Once Book Novels & Stories

But the questions in my mind are relentless, and I know I won’t find peace until I start looking through the stacks for some kind of solution. I reach for one of the books on the table, a heavy tome bound in deep green leather with silver lettering on the cover. It’s a book of magic, one that I’ve studied before, but never with the urgency I feel now. I flip it open, my eyes scanning the pages for any mention of the barrier, of the ancient fae who first created it, and of the Ones who were with her.

That evening, after Gideon left for what he called a dinner meeting I doubted was a dinner meeting at all, I drove to a coffee shop three towns over, connected to a network that had nothing to do with our house, and opened the last unread file on the drive. Every other folder had told me a piece of who Gideon was. This one was different. A single scanned page, the file name nothing but a date, seven weeks before my father died. I opened it expecting another financial record, another contract, another piece of the same puzzle I'd been assembling for days. Instead I found a letter.

*Flashback* "Marry me." "What?" "Marry me." I look at my boyfriend like the crazy person he is but I'm surprised when I don't see even a hint of humor in his eyes. So I look back at him again, now with the same intensity he's radiating through his eyes. But it's to ask him again, "What?" Aaron Miller has made a declaration, to himself and the people around him. That he would never again get married and he put that on his life.

“I’m sorry I didn’t pay attention Baba, I truly am. Please can you teach me about Morpheus?” I hoped my apology and pleading would work as it usually did without fail. My father clearly couldn’t pass up an opportunity to lecture me on his favourite topics so he set down his red pen and grabbed a thick, leather bound book from the bookshelf, placing it down on his desk with a resounding thud. The spine of the book crackled as he flipped through the pages, his fingers finally coming to rest on a page entitled “The Oneroi”.

"In that case, I think the pizza can wait." End of Book One: Incendiary

*** The hand wrote on the book with enthusiasm. The black pen against the book was something the writer had gotten accustomed to in a short period of time. He wrote down, Dear diary, For the first time, I'm convinced that I am doing the wrong thing but I can't seem to stop myself. Every passing day I have my patience deteriorating and.... He hesitated before sighing and tearing the page off. Closing the book, he threw it on the table and laid on the couch jadedly.

I need to share with you what Russell has learned. "Oh." It didn't sound very good. I looked around for something to use as a bookmark. Clive snatched the book from my hands and placed it open on my page, book block on the seat. "No! This is the first edition. You loosen the binding." “Then I guess you’ll need to get back soon to continue reading, right?” "How many enemies can one book nerd have?" The trip home was less exciting given the topic of discussion.

"You're a miracle worker. Whatever you gave me is pure gold." The bathroom door was open, with fresh towels folded neatly on the counter. Servants must've come in while I was out cold. There was a new stack of books on the nightstand—probably to keep me from going crazy with boredom. I reached for the top one excitedly. The cover was simple leather, the title embossed plainly: Eternal Bonds. Sounded harmless enough. Maybe some sweet fantasy romance. I flipped it open to a random page and started reading.

It wasn’t male either. It was both. And neither. And it knew him. He slammed the book shut. The flames on the torches flickered. > “Someone’s protecting her. Someone older than any of us.” Alex turned to leave—but before he did, he noticed one book... tucked deep into the wall, half-hidden behind a cracked obsidian skull. Its title glowed faintly: “The First-born Flame: Records of the One Who Watched the Moon.” He reached for it. But the moment his fingertips touched the leather, the runes around the library pulsed—and the book… vanished.

⸻ 🌙 The Lost Pages The book slowly opened. 📖 ⸻ Its pages fluttered wildly. ⸻ Most were empty. ⸻ Destroyed. ⸻ Gone forever. ⸻ Yet one page remained intact. ⸻ One final page. ⸻ One hidden page. ⸻ A page nobody had ever seen before. ⸻ The page that existed before Memory Zero. ⸻ 😨 ⸻ 🌙 Before The First Question The page glowed softly. ✨ ⸻