Lani is the only daughter of High Priest Haluki, former leader of Quill. She is a minor love interest of Alex Stowe in The Unwanteds. She is a current love interest of Samheed Burkesh. She played a major role in the Quill VS Artime war as she thought she killed the High Priest Justine. She is the second youngest known to be Purged. She is a current Artiméan.
Finding Artimé
Lani is the second youngest known person to be Purged, as she was Purged at just age 12. Her younger brother Henry Haluki was purged at the age of 10. After, she was crying and being smaller than the rest of the kids on the bus. She quickly befriends Alex Stowe and develops a slight crush on him which will later turn into a complicated relationship.
After she finds Artimé, she becomes interested and excels in almost every subject equally, except for drama. Lani becomes friends with Meghan, Alex, and Samheed and they form a small group of friends. After a period of time, she was promoted to Magical Warrior Training before Alex and uses her spells to tease and prank him. Alex becomes angry and cuts off his friends almost completely for six months after being hurt again by Lani. During Magical Warrior Training, Alex becomes friendly with his group again but also gets revenge on Lani. During one of the classes, to demonstrate a spell, Alex turns invisible and kisses her on the cheek.
Alex then gets a new clue on finding Aaron and sees Quill, once again cutting his group of friends off. 3 days later, after the incident, Lani storms into his room and gets Alex's attention again after telling him that he can't just kiss a girl on the cheek and not talk to her for three days.
After Alex exposes Quill by meeting Aaron again, Lani plays an important part in the war. She shoots her father, meaning to kill him, but he turns into a wolf that lives on Artimé, who helps to protect it. Later she finds out that he was a spy for Artime in Quill. She is the killer of the High Priest Justine, who is also Mr. Today's sister. After the war, Alex's and Lani's romantic feelings are hinted again when Alex plays with Lani's mango scented hair. She likes Alex, but it was mentioned that he ignored her when Meghan was around. Lani tried to get Alex attention by doing spells.
Island of Silence
In The Island of Silence, it is a year after "The Unwanteds". Mr. Today tells Alex Stowe that he should be the leader of Artime after Mr. Today is dead. Alex doesn't know what to say, so he tells his friends. Lani then is sad because since her father is High Priest Haluki, she was supposed to be the next mage of Artime.
But unexpectedly, a raft comes crashing at the shore, and Lani, Alex, Meghan, and Samheed (easily referred to as LAMS), save two teenagers from a Western island called Warbler. A girl and boy, who Alex calls the "Silents," are taken to the mansion hospital wing quickly.
Meghan also feels a little sad because her brother is slowly shutting her out. Lani says that Meghan should get away for a while, so she, Meghan, and Samheed use Ms. Morning's boat to go and have an adventure.
But this adventure, is not what they were expecting...
They land on an island with no sound at all. They have no idea what is going on until someone shoots them all with a sleep dart. Lani wakes up and hears Meghan screaming because people are sewing thorns in her neck, so she cannot speak. Lani lets Meghan get away from the people, but she and Samheed (who is still knocked out from the sleep dart) are still trapped, with people sewing thorns in their necks.
While all of this is happening, Aaron Stow is trying to overthrow High Priest Haluki, so that he could earn his "rightful place" as ruler of Quill. He teams up with the Restorers of Quill, where they are hiding out in High Priest Haluki's house. Back in Artime, Alex Stowe and Claire Morning are arranging a vacation for Mr. Today, so that he can go back to his home land, Warbler. Before Mr. Today left, he said that he would visit Gunnar Haluki, and that Claire can tag along, too. Mr. Today goes to Gunnar's house and is murdered by Aaron Stowe, and Claire is captured.
Alex, who has no idea that Mr. Today is dead yet, finds out that the boat is missing and goes with Simber to the island that they landed at. There, he finds the boat, and a weak Meghan hanging onto it. Alex takes her home, but halfway through Simber's flight, he freezes and falls face first into the ocean. Alex manages to get Meghan back to Artime, and finds out that Samheed and Lani are still missing on the island, and that Artime has disappeared.
Everyone is counting on Alex to bring Artime back, and to rescue Lani and Samheed. Back on the island, Lani and Samheed are unable to speak and are stuck in a dark room, waiting for help to come.
A brillant clue that Mr. Today leaves for Alex is deciphered by Alex, Sky (the Silent girl), Crow (the Silent boy), and Henry. Soon, Alex discovers the key to saving Artime from the dangers beyond that monexistent gate.
Island of Fire
At the beginning of the book Lani and Samheed are trapped on an island.
The painful thorn necklaces that make you unable to speak that have been put on Meghan, Sky, and Crow are put on Lani and Samheed. Samheed and Lani are put into a very dark cave, and they form a bond tighter than friendship. Samheed has developed romantic feelings for Lani (that Lani shares).
When Lani is taken out of the cave, away from Samheed, Samheed loses most hope and becomes very depressed. When he is taken out of the cave as well, he discovers that he and Lani will be put to work on the Island Of Silence (Warbler Island). They are both relieved to see that both of them are alive, and silently, they both figure out that they kind of love each other. When they are allowed to learn the sign language of Warbler, they use that and the secret tapping lanuage they created in the cave. They both are worried that Alex and the other Unwanteds have forgot about them completely and they lose hope in them for a short time.
The reason Alex and the other Unwanteds have not saved them is because when Mr. Today died, the whole of Artime is gone and It has taken over a month for Alex to restore it. In this process, he falls in love with Sky, a beautiful girl from Warbler island. He sometimes thinks of Lani and feels guilty, and he still knows that he is attracted to her, even the slightest bit. But he doesn't know what has happened between Lani and Samheed.
When Alex and some other Unwanteds save Lani and Samheed, Alex gets a small clue that Samheed and Lani have a different connection then before. When they are back on the ship and Lani hears the news that her mother is dead, Alex expects that she will want him to hold her in his arms and comfort her, but instead she turns to Samheed and holds out her arms. He picks her up and comforts her with soothing words and keeping her close to him in a hug, which feels slightly more romantic and caring then friendly and normal. Alex's heart breaks slightly, but then he realizes his strong feelings for Sky.
When Alex is injured because of the bold rescue, He knows that Samheed and Lani are spending most of their time together. When Sky tries to leave Artime, Alex swims out to her despite his injuries and admits his true feelings for her. She agrees to stay in Artime for the time being.
When the new Unwanteds start rolling in, Alex, the new head mage, starts the tradition of an annual Masquarade ball. During the ball, the people from Warbler Island try to take Lani, Sky, Samheed, and Crow back to Warbler, because that lot is their property. The story will be continued in the Island Of Legends coming fall 2014.
Lani is the girl with long dark hair on the cover
Appearance
Lani has olive skin, deep blue eyes, and long black hair. She is described by Alex as having a "perfect description." In Island of Fire, Lani has orange eyes because of the acid eye drops put in everyone's eyes as branded property of Warbler. k