Vow Notebook Novels & Stories

My notebook lay open beside my laptop, filled with observations that somehow felt more personal than professional. Before closing it, I added one last line. Still impossible to read.

Her heart pounding harder now. Messages. Contacts. Files. A whole other world. Her fingers hovered over the messages. Then, she tapped. The screen filled instantly. Conversations. Dozens of them. Different names. Different numbers. Different patterns. Ava scrolled slowly. Her breath uneven. Transactions. Instructions. Locations. Everything structured. Everything organized. Everything hidden. Her chest tightened. “This is… real,” she whispered. Daniel didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. Ava scrolled further. Her eyes moving quickly now.

Zoya insisted, her voice jumping an octave. "You don't," the other four said in a dead-flat, unrehearsed monotone. "I do! I watched a movie last night!" "Let me guess," Kenji said, leaning in. "A documentary? Something with subtitles? Something where you took notes?" Zoya opened her mouth. Then slowly closed it. "Oh my god," Mei gasped, pointing. "She took notes! She was relaxing with a pen in her hand!" "It was an informative look at the housing market!" Zoya defended.

It was a single sentence, but I hated how accurate that felt. The files themselves had been mostly useless. They only held dozens of names, family histories, political alliances and old rivalries. Just enough information to overwhelm me but not enough to actually help. Except for Voss's. For reasons I still didn't understand, hers had contained practical notes. Hers held notes on who preferred flattery, those that respected honesty, the ones that hated being interrupted, and others secretly despised and by whom. They were tiny human details that were definitely helpful, and for the first time all day, that gave me the smallest sliver of hope.

"She is not in this house because she chose it for comfort. She is in this house because this is the point of greatest contact with the formation. She has been here because this is where the holding requires her to be." I look at the room. At the old dark stone. At the furniture that is sparse in the way of a person who has been oriented entirely toward a function and has only recently begun to consider what they might want beyond that function. At a wall of notebooks — not Neva's notation system, not the cartographer's language, but Vael's own system, developed in isolation, the record she has been keeping of a city and a network she could not tell anyone about. Three decades of notebooks.

Ever. ****

Caitlin sat in her large room in Dunvegan in Castle at a writing desk, looking out the window at the sunset sky. She examined the torn page McCleod had given her, holding it up to the light. She slowly ran her fingertips along the embossed, Latin letters. They looked and felt ancient. The entire page was so beautifully and intricately designed, and she marveled at the intricate colors along the paper’s edges. Back then, she realized, books were made to be works of art in and of themselves.

Valeri clutched a violin in one hand and a bow in the other . She stared to play . The notes formed a soft , weet tune . Then it turned fast , then faster . The music stopped altogether before the soft tune retumed . Valeri ended the song with one hard , fast , loud note . The auditorium fell completely silent until we realized the music was finished . Still in a halftrance , we burst I smiled to myself . Valeri wasn't just a "quiet girl" .She knew about wonderful books and could play the violin like nothing I'd ever heard . Like a caterpillar or butterfly , she was beautiful and amazing when you looked closely .

“This girl is a witch! Liyana has ruined me!” Author’s note 🎉🎉🎉 Voilà! We have made it this far. I honestly appreciate my readers for all your support and encouragement. I wouldn’t have done it without you all. Thanks for making this journey a successful one for me. I love you!

Nix said as she moved towards a table. Just then, Kace noticed another note sticking out on the broken window pane. “Oh look! Another note from secret admirer.” Kace grabbed the note from the window and read, “Always smile… ‘cause you’re making one person happy… ME!” ***