Mahdi is the crown prince of Matali, Neela and Yazeed's cousin and is betrothed to Serafina, who gave her heart to him, and the former betrothed of Lucia. He is eighteen years old.
Appearance[]
Mahdi has long black hair, which he usually wears tied back; brown eyes, chiseled features and a deep blue scales.
In Deep Blue, when Serafina and Neela find him passed out, he wears Lucia's purple scarf tied around his head, a gold hoop earring; his hair is in a hippokamptail and he has smudged lipstick kisses on his cheek. When he is disguised as Blu, he is tall, and is light brown, bronzed, with short blonde hair that has streaks of pure gold in and deep blue eyes. . At the Dokimí, Mahdi wears a turquoise sea silk jacket and a red turban.
In Rogue Wave, he wears the black death rider uniform. For Serafina's betrothal he wears a dark blue sea-silk jacket instead of a death rider jacket, with a bright yellow anemone attached to one lapel; his hair is loose, and he wears a gold betrothal ring which is studded with emeralds. For Lucia's betrothal, he wears the black death rider uniform, a matching turban and his betrothal ring as an earring.
In Dark Tide, at Lucia's party, he wears a white sea-silk shirt and emerald jacket.
Deep Blue[]
Mahdi is handsome and fairly self-confident he won’t get caught partying and goes out the night before the Domikí with Yazeed. He is found by Neela and Sera in the Reggia.
He goes missing when Cerulea is attacked during Serafina's Dokimí.
It is later revealed that he disguised himself as a merman named Blu who helps save Sera and Neela from Traho along with the other Praedatori members, Verde, and Yazeed who disguises himself as Grigio. Sera falls in love with Blu not knowing that he's Mahdi.
Rogue Wave[]
Prince Mahdi of Matali reappears in the Ostrokon of Cerulea, disguised as a death rider.
When he enters the safe house Sera was hiding in, she pins him to the door with a dagger, believing him to be a traitor.
Mahdi reveals he was actually Blu, and is recovering from his speargun wound.
Traho had captured Mahdi and was going to have him shot, but Lucia stopped him. Mahdi saw a chance, so he faked to bargain away Matali without a war in an effort to get closer to Traho. He also reveals that the reason he must act like he is in love with Lucia is because he needs to get close to her family so the resistance can have a spy on the inside giving them information.
He escapes with Sera into the basement of a new safehouse when the one they were in was attacked, but they realize they left two mer behind and go back. The death riders discover them and Mahdi attempts to lead the death riders off Sera and the two mer's trail by making sounds against the cave wall.
He is not seen again until he rescues Sera with Coco from drowning because of her long contact with Maria Theresa, the dead infanta of Spain. Afterwards, he tells Sera they are in a safe place. When she mentions going to the freshwaters, he asks her where she has been all this time and asks her to trust him. Sera tells him everything that happened to her after the duca's palazzo was attacked.
That night, he and Sera are betrothed in a simple but beautiful ceremony. They exchange rings, but when they go to eat dinner, Mahdi, unaware to the fact Sera was watching him, asked Rafael, the justice of the seas who conducted the betrothal, what was to happen if one of them married someone else. Rafael replied that the marriage would be null and void. It is later revealed that Mahdi asked this because he was aware that Vallerio was going to attempt to betroth him to Lucia instead of Sera.
During Lucia’s Dokimí, he warns Sera with a convoca to get out of the Kolisseo while she can, because if Vallerio found out she was in the city, he'd kill her. However the arena is guarded by Kobold soldiers. He is not seen after that.
Dark Tide[]
Mahdi keeps up the ruse that he is in love with Lucia, who enchants him several times, much to Serafina's displeasure.
He helps the Black Fins in one of their missions to infiltrate Cerulea's treasure stores because the BFR is running low on funds. Mahdi arranges a party and orders the dimming of the lava lamps so that nobody noticed that the lava pressure had dropped when the Black Fins diverted lava from the main line to break into the treasury. He also exchanges several conchs with Serafina and when they meet up, the couple share a kiss at their brief meeting in the reggia. When he leaves, he calls back to Sera. Telling her that she is his heart and his soul, which he continues telling her throughout the rest of the series. But he says it like this: Mere dila Mere atma
At the Depth Charge in the Lagoon, Lucia puts somna potion in his drink, drugging him, so that he would fall asleep. She then performs an illegal, heinous darksong spell to see his memories and sees that he is betrothed to, and still in love with, Serafina. Overcome with rage and jealousy, Lucia pulls a knife on him but Bianca, her best friend, stops her and suggests that Serafina enchanted Mahdi to fall in love with her (which she didn't) and Lucia agrees and decides to kill Serafina.
Sea Spell[]
Mahdi intends to leave Lucia and go to the Blackfins' Headquarters to help them fight Vallerio. However, after Lucia captures Serafina and shows Mahdi the shell ring Mahdi gave to Serafina two years before deep blue, as proof Serafina is dead, Mahdi is heartbroken and makes a plan to sing his wedding vows so he can attempt to assassinate Vallerio and Traho. Later in the battle against Lucia, Vallerio and Portia, Mahdi gets between a spear and Serafina, causing Mahdi to get wounded severely. Mahdi temporarily dies when his heartbeat stops but he is revived by the doctors of the BFR, And is put into a coma. Later, after Serafina returns from defeating Abbadon, Mahdi goes with Serafina to her high school graduation, apparently marrying her, not to many years after Sea Spell ends.
Trivia[]
- Jennifer Donnelly revealed in an interview that Mahdi loves beach plum-flavoured bubble tea with frog-egg boba.