The Books of Beginning Wiki
Advertisement

[SPOILERS]


Rafe is a boy from New York who lived during the time of the Separation. Kate meets him when the Atlas takes her back into the past during the Fire Chronicle, and learns that he dreamed of her, and according to a magical interpretation she would die if she stayed in New York for too long. Kate stays, however, and the two fall in love and Rafe shares his backstory, which includes his mother's murder due to the nonwizard hatred of magic. As the Separation draws closer, the kids who Rafe and his friends Henrietta Burke and Scruggs protect end up getting caught in a fire. He saves all of them, and shortly before this rescues Kate from the Dire Magnus, but is unable to save Scruggs or Henrietta Burke to his sadness. Before he and Kate escape from the church, Henrietta Burke tells Kate to love Rafe to save his life. Although Kate knows Rafe's destiny is to become the Dire Magnus, she already loves him, and stops time to save him, which she knows causes her family's separation years later. Once Rafe finds out about his destiny, he vehemently refuses, but once Kate's life is put in danger, he sacrifices himself to become the next Dire Magnus to save her life. In the Black Reckoning, Kate still loves him despite knowing that he unwillingly became the enemy. Rafe appears to her several times as a spirit, but Kate learns that even those spirits had been tainted by the Dire Magnus and that he had been manipulating her. Finally, after Emma strips all of the former spirits of the Dire Magnus from him and gives him ownership of the books so that once he dies, the power of the books is destroyed, Kate stabs him in the chest, releasing the first spirit of the Dire Magnus and releasing Rafe. After reassuring Kate that her family was okay, he and Kate go to hide at the cabin near Dr. Pym's home. They spend a day there, happy that they can finally be together but knowing that Rafe has to die in order for the Books to be fully destroyed. At the end of the day, Rafe asks Kate to always remember him by wearing the locket her mother gave her, and she agrees sadly. At the end, Rafe sacrifices himself to save the world, and a grief-stricken Kate buries him and tells him that she loves him before returning to her parents.

Advertisement