A Main Character

—Calista Alaia Ryan-Hale, born Melinoe Crescentborn Rosenthorn, most known as Callie Ryan, is the protagonist of Carpe Diem. She is the half-blood daughter of Katherine Ryan and Edward Hale, the step-daughter of Peter Nightly—who marries her mother at the mid-ending of the book—and the identical twin sister of Talia Ryan-Hale. She is the granddaughter of Lorcan and Ione—who reside in the Spring Court with Lord Azriel. She is the adopted half niece of Lilet and Eume (pronounced yoo-me), the adopted cousin of Aurora and unnamed vampires of the Bathory clan. She is the adopted younger half-sister of Chase—who Katherine adopted before leaving the Other Realm. Some believe she and her mother are the last of the Morrigan’s clan—a line of high fae-witches  in the Otherworld who were well respected and once Ward’s for many noble houses.

As a result of her unique heritage, Callie is considered one of the last known Morrigan’s. She inherited all of her supernatural genes from her mother and their bloodline. She doesn’t know much about her father’s lineage since he never stayed around long enough to see her born or meet her. Due to her mother’s past as the apprentice and ex-wife of King Tybern, she is witch royalty and technically high fae royalty as well.

Callie and Talia were conceived during Katherine’s dark period, when she was running from Lilet and seeking solace with her human friends, Peter Nightly and his sister, Juliette. During that time, she met and eventually started a relationship with Edward Hale. She later found out that he was a troublesome guy and he had done some pretty bad things. She does not learn that she is pregnant until Edward has been locked up for a couple of weeks. When she does, she visits him and instead of telling him she’s pregnant—as she planned to do—she says goodbye and leaves. Katherine finds out that she is expecting twin girls when her sister escapes captivity and finds her—she has special gifts as a witch and can sense when a woman is pregnant. Katherine is assisted in giving birth by Peter Nightly, her sister, and Joe Deveraux when she goes into premature labor due to a curse Lilet placed on her. The twins are briefly kidnapped by a young witch, Nya Deevyna, and taken to Lilet briefly. Then, Katherine offers herself to Lilet to save her babies lives—of course unaware that the curse Lilet placed on her worked in steps, the first step only induced the birth, the second and third one took time. The curse turned their magic dark and wicked, one twin would have to kill the other when they turned sixteen. Lilet kills Katherine, unaware that the twins’ power was already potent and strong, they sensed their mother’s distress as she was dying and were able to resuscitate her. (in a way, the twins were katherine’s sire and they created her. katherine was revived as a half-blood, half undead a type of vampire species, and half high-fae) Katherine kills Lilet, unaware that doing this, the way she did, only turned Lilet into the same creature she was, and Lilet would rule over the Otherworld for seventeen years.

As a result of Lilet’s supposed death, Katherine continues to raise her twins in the mortal realm, giving them a happy childhood. They were also helpfully raised by Peter and Juliette Nightly, Nya (when she earned the trust of the family after her deeds), their older brother Chase, and Damaris, their aunt. The only person missing was the twins' father and Katherine always tried to avoid the question. She eventually made up a lie of who he was to give them a happier image of him. He was a police officer and he died trying to do the right thing.

In her family experience, nothing good ever lasts long, Talia experiences extreme cases of dark magic around the time she’s four years old. She accidentally strikes her sister with her dark violet energy blast and harms her. Katherine has to take Talia and Callie to another witch to find a way to help Callie’s condition which was dwindling quickly. Talia had an out of control temper, she had violent outbursts and temper tantrums, Callie quickly learned how to siphon her twin’s emotions and calm her down, keeping her from hurting anyone else, or even herself anymore.

The majority of the twins’ powers are still a mystery for the time being.