Content Warning: This section of the guide mentions instances of mild violence and combat, kidnapping and captivity, and attempted sexual assault and rape.

Both Riden and Alosa struggle with an extreme sense of loyalty to their respective family members, even when such loyalty threatens their safety and erodes their personal identities. Throughout Alosa’s childhood, her father would force her to “fight boys older and stronger than [she was] every day” until she could defeat them all (48-49). He also shot her and forced her to practice fighting despite the pain. Instead of viewing these experiences as the abuse of an unloving father, Alosa believes she owes her father a debt for his many harsh lessons and claims that he shows his love by making her strong enough to “survive in his world” (48). Instead of seeing his cold and damaging treatment of her as neglect and abuse, Alosa views them as effective teaching methods that have built up her resilience and self-reliance. In reality, however, her father has trained her to rely only upon herself and never to trust another person with her life or her confidence. By isolating Alosa in this way, Byrronic has become the only person she has “held onto since [she] was little” (144).