Kade Bronson

Kade West (preferred name in Beneath the Sugar Sky onwards)

Kade is one of the main characters in *Every Heart a Doorway* and *Beneath the Sugar Sky*.

## Appearance

Kade has black hair, brown eyes and golden tan skin. Nancy described him as "the most beautiful boy she has ever seen." He speaks with an Oklahoma accent.

On tumblr, Seanan McGuire has said that "Kade likes to dress nicely but casually. So vests, button-down shirts, and jeans are staples of his daily wardrobe. He’s very good with a needle, and tailors everything he wears to be as flattering as possible."

In the official art, he is wearing a white button-down shirt with cuffed sleeves, and black trousers.

## History

### Backstory

When he was ten, he was taken by fairies from his home in Nebraska to a Fairyland called Prism. After spending three years there, he killed a Goblin King with his own sword, and with his dying breath was pronounced Goblin Prince in Waiting. The court of the Rainbow Princess, not having known he was boy until this point, were shocked. They threw him into the next wishing well they passed, and he was transported back to our world.

### Every Heart a Doorway

After Nancy discovers her parents have switched out her clothing, Sumi takes her to Kade. She informs Nancy that Kade's parents don't want him back, knocks a "Keep Out" sign off of his door, and storms in. Kade looks up from a pile of books- his entire room is filled to the brim with them- and asks what she's doing back there, as he'd banned her for organizing his books by color. He notices Nancy, and Sumi gives him Nancy's clothes, and Kade offers to exchange them for something better. He explains that he understands, as often parents of travelers don't want to admit that things had changed. He introduces himself and tells her that he'd gone to a Fairyland- Prism- and had spent three years there, until he'd killed the Goblin King and been appointed Goblin Prince. The Court of the Rainbow Princess had responded by throwing him down a wishing well, sticking him back in his ten-year-old body, with no time having passed in Reality. Sumi explains further to a confused Nancy that he had been thrown out for not being a girl.

Kade comes back to Nancy with a suitcase of black-and-white clothing for her, and tells her that he also could tailor her clothes, for either money or information on her world, before kicking the girls out so he can finish his book. As they're leaving, Sumi asks if Nancy wants to have sex with Kade, and explains that Jill had been attracted to him until she found out he had been assigned female at birth, and proceeded to misgender him until Eleanor had given them a lecture on respecting people's identities.

Nancy sees Kade at Lunch, sitting by himself and reading a book. He sits by Nancy at her first therapy session, and explains to her about Lundy's backwards aging. The session focuses on travelers from Wicked Worlds, and Kade bitterly talks about how "Wicked" and "Virtuous" were just labels, as his Fairyland had been labelled Virtue, but had still cast him out anyway.

The next day, Kade is sitting on a tree branch in the tree grove, when Nancy and Jill arrive and start talking. When Jill leaves, Kade explains to Nancy that since most of the kids there did not follow Reality's Logic, they all would run to cry in trees and holes instead of their rooms, so they all usually spent a lot of time together. He asks Nancy is Lundy told her about how rare doors were, and he adds that the fact is true if her world kicked her out. He explains that Prism will never take him back, as he violated their rules by not being what they wanted him to be, but Eleanor had returned to her world multiple times, as she wanted to live in her world but not leave her family; she'd gone back and forth until the Nonsense of her world nearly broke her adult mind, and she was waiting until she went senile to return. Nancy asks him why he's at Eleanor's School instead of the Sister School for children who didn't want to return, and Kade explains that it's because he doesn't want to forget Prism. He then walks her back to school.

After Sumi is murdered, Kade asks Nancy to take Jack to her room until everything could be handled. After the crowd dissipates, Kade goes to Nancy and Jack and directly asks Jack if she killed Sumi. After Jack denies this, Kade informs them that they'd been instructed to stay in their rooms until Eleanor could summon the coroner, and assures Nancy that since Sumi was Eleanor's ward, they won't be shut down from this. The three of them box up Sumi's belongings, with Kade sorting through her clothing to put into the group wardrobe. He sees Nancy dig out Sumi's photographs and takes one of the photos. They put the boxes in the attic, and Kade puts her photo on a bulletin board.

After Jack flees from Dinner, Nancy and Kade follow her, and Kade explains that the twins live in the basement, and Jack would clean herself up before Group Therapy, which is where the two of them head next. Nancy notices Loriel glare at her when Kade sits beside her. After Therapy, Kade tells Eleanor that he'll spend the night with Nancy, and he's willing to help, as the school is his home now. He explains that he's turned eighteen, and his parents and Prism both don't want him.

