The Serpent and the Wings of Night

Content Warning: This section of the guide features discussion of emotional abuse.

“This was not the stare of a panicked child who didn’t know what she was doing. This was the stare of a creature who understood she was confronting death itself, and still chose to spit in its face.”

Vincent’s perception of Oraya as a child holds sway over who she becomes as an adult. By living among vampires, she spits in the face of death daily. To win the Kejari, Oraya defies all odds to survive. Her grit and determination are a large asset to her character’s strength.

“Vincent had carved these lessons into me. Never trust. Never yield. Always guard your heart. And when I had disobeyed, I had paid for it dearly. But not with him. Never with him. […] I spent my entire life afraid, forever conscious of my weakness and inferiority, but at least I had a single safe harbor.”

The imagery of Vincent “carving” lessons into Oraya demonstrates the harmful nature of his particular brand of affection. Her apparent idealization of him in the later half of the novel highlights her dependency on Vincent and the depth of her loyalty to him: a connection that will be confronted and challenged throughout the novel.

“A pang rang out in my chest. I didn’t like to openly acknowledge my own hopes. It made me feel […] stupid. Childish. Even more so to hear Vincent reference them aloud.”

Oraya is ashamed to admit her own desires aloud to Vincent. Whereas a healthy father-daughter relationship should be based on mutual respect and unconditional love, Oraya only feels comfortable sharing with him the things she knows he’ll approve of. In this moment, Oraya speaks of her desire to find her remaining family members, if they exist. This implies that Vincent isn’t supportive of this desire, or of her finding a sense of community and belonging among them, which is what she later reveals as her reasoning behind locating them.