SwordcaneLal

I normally don’t post when there’s this many comments on a chapter, but I wanted to give my condolences for Sky’s death. I’ve never had a horse, but one of my childhood friends did, and, for her, losing a horse was basically like losing a sibling. Family that has history and gets you in a way no one else does. I hope you are being surrounded by love and you have as much space to grieve as you need.

To be in a love triangle without knowing that you’re in one is tricky! But Lucas is dropping enough hints that it feels like Jubal is actively ignoring the signals. Great story.

I really hope Simon isn’t truly gone. He’s really the only character in all of this that I’m interested in and I’ll be sad if the story becomes focused on Yidian instead.

I’m so relieved that the truth didn’t harm Kyan’s friendship with Max! I’ve been worrying about that for chapters. I love Noah taking the lead to form a kids’ bedtime strike.

Despite the pain surrounding his relationships with Konstantinos and Gideon, Kavan’s primary relational commitment is to his brothers. He found a way to bring them into the vampiric world, and there is no way he would choose to abandon them, if he had a choice. So, he’s going back, as soon as he’s allowed to. I disagree. I think Gideon can rationalize his feelings all he wants, but he needs to be confronted with his actual feelings. It’s in moments like with Mauro, or when Kavan talked about not bonding with each other that he proves that Gideon does actually want Kavan, as much as he’s afraid of that desire. In general, it feels like a lot of my suppositions from the last chapter were in line with the story’s direction. Konstantin is getting bad advice/direction from Katherine. Gideon’s history of abandonment does have him far from being able to accept their bond. They all need to learn how to communicate better. Gideon & Kavan work well when they’re working together, so I’m excited about this next step. Solving a problem to protect their species from detection will take time together and remind them how their skills and perspectives meld to make them both better. If there’s hope for them, it might be in Gideon having the freedom to choose Kavan, instead of just ending up together because they are fated.

This is a lot of names, places, people and dates for a first chapter. I hope it slows down soon so I can figure out who’s who! It seems like it’ll be an interesting story, once we readers can get a handle on it.

As a child of the 80s, when no fault divorces changed lives in much of North America, I find the realities of a century ago very distressing. How intrusive! Would Lewinson be trying to get the judge to deny the divorce, or to ensure she didn’t get anything from the divorce?

A wonderful ending to a truly enchanting story! These characters have magicked their way into my heart. I hope you have more stories in this world in the future.

Kyan is so good with kid’s emotions, but it turns out he’s not as adept with other adults. The blind spots we can have are interesting.

The rockets are to send supplies to space? Huh. Vert different from the ICBMs I’d been picturing. Now I’m wondering whether there’s a space station above. Such a continually interesting and unexpected story.

Oh Kyan! 💔 If only we could ward off depression by being too busy or having too many people relying on us. Then basically none of us would ever get depressed.

I find it interesting that the way the Lachess corpses were differentiated from human corpses was because they were “without the touches of fur that characterized a human face.” Do they just mean eyelashes & eyebrows (since not all humans grow other facial hair, particularly when young)? Or is this a hint that our human characters might not look like we’d quite expect?

I like this idea that the knack might be able to be developed in people, as opposed to simply an innate binary. Jamie’s mind at work is a beautiful thing.

This is a beautiful story thus far. Hard to read through my tears.

If you’re sitting on your hands you aren’t typing the next chapter, which I’m already desperate for. No pressure though. (Or maybe a little, little bit of pressure because I’m obsessed with these guys).

I love that Beckett wants to sleep under the stars with Valrinda. He’s developing an adventurous spirit.

This is such a good story. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it for two days. All of the rage Kavan is feeling is masking the deeper feeling: Profound hurt and rejection. In this new world, which he entered outside of his choice, there are two people who are supposed to love him, care for him, and choose for his best at all times. Both really hurt him by (having the appearance of) rejecting him. The things is: I honestly believe that both Konstantin and Gideon truly care about him. They’re just horrible communicators, and deeply broken men/vamps. Konstantin has shown he cares through his overprotectiveness, but whenever Kavan has needed him to be there to talk (before the attack on the Delacours, before the decision to join Caspian), well that’s when Konstantin has failed him. So, it’s not shocking he did it again. In a perfect world, with more emotional attunement skills, Konstantin would have flown out to talk to Kavan about why they wanted him to stay in Venice for just a bit longer. It wouldn’t have been a throwaway conversation on someone else’s phone. I do wonder how much of this is Konstantin, and how much is Katherine, though. Gideon’s goodbye to Kavan shows that Gideon does want the best for Kavan, although he’s too arrogant to admit that he might not be the one to decide what that is. I think Kavan has been ungenerous with his understanding of Gideon’s trauma. Not only does Gideon have deep, deep losses of everyone he’s ever bonded with, he had all of his early vamp sexuality experiences being tied with either his violent, evil sire, or with being rented out as Angel. I can only imagine that the idea of a bloodsong is quietly terrifying to him. If they’re going to make things work, Gideon’s going to have to be vulnerable in a way that he’ll find horribly uncomfortable, and Kavan’s going to have to be patient in a way that he’ll find near-unbearable. That said, if they can make it through this, I can understand why they would make for good partners. They really seem to be a potentially good match.

Otis reminds me of Carter. Both get into situations, not understanding what others are really saying.

It sounds like Eric is still a student, so will be returning to grad school in the fall. Grad school eventually ends, though, so if this is really his dream job, I dunno if it’s something that could become permanent or not.

I find myself wondering what religion is OK with vampirism but not with being gay. Most conservative religions I’ve heard of would say that Ludwig is already cursed and headed for hell.

I’m so glad that Randy has come around! They really are happy together.

I wonder whether Beckett will be able to choose his guide, or whether the magic of the land will choose it for him. If it’s the second, then we can’t know that he won’t end up with Ire, against both of their preferences.

I’m guessing that Ludwig has been stranded for a lot longer than Caden recognizes, and there’s a number of cultural differences between them being brought on by that. Communicating will be challenging but essential.

Great chapter! I love that you have this through line between all of your stories. A worse writer would have left the McKinney‘s in Alpha and we would have never followed up. It’s also great to see Trevor’s smarts in action. We knew he was a Harvard guy and his Alphas regularly commented on his intelligence, but it was great to see he’d come prepared and collaborated to get useful software written before he’d even arrived. That forethought, wisdom and initiative is exactly what you want from a Beta.

I’m so grateful that Jonathan’s in Rusty’s life. If anyone can understand not being true to yourself because of judgmental parents, it’s Jonathan. He’ll be able to help Rusty towards understanding his feelings towards the awesomeness that is Matty.