When Loriel's body is found, Kade wakes Nancy up, and the two of them are go to the Dining Hall. Eleanor asks Kade and Jack to take care of the body, and they're joined by Nancy and Christopher. When the reach the corpse, Kade stops and shakes his head, unable to properly take care of the body. Kade watches as the other three lift her, and he helps hold the door open for them as they take her body to the basement to disintegrate. Jack examines the body and explains to them that she had been hit from behind and her eyes had been ripped out. Kade watches as the others prepare her body. When Jack says that Nancy and Christopher should get together, Kade quips that he gets asking-out dibs on Nancy, as he'd met her first. As the body dissolves, the four of them go to find Jill; Jack and Christopher check the Dining Hall, while Kade and Nancy go to check the grove. As the two of them go, Kade notices Nancy seems uncomfortable, and assures her that he's not the murderer. The two of them don't find Jill, and Kade notices Nancy get nervous and freeze. After she calms down, the two of them head back to school, and Nancy mentions that the killer had taken the most important things from the two dead girls - Sumi's hands and Loriel's eyes.

When they reach the school, they are intercepted by Lundy, who seems suspicious. Kade explains the situation, and after Lundy leaves, Nancy starts to cry, realizing that Lundy suspects her. Kade reassures her, explaining that Lundy thinks in stories, and that Eleanor won't let anybody hurt her. They meet Jack and go to the attic, where Christopher is waiting, and Jack has made them all hot chocolate with special ingredients; Kade's contained clotted cream fudge, stolen from Eleanor's supply. While they talk, he explains that they need to solve the murders, as his parents won't let him return unless he identifies as a girl again, and he'd be homeless without the school. When Nancy mentions that she doesn't want to date boys, Kade seems a little hurt, but tells her that nobody can make her do anything she doesn't want to do. She quickly explains that she doesn't want to date girls either, or anyone, as she finds people pretty, but not physically attractive, and Kade seems to understand that. He asks the others what the deaths had in common, and mentions Nancy's theory of the girls' most important things being stolen from them. Jack brings up that somebody could be trying to make the perfect girl out of body parts, but the conversation stops when Jill arrives, and Jack and Christopher leave to get rid of Loriel's skeleton.

After Lunch, Eleanor offers to allow Nonsense Children to enter her world and hide there, which scares several students. Kade explains to Nancy that Eleanor is very protective of her door, as she's worried of her world replacing her, and her offering to send students through means she's scared. However, only about a fourth of the students will be able to go through. When the students are dismissed, Kade goes up to Eleanor to comfort her, informing her that they'll find a way. She tells him that his parents don't know what they're missing, and he replies that they do, but their daughter is never going to be found again. He leaves with Nancy, informing her that Eleanor is his great-great-great aunt, and one day he'll inherit the school.

That night, Kade and Christopher spend the night with Nancy, and Kade dreams of being welcomed back to prison, before waking up to screams. He awakes Christopher, and the three children go out to find the source of the noise. They find Lundy's body, with her brain cut out. They are approached by more students, led by Angela, who believes that they've killed Lundy and kidnapped Seraphina. Kade informs her that since Seraphina is a Nonsense Girl, she's probably gone through Eleanor's Door. Angela, in anger, exclaims that they all went to respectable worlds, and misgenders Kade in the process. This shocks everyone, and Eleanor approaches, telling everyone to go back inside. When they reach the school, Angela turns on Kade again, telling him that she thinks it's sick he pretends to be "something he's not." Christopher retorts that she had them fooled into thinking she was a decent human being, and she storms off.

Once Angela leaves, Jack arrives, drenched in blood and having been stabbed. She faints, and Kade and Christopher bring her into the kitchen, where Eleanor joins them. Nancy rushes in to join them, announcing that Jill is the murderer, something which is confirmed by Jack, who stands up and explains that Jill is trying to build a Skeleton Key girl to make it back to the Moors. The children head to the attic, where Jill has Seraphina strapped to a table, about to surgically attach Sumi's hands, Loriel's eyes and Lundy's brain. While she talks to them, Jack sneaks up behind her and stabs her with scissors, killing her, before opening up a door to the Moors and taking her home.

After Lundy is buried, Kade steps up to take her place, and starts to learn more about how to run the school. At the end of the semester, Kade comes down with Nancy's old suitcase, so she could pretend the school wasn't encouraging her. He also adds that he and Christopher are working on a new map for worlds connected to the dead, and are adding Vitus and Mortis as minor compass directions, before leaving Nancy in the basement.

### Beneath the Sugar Sky

Kade is now the Assistant Headmaster of Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. At the beginning of Autumn, while he is painting with Eleanor, Cora and Christopher arrive to tell them that a girl had fallen into the pond, declaring herself Sumi's daughter. He leaves with them to bring her to the Office. Upon reaching the Turtle Pond, they find that the girl- Onishi Rini- is naked, her candy dress having dissolved in the pond. Kade offers her a dress, and Rini instead demands to see Sumi, revealing to them that two of her fingers have vanished- she is fading from existence. Kade does get Rini clothing, and then they go to Eleanor, where Rini explains her situation. Cora asks how Rini got to Earth, and she reveals her bracelet that can take her between worlds. Kade is very upset at this, asking why she didn't come back sooner, as Sumi's mental state had deteriorated over the years until she was murdered. Rini is horrified at this, saying that her Mom always claimed to love it at school. Eleanor calms him down, telling him that if she had interfered, she might have ruined the future.

