"I’m the magician. You’re the warrior.”

Every hero needs a sidekick. A best friend or a family member who will help them get through their trials and keep them together when they're falling apart. Batman and Robin. Nite Owl and Rorschach. Achilles and Patroclus. Derek and Liam.

Just as I always imagined Derek to be brooding and unyielding, I imagined Liam as being his near opposite. Liam is perfectly fine making animals out of his soulfire, flirting with girls, and eating junk food. But he isn't all sunshine and rainbows. He's seen and done his share of awful things, and if anything hurts or threatens his older brother, he's the last person you want to see.

“You don’t have to do this alone. We’re stronger than we used to be.”

One of the things I love about Liam is that he's good at pretending for the sake of others. He'll never let anyone see just how guilty he is of is past, how his nightmares of Hollow Hill and his father still scare him, and how he can't live without Derek.

He's also stubborn and nearly unbreakable. His brother was the first and only person to look after him and show him a better way to live. Liam wants nothing more than a normal life with his brother, and even when things are falling apart, he looks for the bright side.

Liam is a warrior, more than capable of taking care of himself, but he controls his savagery and impulses better than Derek does. Partly because Derek taught him to do just that, and partly because Liam knows it's the only way to keep Derek together. Whenever something happens to his little brother, Derek slips. He loses control and becomes a terrifying of destruction until Liam reminds him that isn't who he wants to be.

"I saw the one person who could always lift me up, always pull me back from the edge."

I'm not going to give anything away about future stories in the series, but Liam has a lot of growing and changing to do. Things are only going to get harder for the brothers, and Liam might have to risk the person he is to keep Derek alive.

Feel free to read some of the first chapters of Hollow Hill here on the blog. If you're still looking for more Liam, you can read a short story I did from his perspective here. Also, you can take a look at the Areios Brothers Pintrest board to see a couple more images of Liam.

Cheers!

Amy