Reckless

After Kai and Paedyn escape captivity together and open up about their feelings for each other due to the threat of death, he chains her to himself. Throughout the rest of the novel, the chain comes to represent the bond between the two protagonists. As a marker of captivity and violence, the chain underscores their conflicting motivations since Kai has a duty to kill Paedyn. On the other hand, the unbreakable chain represents their bound fates and the inevitability of their romantic relationship. The chain initially feels like an artificial bond between them, forcing them to work in tandem: “I stand to my feet and walk on shaky legs until the chain grows taut. It tugs at my ankle, already tempting to tear skin. I strain to take another step, yanking at his leg” (202).

As a result, Kai and Paedyn gradually learn to balance each other out, and the tension that the chain symbolizes becomes less conflictual. For example, Paedyn wakes up one morning “tangled in [Kai’s] arms and wrapped in the chain tethering [them] together” (218). In the end, the chain is removed after they confess their love for each other. This symbolizes their newfound trust in each other, as they don’t need to be physically attached to each other in order to function as a team.