Oh!!! Thank you so much, mystery author! I’ve been waiting for my gift all week, what torture to draw the last straw of the lot, and then to get both Antonin and Andromeda in your story! Thank you, I was so overjoyed to see this.

I love that they’re getting out together. That’s such a soft spot for me, that instead of seeking refuge with the Order, Andromeda and Antonin are just—cutting ties. Escaping. Saving their hides, like the people caught at an intersection of so many competing values that they are. And you gave them a history together! That was such a fun detail, a really good way to seed in my ask for Antonin’s culture and their outsider status. I admit, I am swooning a bit at the suggestion that he’s always had a soft spot for her, and that she may have returned that. Yes, yes.

I’m rooting for them to make it to Mother Russia, to make it out and build a new life together away from the miserable social strictures of Britain and the war that consumed so many of their generation. Thank you, again, for giving me such a lovely gift. 💖