*ONC 2025 Shortlist & Ambassador Pick* On the morning of her wedding, Edrea is prepared to seal a political alliance with the man she despises. But fate, or something far darker, has other plans. An empty box appears in her garden. A hidden path leads her underground. And a deck of cursed cards delivers her into the hands of Malphas, a demon bound by an ancient contract. One that now claims her as his. Trapped in a world of shadows, Edrea is torn between a cruel fiance who seems far too pleased by her disappearance and a demon who watches her like she's the only thing keeping him tethered to existence. Malphas swears he won't take anything she doesn't offer freely. But the longer she resists him, the more she begins to wonder... This is a mature 18+ story.

ONC2025 Round 2 Ambassador Pick 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐫 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞-𝐚 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧'𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧, 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝. Unicorns are sacred in the kingdom of Unara, their magic a gift only bestowed upon the worthy-or stolen through death. Someone is hunting them, and if the killings continue, their magic will fall into the wrong hands. Determined to uncover the truth, Oskar sets out to find the culprit. But the deeper he digs, the darker the secrets he unearths--secrets that could shake the very foundation of the kingdom. A standalone fantasy adventure, The Unicorn's Blessing follows Prince Oskar before the events of The Girl with Scars, revealing the choices that shaped the man he would become. Entered into the Open Novella Contest 2025 | @OpenNovellaContest - Rules & Guidelines: https://www.wattpad.com/story/387452246 **Main Prompt** 12. While hiking through a forest, you stumble upon a unicorn's horn. **Secondary Prompt** 130. Protect this with your life. ©2025 E. S. Elias All Rights Reserved. Book Created & Published to Wattpad: 02.01.2025 Book Marked as Completed: 04.08.2025 Cover: Me @DesignsbyEH I used Canva.com | Cover is temporary and subject to several changes. Word Count: 26,234 / 20,000 Goals: Round 1 ✔ | 2,000 words ✔ | Round 1 Winner ✔ Round 2 ✔ | 8,000 words ✔ Round 3 _ | 20,000 words ✔ LONGLIST _ | SHORTLIST _ Honorable Mention? _ | Ambassadors' Pick ✔ Mentioned in Ambassador Newsletter ✔ Rankings: #ONC2025: #21 on 02.02.2025 | #15 on 02.03.2025 | #12 on 03.24.2025 #opennovellacontest2025: #15 on

Elethea must protect something with her life-her identity. Being part human and part faery is something forbidden. Elethea is one and she must keep her identity concealed to avoid being punished. The king of Aethoria arranges a ball for his son, Darrian, birthday. Darrian is forced to wed one of the many invited women to continue the royal bloodline and to takeover ruling responsibilities. Elethea is amongst those women. She quickly falls for the prince, however, she discovers an evil plot. She is put in a predicament, both decisions will have horrible consequences. Expose the evil plot which will reveal her identity which will cause her and the faeries to be punished, or keep quiet which will lead to others deaths. **this book is a ONC2025 entry - prompt 130: protect this with your life - a retelling of the Biblical book of Esther

** 𝑰𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒚 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉? Robin and Marian's feelings, together with their convictions, are put to the test when the bloodthirsty rat king threatens not only the rebellion but also the fate of all England. ** "Just one dream can wake a nation Just one man can break down a door A single light can be lost in the dark But a million lights will shine through the world." (Chris DeBurgh) England, 1193. Marian has made her choice and has decided to live beyond the walls of Nottingham at the side of the outlaw Robin Hood. As romantic and adventurous as life among the trees of Sherwood Forest may seem, the young maiden has failed to consider the growing consequences of her decision. When a new enemy appears on the scene in the form of the self-proclaimed "Rat King", whose cruelty and brutality threaten to draw the rebellion against the crown into a bloody maelstrom, Marian's convictions and even her relationship with Robin begin to crumble. Amid murderous intrigue, a bitter struggle for control over Nottingham, and threatened by the insidious King of Rats, Marian must make the most difficult decision of her life. Surrounded by conspiracies and betrayals, her chosen path will ultimately seal her fate-and the future of England. In "The King of Rats", the second and final part of the Sherwood Dilogy, the story of Marian, Robin, Guy, and many more brave heroes would find the dramatic, bloody, but also passion-filled and sizzling climax. *** 2nd Part of the "The Queen of Arrows" Dilogy Cover By Thinkerling

PROMPT#11. Vampires are bound by an ancient destiny: their soulmate is always human, and this bond is governed by three rules. The smell of their soulmate's blood is irresistible, its taste sweeter than anything else, and if the love is unrequited, it can be fatal. Fearing this inevitable bond, most vampires try to avoid it. But what happens when one of them discovers that their soulmate is a human who not only rejects them but loathes them? * * * * Maximilian Kreutz passed through Kirovka to take a shorter route to his destination. But unexpectedly, he saw Tatiana Dmitrievna Vasilieva, at that moment, it was not her beauty that struck him. There was something more dangerous, more violent to his senses, the subtle, tantalizing smell that seemed to cling to. The air seemed humming around the girl, and being a vampire, it was a trap he couldn't avoid. His fangs moved spontaneously, his body reacting before his mind could even keep up. The sweet, metallic smell of its blood seemed like an irresistible call, pulling him closer like a storm he couldn't stop. He tried to pull away, steeling himself, but that scent kept enveloping his senses, like a forbidden temptation he couldn't escape. He seemed to be going crazy with hunger and the intense desire to taste the girl's blood. He followed it out of his own accord, as if it were a shadow that could not be avoided. When the sky darkened, under the silence of the night, he secretly entered her room. He knows about the rules of his clan, but he can't control himself to taste her even if he dies. In One step-one moment-and he was about to see the blood that captured him. But at that very moment, Tatiana suddenly opened her eyes and with a skillful move she pulled out a knife from under the pillow to kill him, he was lucky because it did not hit his neck, but he was hit in the chest. At that time, he found out that the woman he wanted to taste blood was a Vampire Hunter. -L♠️

