seen from China
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from Italy
seen from China
seen from Italy
seen from Argentina
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Italy
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Sri Lanka
seen from Colombia
seen from Norway
seen from China
seen from Colombia
Secrets from the Vault opens with Elle Sands in Toronto, present day.
She’s living her good life.
A dog. A husband. Maren and Rune.
She writes. She works. She loves again.
Everything is normal.
Until she takes off her horseshoe necklace to shower.
When she comes back
it’s been replaced.
Something else is there.
Something that knows where she lives.
The good life is still there.
It’s just being watched.
She told me not to look directly at it.
…that’s how I knew it could see me.
Things The Countess taught Elle:
🌹how to protect your thoughts
🌹how to shield your energy
🌹how to move through time
🌹how to keep secrets inside objects
🌹how to feel when someone is listening
things Elle used all of that for:
🌹escaping The Countess
The irony of being given every tool you need by the exact person you need to escape. I think about this every day.
"Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing. An old version of her would tell me that everything happens as it was always meant to happen."
— Elle, If You Know You Know
Elle ran from someone she loved.
She still doesn't know if it was right.
That's the part that the book never lets go of.
And neither will you.
"The shadows felt thicker than they should be.
Heavier.
Like they were listening."
🥀 Casting Shadows.
"I don't remember the moment my life was stolen, only the woman who replaced it with lies."
— Elle, If You Know You Know
She said it so calmly. With so much precision.
Elle Sands has had years to find the exact words for what happened to her and this is what she chose first.
Elle at age five, traveling through time with beings of light
making a best friend in 1957 who is thirty years older than her:
normal to me.
this is my life now.
Adeline in 1957, befriending a five year old who appears and disappears
who seems to know things she shouldn’t:
this is fine.
I don’t have questions.
she’s my best friend.
the timeline:
not stable.
the friendship is.
Things that are normal in Casting Shadows:
a coffee shop that only exists sometimes
a barista who looks at you like he’s been waiting
a five year old who draws your nightmares from memory
a bruise shaped like a hand that isn’t yours
cinnamon that tastes like a secret
Things that are not normal in Casting Shadows:
nothing.
nothing is normal.
Maren is going through it.
