What if Rapunzel had been trained to kill anyone who tried to rescue her from the tower?

That was the original idea before I reshaped it to fit into Shadow Series.

My “Rapunzel” character was always meant to be Billie — the most ruthless and heartless Claymont assassin. She’s also the villain readers met in book four as Dee in Shadow World. I even slipped in a small clue to her true identity back in book four when she freaks out around horses — though I don’t think anyone will fully understand that moment until after reading book six.

Pierre also started out pretty ruthless in the series. As a trained assassin and Shadow, it wasn’t until he defected with Gianna, Elaine, and Ashton that his life truly began to change. Originally, I planned for his birth father to be Hayes (a brief character in the prologue of Child of Revenge in Dream Duology), but as I outlined Child of Captivity, I realized each of the Claymont assassin siblings would actually turn out to be someone else from the real world.

I gave Ingrid the power to bring back the dead — and that single ability is what finally made Shadow Lord’s entire plan click for me. His ultimate goal was always to be resurrected and wreak havoc on the world… I just hadn’t known how it would happen until outlining this book.

When I created the assassin siblings, I knew Billie’s true identity from the very beginning — she was always meant to be that character, all the way back from book one.

The other four siblings, though, didn’t fully come together until I outlined this story. I decided to connect them to characters readers had already met. Tyson, Freya, and Jesse each have siblings who appear earlier in the series (in books two, four, and five). Freya’s true identity wasn’t even planned until I outlined book six — but I’m a sucker for happy endings.

Originally, Tyson’s true identity was alive the whole time and appeared in book five with his twin sister, but I changed that once I mapped out book six.

I also loved writing Yasmine as a spy hidden among the assassins, and I even included a small setup for her future story in Solapin Cycle book four, Child of Repose.

Some of my absolute favorite scenes to write were Billie’s — especially her moments with Proctor. At first, I had completely different plans for her love interest in book seven, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it just didn’t work.

That’s when I realized Lachlan wouldn’t go alone to save Lana from Bryce in book five — he’d need a team. Proctor and Kyle were the first two characters I created for that group, and honestly, they were the only ones that truly mattered for the story.

I wanted Proctor to be flawed, arrogant, and a little bit of a bully (especially toward Lana), and he ended up being the perfect match for Billie.

I always knew Billie would be the last assassin sibling to accept Yasmine’s magic — the cleansing touch that removes Hayes’s darkness from their souls. I rewrote her unmasking scene several times.

Originally, Lachlan was the one who sliced her mask away — but I realized I needed a moment to fully showcase Stewart’s true power as a Hawk fueled by real love. So, I shifted the scene into his fight and gave him the strength to injure Billie more than anyone else ever had.

The scene between Lana and Billie was incredibly emotional to write. And the instant switch between Billie and her true self once the darkness is removed mirrors what happens to her father when he wakes from being Sadistic for over a year.

I even mirrored the moment where Billie puts a knife to her chest — just like her father does in Child of Darkness. The reasons they don’t go through with it are different, but the emotional parallel is very intentional.

I was so excited to finally reveal Shadow Lord’s true identity in the epilogue. I’d always known who he was — and that his ultimate plan would be to resurrect himself, King Javier, and other major villains. It made the perfect cliffhanger for this book, especially since Shadow World is completely gone by the end after Shadow Lord returns to the real world.