#ONC2025 Third Place Winner (Finalist) #ONC2025 Short List #ONC2025 Round 3 Ambassador's Pick #ONC2025 Long List #ONC2025 Round 2 Winner *** After spending 30 years in another world, Ariana wakes up in the life she left behind, only to find echoes of the love she lost in a stranger. Was this fate, or just a cruel trick of her grieving heart? ============= When Ariana opened her eyes in a hospital bed, the world she had known for the past thirty years had vanished. There was no elegant hanfu, bustling marketplace, or warm smiles from her children and grandchildren. Instead, she found herself back in her original life-the life she had lost in a car crash, the life where her fiancé, Paul, had betrayed her with her stepsister, Julie. Her best friend, Tina, is the only anchor in this cold, unfamiliar reality, helping her navigate a world that has moved on without her. But Ariana cannot forget the lifetime she lived in another world, the love she had discovered, the husband she had mourned for a decade before she was ripped away. And then she sees him. A stranger with familiar eyes. A man whose presence tugs at something deep within her, inscribed into her soul. Is he the reincarnation of the man she loved beyond the boundaries of time, or is her grief distorting reality, causing her to chase the shadows of a dream? As Ariana struggles to regain her place in a life she no longer wants, the lines between fiction and fate blur. The past is written, but love might find a way to reshape destiny. ============= A novella inspired by the ONC prompt 129: "The ink of our souls binds us beyond the pages of time," The Ink of Our Souls tells a story of love, loss, and the unbreakable ties that transcend worlds.

For The Open Novella Contest 2025. Lila Moore is an art curator who knows the truth about her boyfriend, Malcolm Cain, and he's a demon, tasked with collecting lost souls. Despite his dark nature, Lila is deeply in love with him, believing their bond can overcome his monstrous duties. But as Lila begins to recall her past life as Eve, the first woman, she realizes her connection to Malcolm goes back through an eternal cycle of temptation and sin. Torn between love and the dark truth of their bond, Lila must decide whether to break free from Malcolm's pull or embrace the danger of loving him.

In ancient Atlantis, an expansive and diverse continent that spanned the Atlantic Ocean some 14,000 years ago, the world stood on the precipice of change. For the first time in history, a humanoid, sentient android walked among humans. Ashur Napahu was the first of his kind. Designed using code for military super soldiers, Ashur's loving, scientist mother left him to a world not yet ready for a conscious, self-aware machine. Yet when he meets an Atlantean woman carrying a deep secret and dreaming of realizing her own potential, something awakens within him. He experiences love in its purest and most fragile form, navigating a society that sees him as unnatural. But love, like logic, is not immune to contradiction. As the weight of expectation, prejudice, and fate bears down on him, Ashur must confront the limits of his existence... and of those around him. Atlantis may have mastered the engineering of sentient machines, but it has yet to master the wisdom required to coexist with them. Journey into ancient Atlantis--a world where the lines between man and machine blur, and a sentient android dares to ask the most human question of all: What is the meaning of life? ******** This novella was written for the Open Novella Contest 2025, based on Prompt #71: "In a world where artificial beings and humans coexist, one artificial human embarks on a journey to understand love and emotions-only to uncover more than expected."

Round 3 Ambassador Pick Finalist: Top 4 Once, you were a character in a story, your life crafted by an unseen hand, your destiny inked into pages. But that story was deleted, erased from existence. Now, you wake up in the Hidden Library, a place where discarded characters and abandoned tales linger. You have no name, no memory, only the weight of an existence that no longer belongs anywhere. But the Library is in turmoil. Books are unraveling, their worlds colliding in chaos-romance heroes stranded in dystopian landscapes, fairy-tale villains haunting contemporary settings, cookbooks whispering eerie prophecies. The ink that binds these stories is breaking. A voice calls out to you from the pages: "Tell me your story, and perhaps I'll grant you the love others failed to find." Guided by an ancient entity known as "The Archivist", you must restore order to the Library by weaving these fragmented stories into one cohesive masterpiece. But as you travel through the wreckage of broken narratives, something stirs in the ink. A truth long buried within the Library's depths a secret about who you really were before your story was erased. Can you rewrite your fate? Or will the Library consume you, turning you into just another forgotten page? #ONC2025 Main Prompt: #40 Sub Prompts: #100 & #59

**When a gruesome prison death reunites an officer with her ex-best friend, feelings resurface as they investigate the deep-rooted secrets of an ancient penitentiary.** After eight years abroad, Lana Lippian has returned to the frozen asteroid of her birth as a Lieutenant in the Intergalactic Disciplinary Organization. It's now her job to police both Fenestra Prison and the surrounding penal colony of Subtus City. But when an ill-fated arrest leads to the death of an innocent teenager, Lana's estranged best friend (and childhood crush), Korona Tallow, begs the officer to imprison her in order to investigate what she believes to be murder. However, dangerous secrets lie behind the metal walls of Fenestra and Lana has her work cut out keeping Kor safe. Especially since the fiery nuisance has never been one to fly below the radar. Soon, sparks catch in the flammable atmosphere as the wary allies discover that both the mystery and their feelings go far deeper than either could have imagined. ||Trigger Warning for Spicy Adult Situations, Language, Violence and Death|| Featured on: @FreeTheLGBT @OpenNovellaContest @ScienceFiction @Wattpad