Christopher then has an idea, taking them to the basement. He reveals that he has unburied Sumi's hands and kept them in the room, after having nightmares of her skeleton being incomplete. Kade is creeped out, but Christopher then reveals his plan: to unbury Sumi's skeleton, return her hands, and then go to the Halls of the Dead to ask Nancy to help them find her soul. Eleanor gives them permission to go.

As the only one who knows how to drive, Kade drives the school minivan towards the graveyard. While he's no longer religious, he is still a little worried that God is going to smite them for robbing a grave and raising the dead. Once they arrive, Christopher summons Sumi's skeleton and re-joins her hands to her. Rini then says she can take them to the Halls of the Dead if she knows who she's looking for. Kade, Christopher and Nadya then describe Nancy to her, and after she says she also needs to know about the sugar, Kade tells her about the red sugar that they mix with pomegranate juice. Rini then summons them a door to the Halls, and they enter.

Kade remembers that Nancy spent most of her time in the halls of the Lady of Shadows, and he takes the group that way. Once they actually enter the Halls, the Lady finds them and agrees to take them to Nancy, who is working as a statue. They go through a hall of Statues, and Rini asks Kade how they could hold so still. He explains that this world isn't where she was meant to go, which is why she is so horrified. Rini remembers a boy in Confection who went to another world, and Kade explains that he and Sumi had also been born in the wrong world.

They then reach the Lady's hall, where Nancy is working. She is given permission to move, and she agrees to take them to the room of souls. As they walk, Kade catches Nancy up on what's happened in Eleanor's school. Once they enter the room, Christopher summons Sumi's ghost; however, it is a ghost of who she was before the went to Confection, and they will have to find her nonsense somewhere else. Before they can leave, the Lord of the Dead arrives and tells them that they will have to trade one soul for another- one of them will have to stay behind. Nadya agrees to stay, as the Halls are closer to Belyyreka than Earth is; Kade is a little upset, thinking that Eleanor will be upset at this. The group then travels to Confection to find Sumi's Nonsense.

Upon arriving in Confection, the travelers fall into the Strawberry Sea, where Christopher nearly drowns. Kade has to explain this to Rini, and then asks her about the Nonsense Level of her world, deducing that it's a Nonsense World with consistent internal rules, and warning the others not to try and bring Logic into the world. Rini takes them all towards her home, explaining more about her world, but before they can reach the farms, the group is intercepted by the Queen of Cakes's army and arrested. Upon meeting the Queen, Cora deduces that the Queen was a traveler, and Kade figures out that Sumi had been called to Nonsense to overthrow her. The Queen tells them that she'll release them if they tell her how they made Sumi a Shade, and when they refuse, she pulls out Christopher's bone flute. Christopher tries to attack her to get it back, and the group is dragged away to a prison.

As Christopher starts to get into worse shape, Kade explains to Cora that he needs his flute with him in order to remain in good health, though they don't actually know what would happen if he lost it. Cora, trying to formulate a plan, asks Kade what he did in Prism. He explains that Prism, as a Goblin Market, can control their doors, and pick their own children to be used as soldiers. Now knowing that Kade can use a sword, Cora calls for some guards to help Christopher; when two arrive, Kade knocks one out and steals his sword. While Rini watches the other one, Kade and Cora rush off. Kade poses as a guard, bringing Cora to the Queen, where Cora sweettalks her until she's given permission to approach. At that, Kade draws his sword and traps the Queen, as Cora steals her flute and frees Sumi and the Guards. They all return to the prison, and Kade asks Christopher if he wants the Queen to die. When Christopher says no, they tie her up and leave.

Kade has to kill one of the Guards to get them out, and then they head towards Rini's farm. When Cora realizes that they left Rini's bracelet behind, Kade assures her that they'll find a way home, though he admits that things might not turn out okay, and he's used to lying to himself. He then explains a bit of the intersecting of worlds to her, before they reach the farm and meet Sumi's husband, Ponder. Though he doesn't know how to return Sumi's Nonsense to her, he directs them towards the Baker.

