Our Infinite Fates

Arden, Evelyn’s love interest, functions as an antagonist for much of the novel, as he is bent on killing her before she turns 18. His motives for doing so emerge relatively late in the novel, but what is clear early on is that he is both much more cynical than Evelyn and constantly surprised, delighted, and in awe of Evelyn’s ability to remain so loving and hopeful despite knowing how her life and relationships will end. He himself allows his knowledge that love causes pain to dampen his willingness to love. In Siberia, when he allowed himself to love Evelyn, the experience of their deaths was simply too painful for him to repeat. Thus, in their next life in El Salvador, he keeps a distance from Evelyn for almost their entire 18 years, only revealing his identity to her in the moments before he kills her. She identifies him as rather “cold-blooded” in this particular lifetime, the result of the pain he felt when he allowed himself to love in Siberia. 

Nevertheless, Arden is primarily motivated by a desire to protect Evelyn; ironically, the only way he can save her from the worst fate he knows is to murder her in every lifetime. Just like her, he is unaware of their initial lifetime in 986 Greece—in his case, because the Mother wants him to think that their first interaction was when Evelyn reaped him in Lundenburg. The Mother hoped that this would cause additional suffering that would feed and sustain her, and it does, but not in the way or to the extent that she intended, as she did not account for either Evelyn’s inherent goodness or Arden’s ability to forgive. When Arden realizes that Evelyn cannot remember their earlier lifetimes, and after she uses her own body to protect Arden’s father in Northern Song, he realizes how pure of heart and empathetic Evelyn is; he can no longer hate her for the deal (he believes) she made with him, which bound him to the Mother forever. In subsequent lifetimes, though it brings Arden continuous pain, he finds Evelyn and kills her to protect her from returning to the Underrealm, which he remembers but she does not. 

Despite his ongoing attempts to shield himself from emotional involvement, Arden becomes close to the Blythe family, later explaining that Gracie was simply too unique and lovable to permit him to maintain the distance he preferred. Arden is thus a dynamic character who slowly opens himself up to human connection (and also warms up to Evelyn across various lifetimes). By the time the couple confronts the Mother together, he has become a secondary protagonist.