Soul O'Brien

Soul O'Brien is father to Annalise and Niall O'Brien and Executive Administrator of the Fairborn Protection Unit - he was the leader during the Peace Massacre. While initially appearing to be a minor antagonist there to make Nathan's life harder, Soul soon turns out to be a *major* antagonist. Obsessed with Marcus Edge, Soul betrays the Fairborn Protection Unit to pursue his own goals to gain power, grooming and convincing Jessica Byrne to join him.

## Biography

At the Council, Nathan is taken to a room, where Reutger Sillwood, head of the Council of Fairborn Witches presents herself, as well as Soul O'Brien, Executive Administrator of the Fairborn Council Protection Unit. He tells him that he had hit his son, but Nathan said that he had only done it because he was being very annoying. Soul asks him if he knows what the Blood Witches did to them and what they are capable of, but Nathan is sarcastic with them. However, they start seeing a recreation of what happened to the couple, Frank and Rita when they were killed by Nathan's father. Nathan starts getting very worried and is in shock. Soul tells him that Frank was a member of the Ten, who wanted to kill his father for what his father had done. However, only Reutger was left. Nathan asks if they think he will start killing people when he turned 17 and is told that his powers were currently dormant.

Soul asks Jessica if Kieran was being nice to her, and she said that he had. She says that other cadets had not been treating her very well because of her association with Nathan and Marcus. He tells her about how Marcus Edge had different ideas than him and that it was his fault that the Wolf had been welcomed into the hen coop.

Annalise's 17th birthday comes around and in a ceremony, she is given her gifts and blood Reu by her father Soul. Reutger and Soul talk about what happened in Wales, and Soul says he doubts that it was Marcus who attacked.

In the hospital, Annalise wakes up and is told that she was in a car crash. She tells Soul she does not remember what happened as he leaves and is told by Bjorn that Hazel is dead.

Soul rings Reutger's bell, but finds that her lock had been busted open. Pushing the doors to her hose open, he walks inside and finds it trashed. Inside, he finds Reutger lying dead with her heart gone. Aoife joins him, and he tells her that it had been Marcus. Soul tells her that 7 of her fingers were broken, which meant that was what it had taken her to give them up. She suggests running, but he tells her that her power is illumination and that his is growing plants, so they do not have a chance. However, Soul tells her that they are not as powerless as she thinks. Looking around the room, they find that Marcus now knows about the prophecy, so he would be after his child as well.

Soul leaves his house with a gun and approaches Rowan, who knows about Reutger. Soul tells him he is hunted, but would fight. Rowan tells him that a fight would be ineffective, but Soul reveals that he has old magic he can use. Rowan tells him that magic should not be used, but Soul tells him he has no choice and kills him with the gun, disguising it to make it look as if Marcus had killed him.

Gran is approached by Soul, who looks worried.

Kieran feels bad sleeping next to Jessica, who shapeshifts into a big man while she sleeps. He hears his phone ring and Soul tells him that his father is dead.

Nathan keeps training with Ceelia, getting stronger and more resistant. One day, many vans show up. Soul and Jessica show up, telling him that many people were dead and his father was responsible. Soul tells him that Reutger wanted to train him to kill his father, but things had changed and he would be going with them now. Nathan proves that he can now put up a fight against Fairborns, but they start using magic to subdue him. Ceelia tells Soul to stop, but he does not listen and they take Nathan.

Soul, Nathan and Jessica exit the storm and start walking away. Nathan is confused by what happened until they drive away in a stolen car. Nathan takes Jessica's hairclip without her noticing in order to pick at his handcuffs and remove them. In the Council building, Nathan realizes nobody knew what Soul was doing. He tries to resist, but is sedated.

When Nathan wakes up, he finds himself tied and shirtless. He tells Soul he is not his father, but Soul does not listen, since he believes powers define who you are. He cuts Nathan open by his wrists and takes some of the blood, starting with the dark magic. He knows terrible things must be done to cast it, but he goes through with it anyway as he pokes holes in Nathan's skin.

In the months while Nathan was gone, at school, when Nathan was beating Niall, Annalise walks and finds him doing so. When she goes home, she asks Soul about Nathan, but her parents tell her to forget about him. Once Nathan's grandmother tells her to leave and not come back, she flirts with David. They end up having sex in his car, and when they finally crash in the future, she is brought back home and told that Reutger had died. Annalise's mother, asks if she had felt her power, but she says she had not. Walking downstairs, she finds her father with a gun in his office, so she leaves.