While walking, Cora worries about how they're about to meet Confection's deity, and Kade argues that she's already met the Lord and Lady of the Dead, who are functionally the Gods of the Halls. The travelers then continue on to the Baker's Oven, where they meet the Baker herself. Upon realizing that she's a traveler like them, Kade tells her to go to Eleanor's School if she returns to Earth. The Baker agrees to try and help, and patches up Sumi's skeleton with sweets before setting her to bake. They talk for a while, with the Baker revealing that her name is Layla, and that the others will have to take Sumi back with them so as to fix Confection's timeline. Sumi then finishes baking, and Kade helps Layla pull her out of the oven. Rini awakens her, bringing her back to life.

The travelers bring Sumi back home through a door baked by Layla, and Sumi is reunited with Eleanor.

## Relationships

### Parents

Kade has transphobic parents, who won't let him return unless he pretends to be a girl again. They haven't let him come home since he was thirteen. He hopes to change his name to Kade West instead of Kade Bronson because of this.

### Sumi

Kade is often annoyed at Sumi's antics, having previously banned her from his room for organizing his books by color. Sumi seemed to have a better opinion of their relationship, thinking of herself as Kade's sunshine. Kade did have a soft spot for Sumi; before her death, he had been worried for her mental health and was upset when he found out Rini could have saved her.

### Jill Wolcott

Jill had previously been attracted to Kade, until she found out he was assigned female at birth, and misgendered him until Eleanor intervened. Kade doesn't like her much either, and refers to her as one of the Addams twins.

### Christopher

Christopher says that Kade's the only boy who is actually nice to him, instead of just putting up with him because he's one of the few boys there. Christopher also defends Kade from Angela.

## Trivia

* "Kade" is an English name meaning "round."
	+ "Bronson" is an English Surname derived from "Brown."
* Kade is heterosexual.
* Kade constantly refers to Jack and Jill as the Addams twins, referring to the Addams Family.
* Seanan McGuire has said that Kade is partially based off her friend's teenage child, though the real Kade is genderqueer instead of trans.
* Seanan McGuire has said that if she were to write a book about Kade and the world of Prism, it would be the last in the series.

## References

1. ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 36: His skin was golden tan, his hair was black, and when he looked up- with evident irritation- from the book he was holding, she saw that his eyes were brown and his features were perfect. There was something timeless about him, like he could have stepped out of a painting and into the material world.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Every Heart a Doorway, page 37: "What'n the fuck are you doing in here again, Sumi?" he demanded, Oklahoma accent thick as peanut butter spread across a slice of toast. "I told you that you weren't welcome after the last time."

"You're just mad because I came up with a better filing system for your books than you could," said Sumi, sounding unruffled. "Anyway, you didn't mean it. I am the sunshine in your sky, and you'd miss me if I was gone."

"You organized them by color, and it took me weeks to figure out where anything was. I'm doing important research up here." Kade unfolded his legs and slid down from his pile of books.
3. ↑ http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/170555940080/i-just-finished-ehad-by-recommendation-of-my
4. ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 131: "We do need to figure out what's going on," said Kade. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not so well-equipped to go back to my old life. My parents still think they're somehow magically going to get back the little girl they lost. They haven't let me come home for five years. No, maybe that's unfair- or too fair. They won't let *me* come home. If I want to put on a skirt and tell them to call me 'Katie,' they'll welcome me with open arms. Pretty sure that if the school closes down, I'm homeless."
5. ↑ Beneath the Sugar Sky, pages 40-41: "Why did you leave her here?" Kade's voice was suddenly low and dangerous. He stood, stalking towards Rini. "When Sumi got to the school, she was a *mess*. I thought we were gonna lose her. I thought she was going to slice herself open to try to get candy out of her veins, and how here you are, and you have something that means you can just... just come here and go back again, like it's nothing. Like the doors don't even matter. Why did you leave her here? Why didn't someone come and get her before it was too late?"
6. ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 41: "Jill- you'll meet her at dinner- wanted to fuck him until she found out he used to be a girl, and then she called him 'she' until Miss Ely said that we respect people's identities here, and then we all had to listen to this weird story about a girl who used to live in the attic who was really a rainbow who'd managed to offend the King of the Sky in one of the Fairylands and got herself kicked out."
7. ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 67: "And that, children, is why sometimes we don't let the Addams twins out into the general population."
8. ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 130: "I like it," said Christopher, after it became apparent that no one else was going to say anything. He shrugged before he added, "The guys- uh, the other guys, I mean, not you, Kade- put up with me because there's so few of us here, but they all went to sparkly worlds."
9. ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 152: Their tiny group managed to stay together until they had reached the front steps. Then Angels turned on Kade, and said, "I meant what I said. It's sick, how you pretend like you're something you're not."

"I was about to say the same thing to you," said Christopher. "I mean, you always did a pretty good job of pretending to be a decent human being. You had me fooled."
10. ↑ From Seanan McGuire's tumblr: "Kade is heterosexual."
11. ↑ Seanan McGuire's Continuum 13 Guest of Honour Hour
12. ↑ seanan on Tumblr