Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content and emotional abuse.

Robert’s version of Olympus is a world of high-status power games, and Eros and Psyche are both adept navigators of this social world. They cope with the constant scrutiny by crafting personas for public appearances and social media, while struggling to maintain authenticity in other arenas. Robert uses these issues to showcase that the series’ wildly different protagonists do share some core affinities, and in the case of Eros and Psyche, their love story requires them both to embrace their true preferences and needs.

Though they are aware of one another before the events of the novel, Eros and Psyche’s real first meeting occurs when she finds him in a rare vulnerable moment. As she dresses his injuries, Psyche suggests that Eros seek medical attention rather than attend the party, but he tells her, “You know better than anyone why I need to” (16). Even as relative strangers, Eros trusts that Psyche understands the pressure to perform that he is under. Their marriage of convenience only amplifies the pressure that they feel, as their plan to thwart Aphrodite depends on crafting the perfect love story.