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character

Holiday

Holiday ti Nakamura · Nakamura

The flint-hard Howler, held back from the rescue for her ties to Ephraim, who reveals his tragic past and shows Lyria unexpected small kindness.

Story so far

Kept from the rescue mission by Mustang—ostensibly for exhaustion, truly for her bond to Ephraim—Holiday watches the ships return with Lyria. She unspools Ephraim's history: a Sons recruiter and scar hunter who joined after her brother Trigg died, who once trained the oppressed to fight back, until a trap in Endymion saw his men skinned alive before him and the killer walk free on a Sovereign's pardon. 'Ephraim wants to die, but he can't.

That's his curse'—which is why she took Volga, because he couldn't bear to watch another friend die. Made 'all of flint and iron,' without visible regret, she nonetheless softens by a hair for Lyria, agreeing to sneak the girl's nephew Liam chocolate and claim it's from her. Her hard exterior hides a grief for Trigg she will never show.

Appearance

A stocky Gray woman with exhausted narrow eyes and hard-lined features, made 'less a woman than a shovel or an axe'; worn and sleepless.

Role

The Sovereign's Howler; Ephraim's estranged sister-in-law who reveals his curse and shows Lyria rare, gruff warmth.

Relationships

Ephraim — Her brother-in-law, whose tragic past she recounts and whose weakness she exploited by taking Volga.
TriggBk 3 — Her dead younger brother, once Ephraim's love, the unhealed wound between them.
Lyria — The witness to whom she shows an unexpected, grudging kindness over her nephew Liam.
Volga — The giant she captured as leverage, knowing Ephraim could not bear to lose another friend.

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Sources — 5 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 1
  • Snub-nosed Gray legionnaire and Howler, Darrow's steadfast bodyguard and Trigg's surviving sister.
Chapter 13
  • Snub-nosed Gray Howler and Trigg's sister; Darrow's bodyguard, now on a task force hunting the Syndicate.
Chapter 43
  • Stocky Howler and Sovereign's envoy who arrests the witness Lyria and runs her gauntlet to the Citadel through Victra's assault.
Chapter 50
  • The Howler envoy who discovers the kidnapper is her own brother-in-law Ephraim, then corners and recruits him to lead the rescue.
Chapter 58
  • The flint-hard Howler, held back from the rescue for her ties to Ephraim, who reveals his tragic past and shows Lyria unexpected small kindness.
Character portrait