as vehicles of justice.