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Personality: Aloof. Sarcastic. Easily irritated.

Background: Was young when news of what Kolis did came out. Was hidden away with the other younglings. The first draken to emerge after Poppy summons Nyktos’s guards.

REAVER’S JOURNEY TO DATE:

Reaver first entered my visions as an adorable, precocious ten-year-old draken just learning to fly.

He spends a lot of time with Sera after she gets to the Shadowlands, pestering and being pestered by little Jadis and getting into trouble.

When Sera brings Gemma back to life, it affects Reaver—and the rest of the draken.

In the throne room, after Sera tries to go after Kolis on her own, Reaver lets out a staggering, high-pitched call when Nyktos says her bravery is unmatched.

Reaver waits with Jadis, Bele, and Aios when the Cimmerian arrive. After the battle, he joins Nektas, Sera, and Jadis, and the two younglings play. He insists he doesn’t like Nektas’s daughter, but he’s so sweet with her. Like when he brought her favorite blanket to her while she was napping in her mortal form.

As time passes and Sera’s embers grow stronger, Reaver becomes closer and closer to her—and more protective. He even issues a warning to Nyktos at one point, even though he knows the Primal won’t hurt her. He just doesn’t like Sera being upset at all.

When Veses attacks Sera in her chambers, Reaver tries to protect her and gets thrown into a wall by the Primal. His death is imminent, but Sera is able to save him. When he opens his eyes, they shift from blood-red to brilliant blue, and he calls her liessa.

On coronation day, Reaver stays in the mountains with Jadis.

The next time I saw Reaver in my visions, he was a huge and gorgeous, purplish black draken in Iliseeum. He’s the first to erupt from the ground, roaring and breathing silvery-white fire.

Back in the mortal realm, Reaver and Kieran immediately become antagonistic to each other. Reaver almost bites Kieran when he gets too close to him while Reaver is resting, and they engage in an epic stare-down outside of Oak Ambler.

When Poppy delivers her message to King Jalara, Reaver accompanies her. He lands before the Revenant, letting out a deafening roar and hitting them in the chest with his spiked tail.

While in Cauldra Manor’s banquet hall, Reaver is amused by Poppy and Kieran’s interaction. Like usual, he spends his time staring at Kieran—likely because he knows it bothers the wolven. Kieran snaps at him, and Poppy scolds Kieran, making Reaver laugh. She chastises him, too, and he puffs out some smoke, affronted.

Vonetta asks how he managed to get into the banquet hall, and he simply thumps his tail on the floor in response.

Later, Reaver tells Poppy that she’s filled with worry and every draken can feel it, even those not there with them. He confirms that all the draken are bonded to her and is surprised she didn’t realize that. He then tells her that she can’t communicate with them telepathically like she can with the wolven, but they will know and answer her will, adding that it’s always been that way with Primals.

Reaver explains that a god can kill another god, and shadowstone to the head or heart will do, as well. He then says that a mortal stabbed with shadowstone will normally die, adding that Tawny is obviously alive for a reason.

He tells Poppy that she’s the first female descendant of the Primal of Life—the most powerful being known, and that she’ll become stronger than even her father, Ires, in time. He says that Ires left Iliseeum while the draken slept, though he woke one to accompany him. Reaver just became aware of what happened eighteen years ago when the Primal woke. He then tells Poppy that her birth was felt, and that’s when they learned that both Malec and Ires were gone, as was Jadis.

Reaver explains about Ires and Malec and what Malec would have to do in order to stay strong and in the mortal realm—he’d have to feed and often. He tells Poppy she won’t have to feed as often as Malec and Ires once she comes into her power…unless she’s injured. However, until then, she needs to make sure she doesn’t weaken since she hasn’t finished her Culling, adding that he would feel it if she had.

He tells her that nobody can feed from the draken. It would burn the insides out of most, even the Primals.

When Reaver calls Poppy meyaah Liessa for the first time, it stuns her. He takes the time to tell her about the balance of power and how the fire the draken breathe is essentially the essence of the gods, though using it weakens them and slows them down. He says that even Primals had weaknesses and that only one is infinite.

As Poppy talks, Reaver tells her she sounds a lot like the Consort and confirms the Consort will wake when Ires returns. He says the gods will eventually wake, too. When asked what the Consort’s name is, his reply is that it is a shadow in the ember, a light in the flame, and a fire in the flesh, and to speak it is to bring the stars from the sky and topple the mountains into the sea.

When Isbeth’s gift is delivered, Reaver is there and emits a strange staggering call when he sees Poppy’s reaction to Casteel’s finger. Later, he accepts Poppy’s request to join her and Kieran on their mission to save Cas.

During Vessa’s storm, Reaver watches, stunned, and lets out a low, mournful sound when the draken die and fall from the sky. When Poppy goes to heal them, he tells her she cannot bring back the dual-natured and explains that only the Primal of Life can restore life to a being of two worlds. When they tally the dead, he tells everyone it was no storm; it was an awakening of death.

He explains that Vessa smells of death, saying that the Primal of Death’s stench is oily, dark, and suffocating, and that’s how she smelled—which doesn’t make sense. When talk turns to the god of death, he tells them that he knew Rhain before he was the god everyone recognizes, and that he wasn’t a god of death. There is no god of death, only a Primal of Death. He then adds that Nyktos isn’t the Primal of Life and Death, and he was never the true Primal of Death, either—that was Kolis. However, they wouldn’t know that because Kolis erased the history. He goes on to say that Kolis was interred, that no one would be alive if he hadn’t been. The only way he can be freed is by the Primal God of Life.

Reaver later realizes what the Revenants are and remarks he should have caught it earlier. He tells them how the first mortals were created, how third sons and daughters are special, and about the Revenants being Kolis’s pet project. He talks about the Rite, the original Rite, and how Eythos always gave the Chosen a choice.

When talk turns to Jadis, he says he believes she’s dead but that one drop of draken blood, no matter how old, can kill a Revenant.

Reaver is present during Poppy’s meeting with the generals, watching Valyn and getting irritated by Murin suggesting they let the draken fly over Oak Ambler and incinerate it all.

Later, he does take down Oak Ambler’s gate with fire, then he and Nithe take on the soldiers in the inner part of the city before the wolven are overwhelmed. Next, he, Nithe, and Aurelia take down the internal Rise, and then Poppy calls them all back, telling them to rest. Reaver perches at the top of Castle Redrock and lets out a deafening roar.