Graves is the youngest necromancer in the ritual, and probably the only one who would rather finish a ritual than a school paper on Wuthering Heights. Her story is about trust: who she gives it to, and who keeps warning her not to.

A rich kid with a dark hobby

Darcy Graves lives in a Midtown Manhattan penthouse. Her parents are prominent defense attorneys at a firm called Whiteside and Graves, and she attends Blackmore Academy, a school for the children of wealthy families. She skips class, has a low opinion of the law, and isn't close to her parents, though she doesn't want them dead.

She is cynical and snarky, but she is sympathetic to the dead. The patrons say she works to honor the forgotten and bring them peace, and she describes the city's streets as haunted by people nobody ever recognized.

The lich mentor

Her mentor is a lich who speaks to her through a severed hand. Graves treats her as a best friend and idolizes her. The jar of the dead was one of the first things the lich taught her, and Graves has promised to do whatever it takes to complete the ritual. The lich wants Abram's tomb, which is what drives the whole arrangement.

Not everyone is comfortable with that:

  • Venator tells her the lich is using her. Graves fires back that he doesn't know her.
  • Seven warns her that mentors only teach what they want to be learned and often use the young to chase glories they never achieved. Graves wants to be his intern anyway.
  • Grey Talon is among the figures the lich warns her about, so the distrust runs both ways.

Her other relationships

  • Hayes thinks the OSIC could use her, not as a Sandman but as a medium. Graves isn't interested in being a Sandman, and Hayes agrees with her on that. She admits the medium job might not suck.
  • Apollo is her lab partner at Blackmore. She calls him the golden boy. They tease each other about their parents, and she likes him more than she wishes she did.
  • Calico she recognizes from a Christmas party at her parents' firm, held right after Calico killed one of the firm's clients. Graves thinks the cat rules.
  • Infernus offers her the same help someone once gave him when he was her age. If she ever finds herself in over her head, he says, she can call.
  • Viper threatens to mug her after the ritual, then offers to kill her parents. Graves says no.

Why she matters

Graves is a teenager walking into a dangerous ritual with a promise to keep and a mentor she believes in, while almost every adult around her tells her to be careful. She isn't listening. As she puts it, she intends to become one of the greatest necromancers in Manhattan.