Prince Rhen

Prince Rhen is the cursed Crown Prince of Emberfall in Brigid Kemmerer's A Curse So Dark and Lonely series — condemned to repeat the same autumn season endlessly, transforming at its end into a horrific beast, until a girl falls genuinely in love with him and breaks the enchantment. He has endured this cycle for years, bringing girls to Emberfall and failing to inspire love, until Harper arrives from Washington D.C. and proves to be nothing like any girl he has encountered before.

Rhen is a genuinely complex reimagining of the Beauty and the Beast archetype — a prince who has been shaped by centuries of failure and the particular desperation of someone who knows exactly what he is condemned to become. Kemmerer develops him as someone whose charm and kindness are real but whose relationship with manipulation and self-interest is complicated by long experience of needing to inspire love he cannot naturally earn. His dynamic with Harper is the series' emotional core.