God of Malice

Nineteen-year-old Killian Carson is a fourth-year medical student at King’s University. He comes from a wealthy family outside of New York City that has mafia connections. When he was seven, Killian followed the urges he had to look under the skin of animals and people and brought his parents the bodies of rats he found and dissected. His parents, Reina and Asher, were horrified and began to make him undergo various psychiatric treatments. From this moment, Killian knew that he wanted to kill, yet he was also aware that his parents and his older brother, Gareth, feared him. Around this time, Killian overheard a conversation between his parents in which his father called him “defective” and suggested that they should have only had Gareth. Since Reina defended Killian, he knew that he’d have to hide his evil side from his mother to keep her happy, though he wouldn’t do the same for his father and brother, whom he believed hated him.

Glyndon suspects that Killian has antisocial personality disorder and therefore lacks any real feelings and only learns to act like he experiences them based on what he observes in others. Kilian puts up a facade to appease others and hide his homicidal urges, pretending to be affable and likable. He thus becomes popular, and his intelligence leads to his acceptance into medical school several years early. Killian uses his medical studies to help him satiate his urges to dissect and look inside people as he once did rats. Similarly, Killian commits smaller acts of violence and cruelty to dull his urges to kill. Aiding him in doing this is his role in the Heathens, where he can inflict violence on others often while disguised. When Killian was growing up, his father tried to interest him in hunting, but killing animals did not satisfy him. Therefore, he arranges hunts and other forms of torture in the Heathens’ initiations. Other than violence, the only thing that helps dull Killian’s urges is Glyndon: He becomes obsessed with her and stalks her like prey in part as an effort to prevent himself from killing others.

Killian has a few positive and neutral qualities that become apparent throughout the novel. He takes care of Glyndon, making her a healthy lunch with vegetables in the shape of a smiley face in Chapter 19, though his motivations for doing so are questionable. Toward the end of the novel, he begins to let her thoughts and feelings influence him, stopping him from fulfilling his ultimate fantasy of killing a man whom he wanted dead. Even so, Rina Kent never describes Killian as anything other than a villain or monster. In the novel’s opening scene, he nearly kills Glyndon and then sexually assaults her, though Glyndon believes the act has a positive outcome at the end of the story. In her author’s note, Kent defines Killian as “a true psychopath, not a make-believe, nor a bad boy who’s eventually tamed. He’s a villain with very questionable actions, […] morally black” (8). Kilian is unlike many other romance novel love interests who can be seen as “morally gray” or who have a redemption arc, yet this raises various thematic questions about The Nature of Love and who deserves love.

The students of Royal Elite University (REU) claim both great talent and great connections. Glyndon describes the admission process as difficult as “securing an audience with the queen. Not only because of the fees that just the rich and their granddaddies can afford, but also because the educational system is tough” (42). Glyndon’s friends come from various academic backgrounds and play various roles in the novel and the two universities’ secret societies. Glyndon has known her two closest friends, Ava Nash and Cecily Knight, since childhood. Like Glyndon, Ava is in the arts program at REU and is studying the cello, though her outgoing and headstrong nature often gets the group into trouble. Cecily, a psychology major, is more quiet and refined, though her strong sense of justice gets her into dangerous situations.

These women meet Annika Volkov at the beginning of the novel and quickly become close to her. Annika is an American starting the ballet program at REU, which comes as a surprise to many since her brother is the notorious leader of the Heathens. Glyndon’s brothers, Brandon and Landon, also attend REU. While Glyndon cares deeply for the good-natured and gentle Brandon, Landon’s cold and pompous arrogance makes his siblings avoid him on campus. Other characters like Glyndon’s cousin Creighton and his friend Remi round out Glyndon’s circle at REU. Characters like Landon and Creighton are connected with the secret society of the Elites, yet the others generally try to stay out of the business of these notorious clubs. In later novels in the Legacy of Gods series, many of these characters act as protagonists, and their own stories emerge in greater detail.