Haunted by the past, Rhiannon Carmichael returns to her hometown for her father's funeral, only to uncover a web of secrets and a possible murder, forcing her to confront the family she left behind. *** Victor Carmichael, the titan of local construction industry, is dead. Officially, it was his failing liver that finally did him in. Off the record? He's been murdered, and the only one who suspects it is his prodigal daughter. Gaffney, South Carolina, holds the ghosts of Rhiannon's past - the past she desperately tried to escape. Forced to sift through fractured memories and lies, she must expose a killer possibly lurking in the heart of her family. Every smile hides a secret, and every hug is a potential weapon. Whodunnit? Her mother, Lorraine, who seems to hold back more than tears? Her resentful brother, Tom? Then there are Beverly, the enigmatic interior designer with a past as murky as the swamps surrounding Gaffney, and Aubrey, the glamorous influencer whose connection to Victor runs deeper than anyone knows... Each clue, each whispered secret, pulls Rhiannon deeper into a dangerous game. As the idyllic charm of her quiet hometown crumbles, the lines between friend and foe start to blur. The more time passes, the more she realises: her returnal to Gaffney is not a blissful family reunion. It's a deadly reckoning. © 2025 EvelynHail Exclusively on Wattpad Based on prompt 61: "The silence in room is deafening, as though it has a life of its own. It's time to rewrite the fairytale, but this time, the ending will be yours, and it won't be happy."

A poisonous trade, powerful secrets, and a dark fate linger amidst ritual murders and ill-timed desires... Despite the golden rays and flowing waterfalls, the lands of the kingdom of Tiarella hide a growing greed and lust for power. The unity and legitimacy of the ruling family, which had only become one through Sylph's marriage, stand proud to all but those who know the dark deeds it took to rise to begin with. Sylph, trapped in a marriage of another's making, spends her days betraying an oath to the celestials worshipped by those of the zodiac faith. Determined and yet conflicted in her wish to kill her secret before those of malevolent hopes, rise from the bloody shadows they have cast to find her. She waits, biding her time, day by day, until he appears after years of only mere glances, but now he threatens all. Known as the scarlet heir, he quickly becomes a thorn in her side with an iron fist while still hiding secrets of his own, that may well be as dark as hers. Only time knows if their meeting will be the beginning of fate or the betrayal of it.

Love and retaliation conspire to foil a billionaire land developer's attempt to bulldoze a family business. Heather Clayburn owns Nuance, a thriving upscale restaurant in a nineteenth-century house in Vancouver's West End. Her family has lived above the restaurant for generations, but after her divorce, only she and her twelve-year-old daughter, Sage, remain. As Downtown spreads westward, massive office and condo towers threaten the last of the houses, and she is determined to preserve the family legacy. Strathaven Land Development owns the adjacent vacant lot, leasing it to the restaurant for client parking, and they recently bought the 1950s apartment building on the other side of the house. When Strathaven's owner tells Heather about an old verbal purchase agreement, she refutes its validity. He forces his son, Sinclair, to coerce her into selling. Sinclair becomes a regular diner at Nuance, catching Heather's eye, and while looking for ways to do his father's dirty deeds, he is increasingly attracted to her. Unaware of his motives, she moves him to the top of her dream hunk list.

🏆 ROUND 1 WINNER - OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2025 A young witch must team up with a banished demon to reverse the curse on her village before she is persecuted. ⋯⋯⋯ Rakida of Apilsha has her life in order until a mysterious fire broke out and the townsfolk fell ill overnight. With fingers pointing towards her as the rumored village witch, she must find a cure before they burn her at the stake. Enter Tam Sinnasi, a demon stuck in her mother's antiques, with his devilishly charming smile and a hidden past, offering a shot at success. Having made a deal with the devil, Rakida now must balance mystery and magic as she is thrust into the deadly world of the wicked battling blood-thirsty beasts, deranged witches out for blood, a mad Queen of the Dead, and a vengeful goddess who surely had business with Tam. But as her journey takes her to Ganzir, the sprawling palace of shadows and ice, dying may be the least of her worries. From the award-winning author of 𝘋𝘪𝘦 𝘢 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘥 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩, 𝘈𝘳𝘭𝘰 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯 comes a tale of blames, bargains, and betrayals, set in a game of life and death where losing is not an option. After all, to save one's skin, sometimes, death may just be the answer. ˜"°•.˜"°•˜"°•.˜"°•˜"°•.˜"°• © 2025 (First Edition) [25,000 - 30,000 words] [All graphics are made by @sardonictabby] ˜"°•.˜"°•˜"°•.˜"°•˜"°•.˜"°• 🏆 LONGLIST - OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2025 🏆 ROUND 2 QUALIFIER - OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2025 🏆 ROUND 1 QUALIFIER - OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2025

When college student Celine Marlowe finds a piece of a shattered unicorn horn in the forest, she doesn't expect it to contain ancient magic connecting her to its owner Soren, the exiled prince of the Velkeros. With Soren's magic trapped inside her and the remaining pieces of his horn still scattered around the world, Celine is pulled into a centuries-old conflict between a corrupt scientific empire called the Argent Accord, and the once mythical beings they exploit. The Accord wants Velkeros blood for immortality, Soren wants to reclaim what they stole from him, and Celine just wants to make it out alive. Magic was never supposed to end up in Celine's hands, but the more she learns, the more she realizes that her and Soren's connection might be the key to saving everything. This story is my entry in the 2025 Open Novella Contest! Follow @OpenNovellaContest to be notified about the next one! The prompt I chose: #12. While hiking through a forest, you stumble upon a unicorn's horn.

Elora isn't like other girls. Because she's a faerie. The wings, the pointy ears, the sparkles-- she's got it all. She's also not like other girls because it's not often that one is ripped from royalty, whisked away by a thief with long dark hair and stormy blue eyes. With her new captor in tow, the flames of a potential uprising boil over, and Elora is caught in the crossfire. Life is about to get a lot more spicy. And not just because her captor is hot. Definitely not because of that, even if it's true. Um, Stockholm Syndrome who? Will Elora manage a chance at better days, even with her turbulent fate? Or is she forever someone else's treasure and nothing more?

The house watches her, its halls stretching like the remnants of a dream she once knew but cannot name. He stands in the space between shadow and light, his eyes holding the weight of a thousand unspoken goodbyes. She steps closer, drawn by something deeper than memory, something fragile yet inevitable. Love is already there, quiet and waiting, but with every touch, every whispered breath, the curse tightens around them. Somewhere in the folds of time, in verses left behind by hands long gone, the truth waits-but to find it is to accept that love, once held, must also slip away. ······················································ 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 2025 | Cover Credits: @𝒂𝒍𝒇𝒂𝒆𝒔𝒉𝒂 Primary Prompt #2: 𝑻𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 Secondary Prompt #55: 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆. Secondary Prompt #66: 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚-𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒊𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈? ······················································

Amaryllis, who was drowning herself in a thankless drudgery of a job, was thrilled to learn that her dear old great auntie has bequeathed her everything. But it came with conditions: 1. Adopt her auntie's old grumpy cat, Mr. Heathcliff 2. Run her auntie's second-hand bookshop for a year and earn a profit 3. Live in her auntie's cottage and restore her once, beautiful garden. Except, the bookshop was a mess. There are no customers. The books are old and withered. Not to mention the house is falling apart! And Amaryllis has no experience running a bookshop. What's she going to do?