Job: Winter Girl

From Melissa Marr's website:

Donia (Don ya), means "bitter" or "dark." Donia was once mortal, until she was chosen to undergo the trial to become the Summer Queen—a trial she failed.

Characteristics: Has long white hair streaming out like spirals of smoke from her head. She also has icy blue lips and a pallor which comes from carrying Beira's cold. Her eyes seem to have snow falling behind them.

All the Winter Girls must play a part in Keenan's, the Summer King's, search for his Summer Queen. They are to warn the girls Keenan chooses not to pick up the staff. They are to warn them of the pain they experience carrying Winter's cold; they are to tell the other girls that it is stupid to love or trust Keenan.

Personality: Donia is outwardly antagonistic toward Keenan and all the other Sidhe she encounters. From the time she became Winter Girl, Keenan sent members of his court to guard her, but this was a point of contention. Donia viewed it as him spying on her and, in an effort to get him to withdrawal these men, she began freezing them; most recovered but not all. The emotional pain of losing Keenan, the physical pain of carrying the cold and the deep sense of betrayal Donia feels toward the Sidhe in general, and Keenan and Beira (the Winter Queen) in particular, makes her isolate herself.

This is also driven by pride. Donia seems to view her taking up the staff as a profound example of her love for Keenan. Becoming the Winter Girl negates her gesture in a humiliatingly public way. That she continues to love Keenan -- to be jealous of the Summer Girls and to both long for and dread the day another girl loves Keenan enough to try for the staff -- makes it unbearable for her to be in his company.

Her regard for him, however, exceeds her pride and her pain. She is intensely loyal and plays her part as Winter Girl by the rules, but always with an eye to helping Keenan succeed and find the Summer Queen. Aside from how Donia feels about Keenan, her behavior toward others: Beira, Aislinn and Seth, indicate she is, in spite of her temper, a morally good character and is not really given to selfishness or cruelty.

History: Donia was once a mortal girl but was pursued by Keenan (in the early 1900s) and fell in love with him. When he explained he was really the Summer King searching for his Queen, Donia believed she was "the one". In order to discover if she was, in fact, Summer Queen, Donia had to take up the Winter Queen's staff. If she was, the curse on Keenan would be broken.

Donia was not the Summer Queen. When she touched the staff, Winter's cold filled her, stealing her mortality and filling her with painful, icy cold. For the past fifty years, she has been Winter Girl and lives alone in a cottage on the edge of Huntsdale with only Sasha, her pet wolf, for company.