King of Ashes

“Her mahogany skin is deeper and darker in the sepia-tone filter that diffuses the cinematography of his dream. […] She is wearing the nurse scrubs he last saw her in that day. The cuff of her left pants leg has minute drops of blood like an abstract henna tattoo.”

Cosby uses color imagery and similes to provide foreshadowing. Sepia is associated with historical photographs, so the “sepia-tone filter” of Roman’s dream signals that his mother is part of his past rather than his present. In addition, the simile likening the “minute drops of blood” on her pants to “an abstract henna tattoo” makes the blood seem innocuous and even artistic while offering another clue that Bonita Carruthers is deceased.

“He moved through their world like a dolphin gliding through water playing savior for a lost sailor, but Roman knew what those tattoos stood for, and knew Khalil wasn’t a dolphin. He was a shark.”

The mercenary is compared to both “a dolphin gliding through water playing savior for a lost sailor” and a shark. This juxtaposition aligns with how Khalil is helpful to his clients and his friends but deadly to his targets. The metaphor comparing Khalil to a shark fosters a foreboding tone and foreshadows the mercenary’s importance as a key weapon in Roman’s arsenal throughout his conflict with the novel’s antagonists.