Dent in the Bullet ✷ Anthony Lockwood.

I'm trying to tell you I love you.

I. Fleabag.
II. An Orestia: Elektra (tr. Anne Carson), Sophocles.
III. Sylvia Plath.
IV. Not Your Fault, Not Mine, Just Is, Katherine Fabrizio.
V. Fleabag.

ANTHONY LOCKWOOD COULD deny his beliefs in the universe and its ways all he wanted, but the proof was in his love for terrible odds. Why was he always betting on the losing dog if he placed no stock in karma and the cosmos' affections for a rags-to-riches story?

Like it or not, Anthony Lockwood has faith. He believes there is a strategy in counting on the impossible because the universe appreciates his grit. He believes good things come to those who wait simply because the stars know they deserve it.

Mathilde Lam is his gift from the stars — the fruits of his patience — and funnily enough, she had appeared on a completely clear night. No constellations were smiling down on their heaven-made match, no glittering golden strings indicating divine intervention. She was lit only by the lines of flickering street lamps and her smile.

Luck changed when Mattie showed up at 35 Portland Row's doorstep. And not just Lockwood's.

When Mathilde packed her bags and took a taxi across London, she wasn't just cashing in a favor from George Karim. She was running from a doomed fate at a dead-end job. Of course, to most, "dead-end" can't be used to describe a position as a renowned agent at Fittes, but to Mattie, the monotony may as well be the cause of her slow and painful death.

If you asked her then or even now, Mathilde would tell you that joining Lockwood & Co. was a leap of faith born from her own desperate fruition. But if you asked Anthony, he would tell you — only in secret, of course, and not in so many words, — that her arrival was exactly what he and the universe had agreed on.

✶

MATHILDE LAM / Touch & Hearing, Heart.

ANTHONY LOCKWOOD / Sight, Nerve.

MATHILDE LAM / Nhung Hong.
ANTHONY LOCKWOOD / Cameron Chapman.
LUCY CARLYLE / Ruby Stokes.
GEORGE KARIM / Ali Hadji-Heshmati.
QUILL KIPPS / Jack Bandeira.
MONTAGU BARNES / Ivanno Jeremiah.
HELENE LAM / As described.
GIA LAM / As described.
MATTHEW LAM / As described.

DENT IN THE BULLET / LOCKWOOD & CO.

Welcome to Dent in the Bullet! Words cannot describe how excited I am for this book. I entered the L&Co game late, but I am committed. I have lots of really cool ideas for this book...

Honestly, I love these characters and really wanted to include more moments of them just being teenagers, so this book will feature a lot more domestic moments. I wouldn't say it's canon-divergent because I'm still following the plot, but the main events may feel more spread apart because I want to add more fun moments & details of Mattie's life outside of Lockwood & Co. With that being said, don't worry. There will still be lots of angst...

I also had a lot of thoughts regarding how I wanted to incorporate Lucy into the plot. From the get-go, I knew there was no chance of cutting her out of the story entirely, but it was a struggle to balance her character with the non-canon events I was writing because the plot is structured so heavily around her. With that being said, she is still a listener in this book! I felt Lucy's gifts were such a strong indicator of her growth throughout the books, so I wanted to not only keep that in but highlight it. In this book, when she comes to Lockwood & Co. she can listen, but she's primarily a chemist! (Ooh la la, I know.) She starts out relying more on her unique scientific skills to provide for the agency but slowly grows into her listening abilities with the help of Mathilde.

I've written Mathilde to lowkey be a celeb in the ghost world... And maybe it is because she's my main character and I wanted to take advantage of that!!! But it's also because I think it makes for a really interesting dynamic between her and Lucy. Since Lucy comes to the agency incredibly unsure of her capabilities and Mathilde's listening is the only thing she's truly sure of, the girls both learn a lot from each other throughout this book.

So yeah!!! That's my way of adding another character to the tightly-knit trio while still keeping Lucy involved in the plot. I'm probably just as excited for her relationship with Mattie as I am for Mathilde and Lockwood.

Enjoy!