The next day, Annalise tries to grow a plant to no avail. When her pet mouse bites her, she makes it explode and realizes that was her power. That night, she tries making a watch explode, but is not able to. Once she realizes she had hurt David and becomes agitated, her watch explodes. Soul finds the bloodstain of Annalise's mouse on the carpet while David describes the pain he felt when he started touching Annalise. That night while reading through one of her father's books, Annalise finds her power, which is called Decimation, or "The Undoing".

The Fairborn Council blows up Gabriel's front door and he shoots at them. Nathan manages to knock the witches out on his own, which makes Annalise realize his training had been going well. Gabriel gives them orbs in order to escape from Soul, who mentions Annalise is his daughter. Gabriel tells her to give him his orb back, but she swallows it. Gabriel and Nathan escape as Annalise is approached by her father. However, she jumps from the window as well.

Soul is approached by Ceelia, who tells him that they need to talk about Jessica since what she had done to the pirate disturbed them. However, Soul says that Jessica recognized that they were fighting for their lives. Ceelia tells him that Kieran had picked up the trail of Nathan and the Blood Witch, so Soul says they should go.

In the woods, Soul and Ceelia's group realizes that there were Bloods near. Jessica tells Kieran that if there was something on his mind, he should tell her. He says he was uncomfortable with what she had done to the pirate.

With Nathan laying on the ground, he is approached by the small girl, who is actually Jessica and who chops Nathan's finger off. As a man is about to get shot by a Fairborn, Annalise makes him explode, which Jessica sees. The Blood Witches start hiding, as the old woman is shot. As they move, they hurry in order to make it to a boat. Soul tells everyone to cease fire since his daughter was in there.

The Fairborn Council starts approaching the house, where Soul asks Jessica where Annalise is. Jessica shows him Nathan's finger and says that they are close.

Soul finds where the group had left from and orders his men to follow the river. Jessica mentions that the famous Ozanne witches had been wiped out in less than a minute. Soul tells her that there would be more, and is asked by Jessica if he knew about his daughter's power, to which he does not respond. Soul tells Jessica to find a place where they could camp, while he mentions that he has everything he needs from Nathan. Bjorn asks him what the real mission is, to which Soul responds that their mission is to kill Marcus.

At a camp full of people in what seemed to be a fair, Soul tells Bjorn to "deal with them". Bjorn exits the car and makes everyone freeze on the spot. Soul tells Bjorn to set up a perimeter, not saying why or what it has to do with Marcus. He simply tells everyone that while they are there, Jessica is the second-in-command. After that, Jessica tells everyone to set up a perimeter.

Soul enters a cabin, where he unzips a bag and with Nathan's finger starts doing dark magic once again.

Soul continues with his dark magic, cutting off his own finger as well, and crunching both his and Nathan's.

Soul calls for Jessica while he practices his dark magic, telling her that once he drank what he had prepared, he would change. She promises that she would be there for him. Soul drinks the potion, which makes Nathan drop. Nathan sees a vision of Marcus talking to Soul and offering peace.

During this vision, the Fairborns tell Marcus that in order to achieve peace, all Blood witches must abide by Fairborn law. However, Marcus says that he is also in representation of those who had been killed by the Fairborn Council, seeking recompense for the lives they had taken and the powers they had stolen. There, Marcus becomes the wolf and starts killing everyone, except for Ceelia and Soul, who are hidden. Later, Nathan sees when his mother was killed by the Fairborn Council.

Soul gets up and laughs when Jessica asks how he feels. He tells her that he can hear heartbeats. They walk outside, as Bjorn stands with his army, telling him that he and Jessica were being relieved of their command. Jessica calls him a traitor, so Bjorn tells her to watch herself. Soul looks around and as Bjorn tells him that many people sided with him. Teemu shows up, telling everyone that the Bloods were coming, so Soul tells everyone to get ready and cuff the traitors.

In a van, Soul approaches Bjorn, telling him he is not angry with him at all, since he had always respected him. Bjorn asks for the others, as Soul makes lightning strike, shows he can control fire and makes it rain as well, showing that he had killed them and taken their powers. After that, he stabs Bjorn and takes his heart out, eating it in order to take his powers as well.

