Carter Kane once traveled the world with his father, Julius, a famous Egyptologist, but now he co-heads Brooklyn House, the Twenty-first Nome of the House of Life, with his younger sister, Sadie. He also once hosted Horus, the Egyptian god of war. While that relationship ended, Carter has chosen to follow the path of Horus—that is, he channels the god’s magical combat abilities without letting the god inside his head.

While he has a good sense of humor, Carter is a studious, serious, and cautious teen by nature. Julius impressed upon him the need to always put his best foot forward—a need he believes matters more for them since they are African American. Therefore, Carter wore khakis and dress shirts when he traveled with his father. Recently, however, he’s begun wearing more casual clothes such as jeans, tees, and sneakers—though he sometimes backslides and appears in the outfit of a “junior professor,” as Sadie describes it.

Carter’s not a risk-taker, though he has been in—and survived—plenty of risky situations, including one that found him rescuing Zia Rashid, his future girlfriend. He’s never seen himself as a leader, either, but he never shirks that responsibility when called upon.

Which is lucky for the world of Egyptian magic, because he was most recently called upon to assume the throne of the pharaoh of the House of Life.