Clockwork Angel characters

Appears from the start

A sixteen-year-old American orphan who sails to Victorian London in 1878 to reunite with her older brother. Instead of finding him she is seized by two sinister women who reveal that she has an uncanny gift: by holding an object belonging to another person she can transform into that person, taking on their shape and glimpsing their memories. Bookish, self-possessed, and stubborn under fear, she is forced to train this power for the benefit of a hidden master she has never met, and struggles to understand what she is and why she has been hunted.

Also known as Nathaniel Gray

Appears from the start

Tessa's charming, feckless older brother, who traveled to London ahead of her and sent for her after their aunt died. It is a letter warning that he is in danger that draws Tessa across the ocean. Fond of gambling and easy money, he becomes the reason she throws herself into a dangerous world she does not understand.

Also known as Mrs. Dark, Mrs. Black

Appears from the start

Two menacing warlock women who imprison Tessa and force her to develop her shape-changing ability through cruelty and threats. They act on behalf of a powerful figure they call the Magister, preparing Tessa for his purposes, and they make plain that her value lies entirely in her strange gift.

Appears from the start

The unseen master whom the Dark Sisters serve, a mysterious and formidable figure who has arranged Tessa's capture and training. He is fixated on Tessa and her power, and the fear he inspires in those who work for him signals that he wields both wealth and dangerous knowledge, though his identity and full intent remain hidden.

First appears in chapter 3

A darkly handsome young Shadowhunter, one of the Nephilim who are trained to hunt demons and police the supernatural world. Reckless, sardonic, and quick with a cruel joke, he breaks into the Dark Sisters' house and takes Tessa to the London Institute. His flashes of warmth are guarded behind sharp words, and Tessa cannot tell whether he is friend, rescuer, or something more complicated.

First appears in chapter 4

The small, determined young woman who runs the London Institute, the household and refuge of the city's Shadowhunters. Kind but firmly in charge, she takes Tessa in, oversees the Nephilim in her care, and works to uncover who is hunting Tessa and why, all while proving she can hold authority in a world that doubts her.

First appears in chapter 4

Charlotte's absent-minded husband, a Shadowhunter far more interested in his workshop than in fighting. He is forever tinkering with mechanical inventions meant to aid demon-hunting, most of which misfire, and his cheerful, distracted nature makes him an unlikely but good-hearted presence in the Institute.

First appears in chapter 4

A pretty, sulky young Shadowhunter living at the Institute who openly despises the life she was born into and longs instead for the ordinary comforts and marriage of a mundane lady. Vain and often unkind to Tessa, she resents being made to train and fight, and dreams of escaping the Nephilim world entirely.

Also known as James Carstairs

First appears in chapter 5

A gentle, silver-haired young Shadowhunter, Will's closest friend and sworn partner. Frail and gravely ill, he depends on a costly drug simply to stay alive, and he faces his shortened life with unusual grace, playing the violin and offering Tessa the steady kindness that Will withholds. He becomes her confidant as she finds her footing at the Institute.

First appears in chapter 5

A maid at the London Institute, a mundane girl whose face is marked by a long scar from her former employer. Capable and proud, she serves the Shadowhunter household while guarding her own dignity, and she is initially cool toward Tessa before the two young women begin to understand each other.