Soul cringes as he remembers what he did to Bjorn and gets a phone call from Aoife. She asks if everything is okay, but he does not respond - Jessica does instead. Jessica tells her that there are eight left and Soul says that he is not scared of the Bloods and Marcus. Aoife says that in Wolfhagen they have numbers, weapons and supplies, so Soul agrees to go, saying that it would all end where it began. Remembering Annalise's power, Jessica thinks that Soul will be powerful enough to defeat Marcus.

Soul and Jessica get out of their car and enter Wolfhagen. However, there is nobody there, and dramatic music is playing. Soul orders Maeve to start conjuring and she is able to fix everything to the way it was before, recreating a scene, where it is shown that Marcus had shown up and killed Aoife and the rest, asking for her to get Soul there. Looking up at the ceiling, they see it is covered with blood and they hear footsteps.

Inside the Wolfhagen mansion, Annalise finds Soul and Jessica. Soul is confused as to what she is doing there, but she tells him that he had told her to go. Soul says that she should not have come and they hear the wolf howl in the distance.

Annalise is confused, but Jessica tells Soul that he needs his daughter's power in order to defeat Marcus, as it is the only power he does not have. She tells him that if he did not do it, then Marcus would, so he needs to be strong. Annalise tells Jessica she is insane, but Soul does not appear to be listening to reason, even though Annalise believes in her father. Soul apologizes, but is interrupted by Blood Witches who start to attack. Annalise punches Jessica and runs.

The Bloods start looking for Soul, as Nathan tries to find Annalise, who is being followed by Jessica. As Soul walks, he hears Marcus speak, remembering conversations they had had together, and also remembering when Marcus had killed everyone.

Soul approaches the small cabinet where he found Ceelia and she approaches him. She asks him what had happened to him, but he says that in the past he had cowered instead of fighting with power as a monster. Both of them prepare to fight, as Soul looks to her full of hatred.

Hugo prepares to enter a room, where they find Soul eating at Ceelia's throat while she is still alive. Soul holds his hands up, saying that their wolf would not save them. Soul begins tearing all of them apart and eating their hearts as Ceelia watches. Soul turns as Marcus howls in the distance and heads out of the mansion.

Annalise and Nathan find each other, along with Gabriel. Annalise asks for Ceelia, but Nathan simply says that it would be alright. As the three of them walk, they find Ceelia and all that Soul had done. Ceelia tells them that Soul is hunting, recites a poem and dies.

He is interrupted by Soul, who growls at him. Nathan asks who Soul had killed in order to make the Witches Bottle, and Soul says that it had been his brother. Nathan reminds him that he had killed his mother and grandmother, to which Soul responds that now he would be killing him as well. Nathan starts running through the woods, followed by Soul.

Nathan walks through the woods with his father's knife, finally finding Soul, who is growling and waiting for him. Soul realizes that he got his blood, but Nathan says that not all of it. When asked where his father is, Nathan tells Soul that he is gone because he is not important enough for him. As both Nathan and Soul start to fight, Soul uses all his powers and Nathan runs hiding.

Nathan runs up behind Soul and stabs him with the knife as Annalise and Gabriel run towards the fight. Soul says that everybody would understand he had no choice but to kill Nathan, but he is interrupted by Gabriel, who pushes him and yells at Nathan to run. When Soul is about to kill Gabriel with fire, Annalise starts using her power on her father, as she cries. Soul realizes that the prophecy about the son killing his own blood referred to Annalise killing him, as she finally makes him explode. After she does this, Annalise starts crying and grabs her father's necklace as she is comforted by Gabriel and Nathan.

## Personality

Deeply insecure about his own powers, Soul is determined to change his status. Despite this strong will and ambition, his insecurities blind him; he is weak-minded and easily manipulated.

## Appearance

Soul is a pale man with scruffy curling dark brown hair and facial hair. He has a thin, soft face with hazel eyes and heavy, deep creases around the mouth.

## Powers & Abilities

### Basic Abilities

* **Spellcasting:** The act of changing and controlling events through the use of incantations and recitations.
* **Accelerated Healing:** The ability to heal at supernatural speeds. This ability is shared by both Fairborn Witches and Blood Witches but Blood Witches heal faster than Fairborn Witches.

### Individual Power

* **Chlorokinesis:** The ability to control and manipulate plants and vegetation.