The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King

This section depicts The Vulnerability in Trust as Raihn and Oraya work past his betrayal and rekindle their former romance. During their first intimate moment since the Kejari, Oraya removes Raihn’s courtly clothing. She hates the clothing, which she calls a costume that tries “to make Raihn into one of the people who had once subjugated him. […] the version of him that [she] revealed with every opened button, every new expanse of imperfect, once-human skin. This was him” (350). This scene not only represents Raihn’s willingness to shed his literal and figurative armor around her but also her willingness to see past her recent misconceptions about his character. Through doing so, Oraya is better able to recognize and act upon her feelings for him.

This moment is not an immediate fix to her deeply rooted trust issues, but it does begin to establish vulnerability between them that will eventually lead to trust. Oraya still claims to hate him but without the same vigor as before. The words are instead “weak, sad, bare” (355). Oraya doesn’t hate Raihn but rather hates the fact that she doesn’t hate him as she believes she should for her own protection. What she sees after she says these hateful words to him reveals her conflicting feelings about this strange stage in their romance: “There was no hurt in his eyes. No anger. Only gentle, affectionate understanding. I hated when he looked at me like that. Or maybe I hated that, too, the same way I hated him. Not at all” (355). Oraya is still afraid to give in to her feelings for Raihn because it would mean making herself vulnerable, once again, to potential betrayal. Raihn feels the same way, saying that “Love is fucking terrifying. […] I think that’s true no matter who you are” (186). Even when they give into their blossoming romance, they both agree that “nothing about this was safe […] this monstrous, beautiful, terrible thing [they]’d created between [them]” (360). Though neither is ready to trust the other yet, the fact that they are willing to begin to show each other vulnerability lays the foundation for trust to be rebuilt. Their doubts and fears illustrate that danger is inherent to trust, as it requires taking on the risk of being hurt.

The Vulnerability in Trust has political implications as well as personal. Raihn and Oraya’s tentative steps toward intimacy also allow Oraya to study Raihn’s Heir Mark in depth for the first time. At the beginning of the sequel, Oraya states that they’re on opposing sides that have been in constant war for millennia. She is obligated to defend the Hiaj while Raihn is obligated to defend the Rishan as the respective heirs for each clan. Yet when she studies his tattoo, Oraya realizes that his mark is like hers: “The arrangement was different, but [they] both had the smoke, the moons, the same elegant red strokes. […] they were obvious mates to each other” (418-19). Instead of viewing herself and Raihn as enemies, Oraya begins to see themselves as allies with the potential to unite both clans in peace for the first time in history. That will require people like Jesmine and Vale to risk trusting each other despite their fraught histories, just as Raihn and Oraya risk trusting each other.

Up until Part 5, the examples Raihn drew on for the conflict between Love Versus Power were restricted to the stories of Neculai and Vincent. As Vale proves his trustworthiness in the latter half of the novel, however, Raihn begins to see a positive example of this theme. Raihn has never viewed Vale as the romantic type in the centuries they’ve known each other. While Vale was never as abusive as Neculai and his court, he has always been power-hungry. Yet since falling in love with his wife, Lilith, Vale’s ways have changed. When Vale explicitly accredits this change to his love for Lilith, Raihn recognizes that while Vale’s initial vision for the House of Night 200 years prior had been to “Be bigger, be stronger, and above all, be more powerful,” Vale was now “looking for something more. Maybe he had found it” (414). While recognizing Vale’s transformation does not prompt Raihn to immediately forgive him for his part in Raihn’s enslavement and the torturing and killing of so many others, it does reframe Raihn’s beliefs about love and power. Later, when Mische accuses Raihn of giving up Oraya for power,

those four words hit [Raihn] in the chest like arrows […]. Because Mische was right. [He] had sacrificed in the name of power. [He] thought [his] sacrifices were [his] own, but that wasn’t true. Oraya had suffered the weight of them (436-37).

The accusation prompts Raihn to remember his earlier conversation with Vale, in which Vale states: “In those days, I was more committed to the House of Night than I was to anything. It was the only love I knew. I let it define me” (414). Following Vale’s positive example, Raihn decides not to let his dedication to bettering the House of Night as its king overpower and destroy the love he feels for Oraya and the sacred friendship he shares with Mische.