Mare Barrow

"'The gods still rule us. They have come down from the stars. And they are no longer kind.'"

Background
Mare Barrow started out as a lowly Red, doomed to conscription one day to a pointless war. She had to steal and pickpocket to make a living. But when her soft friend Kilorn Warren gets conscripted, she knows she must do something. So she makes a deal with the "leader" of the Scarlet Guard, Diana Farley to get out. Only, Farley charged her much money.

So while Mare is pickpocketing Silvers, one man catches her. But instead of turning Mare over to the officials, he lets her go with a silver coin. And after Mare tells him about her miserable life in the Stilts, he tells her he feels bad for her, and later she obtains a job as a servant for the Silver Elite. And little did she know, the man that let her go is Tiberias Calore (Cal) VII, the soon to be king.

At Queenstrial, a competitor and the victor named Evangeline Samos tips the box that Mare is in, throwing Mare off it and onto the electric net beneath it. But instead of being electrocuted, Mare falls into the arena like a bolt of lightning, revealing her unknown power of electrokinesis.

She tries to run, but then is captured by the Silvers and locked up. Instead of just killing, which would be the easier option, they have her pretend to be the daughter of a deceased war hero, Mareena Titanos. She is posed to be a Silver and has to wear a lot of makeup to cover her red flush. She is betrothed to Cal's little brother Maven Calore. The two Calores are burners, which means they can control fire.

Mare slowly falls in love with Maven, seeing that he is in his brother's shadow just like she is in her sister's. When Mare joins the Scarlet Guard, so does he. But when Maven shows his devious plan to the throne, Mare is heartbroken and pushes everyone away from her. After her brother Shade Barrow dies, she gives herself up to Maven so that they don't meet the same fate. Mare although is different when she escapes the prison.

Mare ends up killing Maven in a Silent Stone cell while he is trying to choke her.

Personality and Appearance
Mare has a stubborn personality throughout the series, never losing her natural thief instincts. In Glass Sword she is distant and pushes everyone close to her away, only focusing on her task of finding Newbloods. She even kidnaps Cameron Cole because of her knowledge of Corros Prison. During the raid of Corros prison, she kills Silvers without mercy, damaging her relationship with Cal. But when Maven imprisoned her, she has a change of heart at the prison and realizes all the mistakes she had made with her friends and family. When she escapes, she makes it all up.

Mare is short, around 5'3 or 5'2, and agile. She has brown hair with graying ends, and brown eyes. Near the end of the series her hair is dyed purple because that is the color of the lightning she produces.

Cal
Mare and Cal meet when Cal gives Mare a silver coin and a job as a servant. Mare and Cal fall in love throughout Red Queen, even though Cal is betrothed to Evangeline and Mare is betrothed to Maven. While Mare is working with the Scarlet Guard, they convince her to convince Cal to "choose" her. When he doesn't and turns Maven and Mare in, Maven reveals that he had been plotting with his mother, Queen Elara, the whole time, and Elara controls Cal and makes him kill his father.

Cal and Mare fight together in the Bowl of Bones, and manage to survive and be saved by the Scarlet Guard. Throughout the rest of the series, Cal and Mare go through some serious fights, especially after Mare ruthlessly slaughtered Silvers during the raid on Corros Prison. Cal chose the crown over Mare once, which broke Mare's heart and she was very distant from him. She even plotted against his throne, but showed her love for him by saying that he lives when they overthrow him. In the end, Cal finally chooses her over the crown, even after she killed his brother.

Kilorn Warren
Kilorn and Mare had known each other for a very long time, since their childhood in the Stilts, and Mare helped him when he was younger and about to starve to death. Although they bickered a lot and Mare usually beat him up. After Kilorn's master fell and died, he was conscripted and Mare scored a deal with Diana Farley to smuggle them out, for one thousand crowns each. Mare later heard from Jon, a newblood Seer that Jon had pushed his master, knowing what would happen afterwards. Kilorn once confessed his love towards Mare, but when she told him that she didn't feel the same way about him he understood and wasn't angered by it.

Mare once saw Kilorn bleeding out after a telkie threw him down stairs, which damaged Mare. Kilorn was also the one to save Mare from bleeding out with a healer after her and Maven fought each other. Mare and Kilorn usually trade insults, but always remain good friends

Shade Barrow
Mare views Shade as her favorite brother. When Shade faked his death to escape the war, Mare was devastated enough to go ahead and join the Scarlet Guard for revenge. When Shade saw Mare fall into Queenstrial, he was terrified that they were going to kill Mare for what she was just like they attempted to kill him. He demanded to Farley that they rescue her from the palace. When Shade dies after trying to teleport Mare to safety, she goes wild on the plane ride home which angers everyone at her. Shade's death damanges her enough that she was willing to give herself up for her friends so they didn't meet the same fate Shade did.

Maven Calore
When Mare fell into Queenstrial, she was betrothed to Maven and made a princess. This angered Maven because it meant he wouldn't get to choose who he married, and Mare doesn't really like him at first and holds him at arms length. But when Mare sees that he's in his brother's shadow, just like she's in her sister's, she sees similarities in the two and gets close to Maven. When Mare joins the Scarlet Guard, so does Maven, claiming that he doesn't believe in inequalities in between Reds and Silvers. Mare, just like everyone is fooled, but when her and Maven are caught, he reveals his devious plan to the throne with his mother, breaking Mare's heart.

But before she is sent to the Bowl of Bones, Maven tries to get Mare to come back to him, but fails. After Mare escapes the Bowl of Bones, he begins sending her letters begging her to return to him. Finally, he manages to capture by threatening her friends. During her imprisonment, Mare sees how Maven's mother molded his brain into the perfect little soldier, but couldn't get rid of his love for her, since it was a different type of love. Mare ends up killing Maven in a Silent Stone cell as he was choking her. This damaged her and she somewhat regretted it.

Electrokinesis
Mare can control and create purple lightning, with her peculiar newblood power. Julian Jacos, her mentor shows her how it's different from other Silvers because Silvers cannot create, they can only control. When Mare meets three other Electricions, she finds that she isn't as powerful as she could be. When Mare is upset, the nearest light bulbs or other electric objects usually explode.