The Open Novella Contest is back for 2026! Join fellow storytellers and plant the seed of a tale that will blossom into a 20,000+ word novella within 12 weeks! Your epic quest begins February 1st, 2026, so mark your calendars with this date!

#ONC2026 Entry One last assignment to buy her freedom. The final phase of the mission was supposed to be straightforward: slip into the Spanish Royal Palace during the midsummer gala, incinerate the marked documents, and eliminate the crown and its heirs. It was supposed to be easy. At least, it would have been if Elizabeth hadn't arrived twenty-four hours too soon. Forced to play a role her lethal training never prepared her for, the Royal Nanny, Elizabeth must use her supernatural abilities to navigate a world of silk and secrets while protecting the very heirs she was sent to kill. But she isn't the only one on a mission. Thomas, an assassin from a rival organization known as The Pendulum, is already embedded as the palace's head of security. In their battle to outspy each other, they realize they share more than just a job description. With the Blackwood Guild and Pendulum's cleanup crew closing in to expunge them both, Elizabeth and Thomas must decide: are they still property of these organizations, or can they destroy the system to free those destined for the same fate? Two assassins. One royal secret. A lullaby of steel and secrecy. ~~~~~~~~~ Main Prompt: 32. Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same secret mission, only to realize the assignment hides a much bigger truth. Sub Prompt: 33. It doesn't take long before everything in your life spins out of control. One moment you're a secret assassin, and the next, you've somehow been hired as a nanny and you're not entirely sure how it happened. Cover photo from Unsplash, edited in canva. Started: 1st February 2026 Completed: Rated: Mature Exclusively on Wattpad.

Everyone believed the shields kept them safe from the world, but they were wrong. It was the other way around. || Wynt has lived in City 119 all his life. At least, that's what he tells everyone. He's always been a bit odd, but as one of many orphans, most people don't pay him much attention. Nor do they bother to listen. That was their first mistake. The second mistake was believing they were the only living people on the planet. And the third.... the third mistake was the worst of all. They thought the cities were there to protect them. Wynt was never meant to be there. But he was, and now he has to make a choice. Does he want to save them? Or does he want to watch them fall?

Eveleen Montclair has always despised Gilbert Crow, her sworn enemy and the heir to the Crow family. Their feud is older than either of them, bound to a curse that has shaped their bloodlines for generations and carved itself into the foundations of the city they rule. From childhood, Eveleen was taught a single, sacred truth: a Montclair can never love a Crow. To do so would mean the end of everything. The curse binds Eveleen's life to Gilbert's in ways neither can escape-pain and fear shared, distance unbearable, death impossible without taking the other with it. The only force capable of loosening the bond is an act forbidden above all others: forgiveness, sealed with a kiss. As the city begins to fracture under the weight of a curse as old as its stones, Eveleen must choose between preserving a world sustained by hatred or risking its destruction by loving the one person she was never meant to touch.

"Vespera has a legacy name she needs to live up to, but when the Nymph from the forest demands to be freed, Vespera proves she is not the witch her mother had tried to mould her into." Vespera is the daughter of the Great Witch who locked the Nymph away in the forest. For most of her life, she's been unable to live up to her mother's legacy. When the dark creatures burst into the Warden's Castle, she's forced to step it up and fulfil her duties. At the same time the voice of the trapped wood nymph lures Vespera into the forest, demanding to be freed. With each secret uncovered, Vespera keeps asking herself who the real monsters are in this story. Getting closer to the nymph, in more ways than one, she's faced with choices she never thought she'd have to make. Vespera is determined to find out the truth, even if it will cost her the love of her family and friends. ONC 2026 | Written in third-person POV