Marcus Osborn serves as the novel’s deuteragonist and is initially presented as controlled and calculating, particularly in his planned approach to retaliation, qualities that remain even as his attachment to Preston deepens. Introduced as the captain of a rival hockey team, he comes from Stantonville and occupies a markedly different social position from Preston within the hierarchy surrounding Graystone Ridge. His outsider status shapes his antagonistic relationship with the founding families, particularly the Osborn legacy that excluded him. His interest in Preston combines his conflict with the founding families with a fascination that predates it, beginning with their childhood encounter and developing through their hockey rivalry. That fixation gradually develops into sexual and emotional attachment, while his possessiveness and aggression remain important aspects of their relationship. The Mango Candy he repeatedly gives Preston links this attachment to their childhood meeting, but its later association with sex and Marcus’s retaliatory violence prevents it from functioning as a symbol of purely innocent affection; instead, it connects tenderness, desire, and brutality within his relationship with Preston.

Marcus’s possessive attachment to Preston becomes one of his most prominent traits. He views Preston as his “fairy prince” (25), a nickname that reflects both his longstanding fascination with Preston and his desire to claim him. Marcus is increasingly attentive to Preston’s reactions to touch, although he does not initially know the trauma underlying them. He adapts his approach accordingly, and his sadistic preferences become compatible with Preston’s masochistic desires, while their developing communication allows Preston to establish clearer boundaries and exercise greater agency within their sexual relationship. Marcus’s capacity for care therefore coexists with his continuing desire for dominance and possession. As their relationship develops, Marcus also seeks communication and emotional exclusivity alongside their physical intimacy, revealing needs that extend beyond his initial sexual fixation on Preston.

Marcus’s development centers on his growing capacity for romantic intimacy and vulnerability. Initially describing sex as “boring” (58) and approaching sexual relationships with emotional detachment, his connection with Preston introduces vulnerability and emotional investment largely absent from his previous sexual relationships. His priorities gradually shift away from his revenge against his father as his attachment to Preston becomes more important. When he believes Preston is dead, his grief leads to an extreme retaliatory killing spree; the episode exposes how closely Marcus’s love and possessiveness have become intertwined with his capacity for brutality. His lack of satisfaction after taking revenge further demonstrates that violence cannot resolve his loss. By the end, he withdraws from the Osborn power struggle and creates some distance from the Vencor world by building a life with Preston in New York, while maintaining his hockey career and relationship with his mother. His attachment to Preston therefore changes his priorities and expands his capacity for intimacy, but his possessiveness, sadism, and violence remain unresolved aspects of his anti-heroism.

Jude Callahan and Kane Davenport function as important secondary figures and Preston’s primary support system, reinforcing the novel’s theme of found family. As members of the founding families and fellow Vipers hockey players, they share a deep-seated bond with Preston formed within the violent culture surrounding Vencor and Graystone Ridge. Jude expresses his loyalty through direct protectiveness and physical intervention, while Kane is more controlled and pragmatic in the way he responds to Preston’s crises. Together, they act as Preston’s protectors, closely monitoring his medication, behavior, and periods of self-destructive distress. Their concern is most evident when they worry about him “spiraling” (425), their informal term for periods when his behavior and mental state become increasingly difficult to manage. Their willingness to resort to physical intervention, such as knocking him out, emphasizes both the intensity of their protectiveness and the extent to which violence has become normalized within their friendship. This moral tension is reinforced by their own participation in violent revenge, with Jude carrying out a series of killings and Kane helping him identify his targets. Though they are initially hostile toward Marcus, Kane becomes more accepting of the relationship, while Jude remains distrustful but agrees to tolerate Marcus for Preston’s sake.

The parental figures in the novel illustrate contrasting forms of parental presence, absence, protection, and harm that shape Preston’s and Marcus’s development. Lawrence Armstrong, Preston’s father, initially appears as a cold and distant figure, a “robot” (460) who struggles to understand and respond to his son’s behavior. However, his later efforts to protect Preston and repair their relationship reveal genuine care without erasing the consequences of his earlier emotional distance. Preston’s mother, Valérie Armstrong, is remembered as loving and whimsical, but her death by suicide compounds the trauma of Preston’s childhood and contributes to his enduring feelings of abandonment and loss. Marcus’s parents highlight the theme of Class Disparities and the Power of Wealth. His father, Andrew Osborn, treats his estranged son instrumentally, attempting to draw Marcus into the Osborn family as part of his concern with succession and preserving the family legacy. Marcus’s mother, June Osborn, provides a contrasting model of parental attachment unconnected to the status and inheritance Andrew offers. Her refusal of Andrew’s money and consistent devotion to Marcus strengthen his resistance to being absorbed into the Osborn family and its expectations. June’s influence does not, however, make Marcus a moral counterpoint to the founding families; his continued sadism and violence complicate any such interpretation.

Dr. Vivienne Duret and Lenin are hallucinated figures who reveal important aspects of Preston’s psychological state. Dr. Duret provides the maternal comfort and attentive presence Preston associates with what he lost after his mother’s death. She functions as an imagined source of reassurance and guidance, allowing Preston to articulate experiences and emotions that he struggles to communicate to others. Lenin is an imagined enforcer associated with Preston’s father, connecting punishment with the paternal attention Preston craves. Preston experiences Lenin’s beatings as real, but they are eventually revealed to be acts of self-harm, connecting his need for paternal attention with his self-destructive relationship with pain. Together, these figures blur the distinction between Preston’s perceptions and external reality while reflecting his unmet needs for maternal comfort and paternal attention.