Eammon is the Wolf of the Wilderwood, a role that essentially means guardian and protector, though others outside the Wilderwood believe he is a monster. Eammon is the only child of Ciaran and Gaya, the first Wolves, and he inherited their power over the Wilderwood. Being an anchor for the roots of the Wilderwood gives him a supernatural strength, and when he uses the magic, he takes on different qualities: Bark temporarily grows from his skin, his eyes turn green, and he grows taller. Otherwise, Eammon has the appearance of a young man with long dark hair.

Since he is not allowed to leave the borders of the Wilderwood, Eammon spends his free time reading, whenever he is not tending to sentinels or fighting shadow creatures who have come through breaches. He can often be found in his library, studying and taking notes. He has developed a friendship with Lyra and Fife, two others who have made bargains with the Wilderwood, and the three of them live at the Keep, sharing housekeeping duties and helping the Wilderwood keep the Shadowlands contained. Eammon also has cordial relations with the people who live in the Edge. He shops there for supplies as the northern border of the forest, where the Edge is located, permits him to pass through.

Having spent centuries in relative solitude and isolation, Eammon is very guarded and self-reliant. Like Red, he is reserved and does not display much emotion or sentiment. This independence, however, along with his role as a Wolf, have made Eammon feel entirely responsible for everything that happens in the Wilderwood. He feels it is his fault that the forest drained the other Second Daughters because he could not carry out the task of protection entirely on his own.

Eammon learns during the course of the story that it is actually beneficial to have a partner, and that the magic works better when there are two people to carry the roots. Learning to share this burden allows him to be more human and to express his love for Red. He finally comes to regard her as an equal partner and not an additional person he has to shelter and protect.

Neverah Valedren is Red’s twin, known as “Neve,” the older sister by a few minutes. She, like Red, is stubborn and determined, but even more so than Red, she will fight to change something she doesn’t like. She can accept that, as First Daughter, it is her role to become Queen of Valleyda, and she accepts that Arick is chosen as her Consort, though she loves Raffe. However, Neve cannot accept that Red must be sacrificed to the Wilderwood simply because she is the Second Daughter, and rescuing Red is her initial motivation for working with Kiri in the shrine.

As Neve gains power, both as Queen and through the magic she is able to glean from the Shadowlands, she realizes she enjoys having influence and being able to enact her will. She’s aware that her power is potentially destructive but continues with the work because she is focused on her goal of getting Red back. Neve, like her sister, understands the concept of sacrifice, as she is willing to give up a relationship with Raffe at Arick’s command. She performs another sacrifice at the end when she pulls magic away from the trees of Solmir’s inverted shrine in order to interrupt his ritual. Neve’s coffin sinking beneath the ground of the grove, and her waking up in the Shadowlands, sets up the premise for the second book in the series, For the Throne.

Kiri is initially a high-ranking priestess of the shrine of Valleyda who becomes High Priestess after she murders Queen Isla and the previous High Priestess, Zophia. Kiri is the one who learns how to draw power from the Shadowlands. She is cold, ambitious, ruthless, and not squeamish about shedding blood or taking life.

Her role is a contrast to Red’s and Eammon’s work as guardians, as Kiri wants to acquire magic for her own purposes. Her partnership with Solmir is an inverted reflection of Red and Eammon’s partnership, just as Neve’s work to weaken the Wilderwood is an inverse and opposite to Red’s work at protection. Kiri’s pendant, the white wood veined with shadow, is an early hint that she is an antagonistic force and working in opposition to the Wolves.

Solmir enters the story only in the last act, but he is an antagonistic force throughout, and his name is equated with danger and threat. Solmir was one of the original Five Kings who tried to renege on their bargain with the Wilderwood and were imprisoned in the Shadowlands as a result. Solmir was initially betrothed to marry Gaya, but she fell in love with Ciaran and went to live with him in the Wilderwood. Gaya’s attempt to free Solmir was what caused the Wilderwood to drain her of life, as the forest needed her power to keep Solmir contained. The shadow creatures who emerge at various times forewarn the protagonists of Solmir’s return.

Arick’s attempt to bargain with the Wilderwood frees Solmir, who becomes a foil to and inverted mirror to the other man when he takes on Arick’s appearance while using Arick’s blood to continue their ritual. Solmir is represented as the malignant, destructive force that Eammon has been trying all along to contain, and his banishment at the end restores the balance the Wolves have been trying to hold. Solmir’s attachment to Neve, however, suggests that he will play a role in the next book, For the Throne.

Arick is a supporting character who proves an unwitting pawn of the forces of the Shadowlands. Arick passionately loves Red and believes that she loves him in return, even if she did not express this. He is a representation of the doomed nature of unrequited love and the torment and pain it can cause a person.

With the best of intentions, Arick’s purposes become warped, and he is not strong enough to break free of Solmir on his own. It takes dying by suicide to sever the bond between them so that Solmir can be defeated. That Arick willingly chooses his death echoes the sacrifice that other characters have made, and his choice rights the initial error and allows Solmir to be defeated.

Raffe is a supporting character who further represents the power of love and the choices one will make to help a beloved. Like Arick, he has been a friend to the sisters from a young age, and like Arick, he is in love with the sister he can’t have: Raffe is the son of a Meducian wine merchant and so not an appropriate consort for Neve, though he loves her anyway.

Raffe participates in the final climactic action when he comes to the Keep in search of Neve and then joins the group in their effort to stop Solmir and Kiri from releasing the remaining Kings. Raffe is the one who overpowers Kiri, though he doesn’t kill her. He is frustrated and furious that he cannot release Neve, and it can be assumed that, like Red, he will never stop searching for Neve, speaking further to the power of unrequited love.

Lyra is a supporting character and one of the people whom Red meets when she comes to live at the Keep. Lyra carries a sharp, curved sword called a tor. She is practical, efficient, and, like the others, unsentimental. She sheds her blood into vials which she carries and sprinkles on infected sentinels of the Wilderwood to help heal them, though she acknowledges that her blood is not as powerful as Eammon’s.

Lyra was originally from Meducia, Raffe’s country. When the plague came, Lyra’s younger brother became ill. Lyra bargained with the Wilderwood, offering her life in return for a cure. Her bargain was accepted, and Lyra gained a Mark and was made a guardian of the Wilderwood, unable to leave. In gratitude for her sacrifice, her town erected a statue in her honor, and she is known as “the Plaguebreaker.”

Lyra has become attached to Fife in their work as fellow guardians, and their partnership at the end of the novel echoes the partnership between Eammon and Red. Being freed of her Mark at the end of the book means Lyra is free to make her own choices about her future, speaking to one of the novel’s central themes.