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Leila is all about opposites coming together. (On a much more reasonable budget, but it’s the thought that counts!) And while she resists tea for almost the entirety of the series, her loyalty to her people is what makes her break and try tea–and she’s rewarded because it turns out her people decided to try coffee because of their loyalty to her. But they would die for Leila because she’s strong enough to stop the infighting, and soft enough to forgive them.įor example, even though she hates socials and does everything she can to decrease spending, she knows those events are important to the fae, so she makes sure they happen. The Night Court would never have shown up for a queen who only belittled fae and did whatever she wanted. While Leila’s sarcasm is the flashiest part of her personality, it’s her kindness that makes reclaiming the Night Realm possible. It’s why she loves the night mares even though they look like something that stepped out of a horror story–and again, they pay back her love tenfold. That’s why she accepts Chrysanthe’s friendship–and Chrys pays her back tenfold. Yes, she won’t take death threats sitting down, or let her nobles push her around, but she’s willing to forgive, and she can be kind. I knew it would make for some great laughs, and I also knew that in order for the fae to be “saved” just as Hazel and Killian have begun whipping the vampires and wizards into shape, that the fae needed someone who wouldn’t back down but was also kind enough to listen.Īnd that is Leila’s true power. She tumbled onto the scene because I wanted to write a modern day heroine who didn’t want to be queen and was so different from her people she was practically alien to them. Her sarcasm combined with the general obliviousness of the fae–and their horror at her playfulness–made her a dream to write. Plus, I love a good villains-to-lovers romance, so I was destined to like our taciturn hero!įierce, blunt, and hilarious Leila is undoubtedly one of my favorite heroines I’ve ever gotten to write. And while that was daunting at the start of the series, by the end I was having an utter blast dreaming up all of his minute actions. The way he can tell the glooms and shades apart and will pet them, the fact that he listens and hears Leila when she’s up late at night and fighting an emotional battle–he shows his character and his love in a hundred tiny ways. Hilariously, the hardships with Rigel became the very thing that made him fun to write: his subtleties. That was partially what inspired me to make him an assassin–the idea of taking this silent assassin and mashing him with loveable Leila and watching the sparks fly made me actually excited–instead of petrified–to write their romance. I wanted Rigel to fall in love in a way that was different from my previous male protagonists–particularly Killian and his love story with Hazel.
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But it took pretty much the entire book to set up for that moment so you’d be able to understand how crucial that change was. It’s a huge deal when–during their wedding–Rigel steps up to protect Leila. This meant I had to show more scenes from his point of view so readers knew what he was thinking and, more importantly, I had to make every sentence he spoke and every physical action he took count on about five different levels. Rigel–silent with a penchant for looming–was the exact opposite. To make it worse, Rigel wasn’t a talkative character! Killian is charismatic and totally willing to carry on a conversation, which makes it easier to show out the different facets of his personality. And Rigel needed to be the one to try to kill Leila because it would make for interesting romance–which is a real fight for me–and he was my best source of clues for hinting at who was ultimately responsible, which I badly needed!
#Lord of rigel fighters series#
The tension of the story would be terrible if he easily switched sides, and if he started the series by siding with her that was going to make the whole thing of him trying to kill her totally fake. Moreover, I needed Rigel to be believably competent to the point where he was almost scary, but then I needed him to believably switch to helping Leila. Ingratiating him to other characters, much less you Champions, was going to be a difficult task. I mean, the guy tries to kill Leila the first times he sees her. When I first designed this series, I knew Rigel was going to be a challenge. This is our last batch of deep dives into characters, and we’re hitting up our main protagonists: Rigel and Leila!