Children of Blood and Bone

Princes Amari is the youngest child of King Saran. Amari serves as another first-person narrator of the novel, and the secondary protagonist. She is described as having amber eyes and copper skin. She also has scars on her back from when she and her brother were forced to spar with real swords as children and she was almost killed. Although her hair is black for most of the novel, on the final page she is revealed to have a white streak in her hair, indicating her newfound magical abilities.

Amari also spends much of the novel ruled by fear. In the beginning, she is most frightened of her father, experiencing panic when approaching him: “My heart beats in my throat as I slow before Father’s throne room, the room I fear most” (38). She has experienced physical and emotional abuse, leaving her traumatized and in terror. It is not until the death of her friend Binta that she finds strength to rebel against him and his ideas, leading her to steal the scroll, the first step of the novel’s rising action. Despite her moments of clarity and rebellion, it is still a long journey for Amari to claim her strength and her bravery. She consistently relies on her friends to find her strength, such as when Zélie falls unconscious and she must defend her against incoming combatants. When Zélie is kidnapped, Amari fully steps into her own, possessing power and agency as she claims the crown and rallies the divîner community to her cause.

Amari and Zélie spend part of the book at odds with each other, the result of Amari’s parentage and Zélie’s combined fear and rage. They fight often, but their dislike of each other fades both in the wake of their shared goal and their efforts to connect. It is through this effort that they can build a friendship that provides them with unique perspectives. By being comfortable with each other, they are also able to challenge each other’s viewpoints, enabling growth both as individuals and as friends.

Amari maintains the ability to see the beauty in the world throughout the novel, even in the face of great horror and tragedy. When Zélie struggles with the idea of giving magic to everyone following her own accidental abuse of power, Amari is the one who comforts her and shows her the positive side of magic again. Similarly, when Tzain despairs because Zélie has been kidnapped, Amari is the one to comfort him and develop a plan. Her positivity and faith do not waver, which allows her to be a consistent source of reassurance for others and to challenge her father at the end of the novel. Amari’s vision of the future, paired with her work to overcome her trauma, leads her to the conclusion that she would be a better leader than her father. She kills him both to avenge all the people he has harmed and to ensure a better future for everyone, highlighting her development from the beginning of the novel. At the book’s close, she has not only inherited the throne but also magic, representing her full autonomy. 

Prince Inan is the son of King Saran and his second wife, and Amari’s older brother. He serves as the novel’s third first-person narrator and is ambivalently portrayed as both an ally of the protagonists and an antagonist. He is described as “tall, handsome in his uniform,” with copper skin and amber eyes that are like Amari’s (35). Inan’s hair is black but begins to turn white when his magic is awoken. He attempts to dye the white spots black, but the dye rarely lasts for more than a few hours, leading him to wear his helmet as much as possible.

Under his father’s influence, Inan developed beliefs that magic was to be feared and that the country must come before all other desires. Beginning at a young age, Inan was put into situations to prove his loyalty to the King and his country, such as being forced to spar with his sister with sharpened swords. He has a long history of following his father’s orders, rooted in his desire for his father’s approval and affection, which becomes a recurrent theme for Inan to overcome. When he accidentally kills Kaea in a state of panic, his initial thoughts are that “Father can never know. This monstrosity never occurred. Maybe Father could’ve overlooked me being a maji, but he will never forgive this” (232). His need for his father’s approval colors his interactions with Zélie before their collaboration, driving him to want to kill her.

As Inan and Zélie work together, he is exposed to her emotions and her memories. This leads him to realize the ways in which his father has violated the trust of his people and deeply hurt the magical community. This, paired with his attraction to Zélie, leads him to briefly reconsider his worldview and attempt to create peace between the magical and nonmagical communities. He and Zélie dream of a world in which maji are considered equal citizens and introduced to their powers safely. However, this dream is disrupted when Inan is exposed to the dangerous side of magic. The violence he witnesses causes him to turn his back on Zélie and the divîners, instead returning to his father and choosing “Duty Before Self. Kingdom Before King” (476). His acceptance of his father’s majacite blade and his choice to expose Baba to danger represents his total rejection of magic.

At the novel’s climax, Inan manipulates Zélie into destroying the scroll with her own magic, showing the full reversal of his previous optimism. It is in this moment of betrayal and triumph that he saves his father’s life by using the magic he so despises. In doing so, he exposes himself as Kaea’s murderer. For this, Inan is killed, and Saran’s final words to him are a denouncement: “You are no son of mine” (509). Inan’s fear of magic and his desire for his father’s approval resulted in his death, for in rejecting his magic he also denied his own identity. Inan’s death stands as a warning against sacrificing one’s morals in search of approval.

Tzain Adebola is Zélie’s older brother who accompanies her and Amari on the journey to restore magic. He is described as dark-skinned and black-haired, but his primary characteristic is his size: “The reed hunt instantly shrinks in his massive presence, all muscle and strain. Tendons bulge” (20). Tzain’s size is the result of his frequent exercise and his participation in the sport game agbӧn, which is not described in the book but is implied to be like soccer or rugby. Tzain and Zélie have a loving, though somewhat fraught, relationship. He supports Zélie but is often frustrated by her impulsiveness. Tzain, like Zélie, struggles to navigate being both a teenager and being responsible for the wellbeing of his family.

Tzain is more accepting and forgiving than Zélie at the beginning of the book. He understands the difficulty of Amari’s situation and encourages Zélie to be gentler, helping the girls overcome their differences and become friends. However, Tzain is still heavily influenced by his own trauma, which leads him to be cautious of those who are not a part of his community. He is accepting of other divîners, but immediately distrusts and dislikes Inan, disbelieving the prince’s promise of peace and collaboration. His frustration with Zélie’s attraction to Inan is rooted in his own trauma, emanating from the destruction of his home and the murder of his mother. Tzain is unable to overlook Inan’s past violence, creating tension between his sister and himself.

Tzain feels pressure to protect Zélie and Amari. This stems from both his affection for them and the promises he made to his parents, vowing to keep Zélie out of harm’s way. While his failure to do so is not a reflection on him, he takes each instance of Zélie’s pain as a personal failure. This showcases his love for her despite their history of sibling conflict. Tzain becomes Zélie’s only family member still living at the end of the novel, further cementing their bond.