Mortal Coil characters

Also known as Stephanie Edgley

Appears from the start

Fifteen, and no longer anyone's apprentice. She works cases as Skulduggery's partner, throws fire and shadows with equal confidence, and is still training in Necromancy under Solomon Wreath, which she has stopped bothering to hide and which Skulduggery has never once approved of. Her ordinary life in Haggard is lived by her mirror duplicate, and she notices less and less that this is not normal. She is stronger than most sorcerers twice her age and has begun to enjoy that fact.

Appears from the start

The skeleton detective, back from the Faceless Ones' world and working again, with a Sanctuary that no longer treats him as a criminal. He is talking as much as ever and saying nothing at all about the months he spent on the other side of the portal, or about the war he fought before Valkyrie was born.

First appears in chapter 2

The English sword-fighter who walks on walls: Valkyrie's closest friend, cheerfully reckless, and the one person who treats her as an equal rather than as something to be protected or recruited.

First appears in chapter 3

The scarred tailor, now an Elder of the Irish Sanctuary and visibly happier when he is in his shop than when he is in a council chamber. He can still turn his skin to stone and would still rather not have to.

First appears in chapter 3

The Grand Mage of the Irish Sanctuary, one of the Dead Men and an old friend of Skulduggery's, running the place with a lighter hand than his predecessor and a good deal of political patience.

First appears in chapter 4

The veiled Elder who speaks for the Children of the Spider, present at every Council meeting and volunteering nothing at any of them.

First appears in chapter 2

The Teleporter, still able to step anywhere he can picture, and now Valkyrie's boyfriend, which is complicated by how much of her life he is not part of.

First appears in chapter 6

The keeper of Dublin's great private library, still selling information to whoever pays and still declining to explain her own history with the people who worship the Faceless Ones.

First appears in chapter 5

The elderly scientist who runs the medical facility behind the derelict cinema. He has spent years putting Valkyrie back together and telling her to stop, and he has never persuaded her of anything.

First appears in chapter 5

Kenspeckle Grouse's assistant: blue-haired, sweet-natured and entirely unbothered by the strangeness of the place she works in. She is fond of Valkyrie and of everyone else who comes through the door bleeding.

First appears in chapter 7

The Necromancer who has been teaching Valkyrie the magic of shadow and death. Polite, unhurried and never quite finished making his case, he wants her inside his order and has told her that his people are waiting for the Death Bringer, who will end the division between the living and the dead.

First appears in chapter 9

A tattooist and Sensitive, relaxed to the point of horizontal, who reads the future when it wanders into his head and would generally rather it did not. He has picked up something recently that has frightened him and everyone else who can see.

First appears in chapter 9

A Sensitive who lives apart from the magical world and reads what is coming in steam and smoke. She is careful about what she says, because she has learned how much damage a half-understood vision can do.

First appears in chapter 9

A name out of the visions every Sensitive has been having: a sorcerer of overwhelming power who burns the world and laughs while doing it. Nobody knows who this person is, whether they are alive yet, or how long there is before the vision arrives.

First appears in chapter 11

A vampire who keeps away from the packs and holds himself under tighter control than his kind usually manage. Quiet, intense and old enough to be unnerving, he takes an interest in Valkyrie that she does not entirely discourage.

First appears in chapter 8

The Texan killer with hollows where his eyes should be, who travels through solid ground and takes contracts from anyone. He turns up wherever there is money and disappears through the floor before anyone can arrest him.

First appears in chapter 20

The Necromancer general who fought for Mevolent in black armour, disappeared before the war ended, and has recently begun killing again. His identity is still unknown, and he has been avoiding every attempt to corner him.