Imani

Ninety pounds, twenty years old, scrubs and a magical cloak, a longsword, and twelve crawler-killer skulls: the residents the monsters would otherwise have burned (ch. 22). She says nothing until the end of that chapter — 'And how are we going to do that?' — and rarely more afterwards, but she is the competence in every plan: stabbing through the Speedbump's ceiling in tears (ch. 26), the 300-foot chain that makes the residents' train possible (ch. 37), the observation that opening the safe-room door is the way past the elemental (ch. 40). She is the one who sits down and shows Carl how to use the pedicure kit (ch. 32). Her last image in the book is the recap's: pausing at the third-floor entrance to raise a middle finger at the ceiling (ch. 44).

Named once, in Brandon's message: she and Chris did not stay human (ch. 8).

An Obsidian Butterfly Fire Spiritualist, skull-painted, twelve feet of ethereal wings that buff whoever they pass (ch. 8). The last of the kids, still a babysitter to twenty; she tells Carl about Chris before Chris finds him (ch. 8), confirms the coupon book and that Donut came to her (ch. 18), and is 'a big gossip' (ch. 20). She finds the Pooka dens (ch. 12), the conveyor and the province boss at 48 (ch. 18, ch. 22), leads the stand at 36, chains the crane (ch. 31), and says the thing that stops a goat and a man: 'Both of you put your dicks away' (ch. 32). 'Bitch, what?'

In another bubble all floor, in chat: sailing a boat with twenty people who never sailed (ch. 2), crashing it, an orc oil rig that shoots fireballs (ch. 5), an oil cannon and Elle's Graupel as the backup. She asks Carl not to kill Chris — 'He's still Brandon's brother' (ch. 10) — refuses to relay his request to die (ch. 14), and insists he be saved. Her rule for the rescues: no bubble is emptied unless every survivor can come (ch. 32). 'Send me a message, one way or the other' (ch. 33); Carl's answer: 'He's safe. It worked' (ch. 34).

Guildmaster of Safehome Yolanda (ch. 20, ch. 21), coordinating the community map (ch. 9), flying and mummified and on fire over a raid (ch. 21); the one who tells Carl 'You're abandoning us' when he means to take Donut down the stairs early (ch. 52). She runs the main team on the hunter raids (ch. 60), catches a doll head without flinching (ch. 62), is given a hammer over Borant's denied appeal (ch. 63), cannot keep going to the bathroom (ch. 65), and spends the party near a breakdown held together by chat (ch. 70). She laughs on stage doing an old-folks'-home skit with Elle, not yet knowing Gideon is dead, and offers to break the seal herself (ch. 73). Falling into the pit she is a beacon of counterspells on butterfly wings (ch. 76); at the end she heals Carl and hugs him in the same motion (ch. 77).

Diagnoses Katia's drugs from Bautista's excuses (ch. 28) and cures them, coldly (ch. 30); is given only Detroit, where she grew up, and the home of someone she knew (ch. 38). Her whole squad dies at the ninth token — possessed into fighting, frozen by Randall, melted by her own Amhuluk's poison — and she gets four player-killer skulls for it and never faces her family home (ch. 52). Two choices for phase three: Cuba, or Elle (ch. 52). She feeds slugs to demons (ch. 61, ch. 62), refuses Carl's key — 'People have bones for a reason' (ch. 63) — will not leave Tran under the rubble (ch. 70), and wraps them in her wings under a neon X: 'We gain things, and we lose them. That's what happens in war' (ch. 72).

Guild leader, and the one who marks the airports (ch. 6); the healer who pulls Carl and Katia apart too late (ch. 16) and slaps him awake from a psionic collapse (ch. 65); wings that give Blessings, a buff nobody has felt before, and a hug for Chris with her wings, not her arms (ch. 23, ch. 65). She casts Carl's Tripper from an ankle tattoo drawn in his blood (ch. 47), refuses Li Na the second ring (ch. 57), delivers Kiwi's twins ('Bucket Boy, if you're going to vomit, do it outside') and forbids a word about drowning them (ch. 82), and shields Elle, Holger and the strippers from a nuke with a wing-shield Carl has not seen before (ch. 80). In the dream's backsplash Carl sees what she carries: Detroit, a family that blamed her, a nursing certificate in the middle of nowhere, being the youngest in the room and always in charge, and Chris (ch. 69).