Flock

Twenty-five-year-old Sean Roberts is one of Cecelia’s love interests. He lives in Triple Falls and works for Roman Horner’s company, Horner Technologies. He had a happy, peaceful childhood with his parents whom he admires. Sean is best friends with Dominic King and one of the leaders of the Ravenhood, a Robin Hood-style society that siphons money from corporations and redistributes it to struggling local businesses in Triple Falls.

Sean is attractive and mysterious. When they first meet at the Horner Tech orientation, Cecelia is taken by “the alluring outline of his features along with his incredible build” (21). Once they start spending time together, she realizes she’s drawn to his personality, too. Sean has a dominant personality: He is controlling and demanding and sets explicit rules for his burgeoning romance with Cecelia. However, Sean is also generous and encouraging. He particularly urges Cecelia to take risks, trust herself, and make choices that let her realize her unspoken desires. For example, he wants her to be with him and Dominic because he thinks this polyamorous relationship is what Cecelia really wants.

Sean has anti-corporate, anti-establishment beliefs. He doesn’t like to be held accountable to timelines or schedules. He doesn’t believe in social media and is convinced these platforms are the government’s way of controlling American citizens. Instead, he enjoys spending time in the woods and relishes being outside. Cecelia grows to appreciate and admire these facets of Sean’s character and lifestyle. 

At the same time, Sean doesn’t always communicate in a forthright manner. Because of his work with the Ravenhood, he is often withholding and speaks in cryptic lines or riddles, which frustrates Cecelia. She becomes even more intolerant of Sean’s behavior after he and Dominic break up with her. Sean insists he loves Cecelia and is only trying to protect her. However, his possessive tendencies confuse Cecelia and make her doubt the authenticity of his feelings and intentions. His character creates narrative tension and spurs Cecelia toward action and change.

Dominic King is another of Cecelia’s love interests and one of the leaders of the Ravenhood. When Dominic was six, his parents died in a fire at Horner Tech. They were working in one of the labs at the time and Roman passed the incident off as an accident. In the years since, the Ravenhood have come to believe the fire was murder, although they have yet to discover why Roman wanted to kill Dominic’s parents. Orphaned, Dominic went to live with his aunt Delphine King. Now, Delphine lives alone and has cancer; Dominic loves Delphine and does his best to check in on her but struggles to care for her. Quiet and removed, Dominic doesn’t explicitly articulate how these experiences have shaped him; his reluctance to be vulnerable suggests that he isn’t comfortable talking about his pain or showing weakness.

When they first meet, Cecelia is immediately taken by Dominic’s appearance. He has “a prominent widow’s peak,” “long waves of rich-looking, thick onyx hair,” and “equally dark brows above silver eyes” (36). Despite his marked “masculine beauty,” Dominic doesn’t have a warm personality. He is often cruel and rude, particularly to Cecelia. Because he treats her poorly and belittles her, Cecelia becomes convinced that he hates her. Over time, however, Cecelia realizes that Dominic is as attracted to her as she is to him. She also learns that like Sean, Dominic has unconventional ideas about sex and relationships. The trio enters into a polyamorous relationship, with Cecelia and Dominic also developing a one-on-one connection.

Dominic’s steely exterior belies the tenderness and empathy he displays in his relationship with Cecelia. However, angry and heartbroken over his parents’ deaths and desperate to resolve the mystery of what happened to them, he often self-isolates and does little to endear others to him. Because he’s focused on this investigation and the Ravenhood, Dominic doesn’t expect to fall in love with Cecelia. Indeed, the vulnerability Cecelia brings out challenges Dominic’s focus on his sociopolitical work with his private love affair.

Cecelia’s father Roman Horner is a secondary character. Cecelia has never had a relationship with Roman, as he and her mom split up when Cecelia was still young. Roman has paid his allotted child support but otherwise has no sense of “his biological obligation” to Cecelia (2). He runs the Fortune 500 company Horner Technologies and is constantly consumed with work. Even when Cecelia moves in, Roman is “rarely […] seen and never heard” around the house, keeping himself at a distance (2). 

When they have meals together, Roman struggles to respond to Cecelia’s attempts at conversation and doesn’t open up to her emotionally. Roman is also constantly irritable and on edge, though Cecelia can’t “gauge what makes Roman uneasy because the man is impenetrable stone” (100). These withholding tendencies make him difficult to connect with. 

Cecelia is shocked when she learns that Roman has been shorting his employees’ checks and might be responsible for the deaths of Dominic’s parents. These mysteries make Cecelia’s father an antagonist in the novel, as his presence creates tension and his reputation incites narrative conflict.

Dominic’s aunt Delphine King is a minor character. When she was 20 years old, Dominic’s parents died and Delphine “became a reluctant parent” (323), taking Dominic in and assuming the role of his primary caretaker. In the narrative present, she is in her forties and has cancer. Cecelia is heartbroken to see that Delphine has given up even though she’s still young. Delphine is a strong woman, but her loneliness, heartbreak, and isolation complicate her ability to engage with life. This is why Cecelia invokes Tyler’s help in Chapter 35 to clean Delphine’s house and help her take care of herself. During the visit, Cecelia learns that Delphine and Tyler had a forbidden love affair years prior, a secret Cecelia agrees to keep since Tyler is still in love with the older woman.