[ 2026 Open Novella Contest Entry ] Jane Newton isn't grieving; she's furious. Two years after burying her husband, Mark, a security protocol triggers in her empty home, revealing a digital ghost that shatters her reality. She didn't bury the truth-she buried a stranger. Mark wasn't the quiet graphic designer she loved. He was a cyber-intelligence specialist who staged his own death in the midst of a plot at the highest levels of power. Now, Jane is the accidental courier of evidence of a looming assassination-and the only person who knows that Mark is still alive. With SQUID tracking her every digital heartbeat, Jane must vanish into the analogue world. But when the hunters take her sister, Jane stops running. In a world built on encrypted lies, the truth is the most lethal weapon of all.

➳➳➳ new cover by x_luminous_x ➳➳➳ What if the dragon wasn't the knight's worst adversary, but their brother in arms? What if the wolf, instead of being the hunter's age-old enemy, became their closest companion? ➳➳➳ After 150 years of peace, dragons wings once again darken Sïrvean skies. At 18 years old, Soera is little more than a rebellious young woman. She spends all her days hunting in the forest, her faithful wolf by her side. Until the day her father reveals the purpose she was born to fulfill. Her ancestry is one of guardians of an ancient shrine... And the soul of a 150 years old Dragonslayer bound to it, with boredom and viciousness matching her age That same day, a dragon rider lands on Sïrvean ground. She is supposed to end his life immediately. Instead, she ends up stranded in the wilderness with him and his dragon. If she wants to survive, she must join forces with her sworn enemy. ➳➳➳ The ancient walls scream for revenge. The spirits of Soera's ancestors yearn for blood. Soera must choose between duty to her bloodline and the call of her heart.

A forgotten amulet. A whisper of fate. A princess it commands, but at what cost? Maela, princess of the Seelie Court, can't sit through court affairs to save her life. To avoid another royal meeting, she takes a new path through the forest, stumbling upon ancient ruins. The secret within their shattered walls sets her on a path she must find the answer to--before it's too late. Main prompt: ~ 93. Buried beneath the ruins lies an artifact that whispers memories of an ancient being. The first memory it reveals is a warning and it's meant for you. Sub prompts: ~ 16. =And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul= Quote by John Muir ~ 11. The daughter of the most powerful witch(changed to Fae) is nothing like her mother. ~ 104. While wandering in the woods, you dismiss the rustling behind you as nothing more that wind through the trees until you turn around and realize it isn't the wind at all.

She repairs broken memories - but who will repair the truth? ***** Nova Aurion understands how fragile memory can be - she mends it for a living. In a world where memory is currency and abilities define worth, society is divided into Endowments: cognitive classes established to preserve stability. Every three years, the nation hosts 'Project Elite' - a prestigious competition honoring the finest minds from each Endowment. Within the high-stakes arena, they contend not only for victory, but for the recognition to lead their future. When Nova, a Memory Diver renowned for restoring fractured minds, is selected to compete - she enters the Project, determined to win. However, survival demands more than mere intellect; it requires strategy, perception and sacrifice. As alliances shift and sparks ignite, a forbidden dive into a stranger's memory leaves Nova deeply unsettled, leading to a chilling realisation: what if Project Elite isn't designed to measure brilliance at all - but to harvest something far more dangerous? Caught between a charming rival, a skeptical ally, and a system that predicts every move, she must confront a choice that could reshape humanity itself - Is an unpredictable future worth the risk of chaos... or is controlled stability the safest path to preservation? ************************** ONC prompt (main): 111: With a single touch, you can slip into someone else's memories. But when a stranger shows you a future crime involving you, you must uncover the truth before it comes to pass.

A world at war. Spies fighting in the shadows. Niko Sapphire, a dedicated young agent of the Quorum, must unravel the sinister plots of a notorious alchemist and his alliance with the Siren kingdom of Lokesha before his homeland is ravaged by a new breed of creature, born of chaos and hellbent on tainting the ocean tides with blood for eternity. *** Doctor Kief Thondial is the deadliest man in the world, or so Niko Sapphire has been told. After surviving a mission that brought him into the heart of the demented alchemists' laboratory of twisted experimentations - a mission that left his best friend dead - Thondial is the last man Niko wants to see. However, fate brings them back together on the tropical island kingdom of Lokesha, ruled by a power-hungry Siren Queen who wishes to use Thondial's expertise to extend her rule for eternity, even at the expense of her own people. Forced to ally himself with the opposition, the enigmatic and beautiful mermaid spy, Skilla Striker of the Tidewielders, Niko must thwart Thondial's plan before the war for dominion over their world shifts in evil's favour. Hunted by the sadistic assassin known as The Unhappy Man and pitted against nature on an island desperate to drown him, Niko will need the full alliance of his wit, charm, and rogueish instincts to defeat Thondial once and for all, but will his lust for revenge risk everything? *** Entered into the 2026 Open Novella Contest Prompt #32 - Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same secret mission, only to realize the assignment hides a much bigger truth.

When Elara Smith accidentally spills her cup of coffee on a stranger, the moment should have been enough to ruin her day. Her handmade cards were stained with brown, and the future she was struggling to safeguard seemed uncertain. What she doesn't expect is a surprising request from the stranger: to make cards for his girlfriend, and the beginning of something that may quietly change her life. --- Twenty-two-year-old Elara Smith is a struggling card maker, balancing her studies while folding her dreams into handmade paper cards and digital designs that the world barely seems to notice. Buying her first airplane ticket took months of sacrifice, and she never imagined that one careless mistake would not only ruin her ticket but also her carefully crafted work. Yet, a mistake is not always a loss: especially when it comes with a business-class seat and an unexpected opportunity that could alter her future. Leonardo Sylvester, the owner of Air World, one of the largest airline companies in the world, is caught off guard when he collides with a clumsy, visibly frustrated stranger at the airport terminal. As her cards scatter across the floor, he sees more than just art. He sees honesty. Intention. And perhaps, a way to mend a relationship he has already begun to lose. A first-class seat was offered out of convenience. A friendship born when art meets honour. And a journey that was never meant to happen. As paper planes of ambition, regret, and quiet hope begin to unfold at thirty thousand feet, two strangers discover that some connections cannot be bought, scheduled, or controlled. Because not all friendships begin without intention, and not all hearts are willing to follow a flight plan. Sometimes, the moment meant to ruin your day becomes the one that gently redirects your entire life.

When the strongest mafia organization in Endouva crumbles from within, who would expect their most skilled assassin, Loralie Asterra to end up in the mysterious island of Arkaris as a nanny for a three-year-old girl named Mimi Catapult? Loralie finds out that something bad is swirling within the borders. She uncovers Arkaris' hidden secrets, all while protecting a tiny prince and a child who refuses to leave her side. Doing so, Loralie realizes that she has no choice but to piece her gang back together to break the Curse of Arkaris.

When the man she loves is about to marry someone else, she does the unthinkable - she goes to stop the wedding. But timing is cruel. Who would have thought arriving a day late would change everything? My second entry into the Open Novella Contest. A Frankenstory made of many prompts... can you spot them all? Each chapter has a video before it. You don't have to listen. It's just an additional detail that might enhance the reading experience. Trigger Warning: Adultery, Blasphemy and a whole lot of bad language

Laufey Valerie had just broken off her engagement to one of the realm's most brilliant bachelors. On vacation in a little town known for its wonderful parks, where she reconnects with something she had thought lost. Together with her newfound 'companion' she crosses paths with twisted creatures called Discorn, that threaten the World's Harmony. She would come to discover a dark secret that will shake the foundations of her Rhythm magic. Cover by mysticariumch on IG Prompts 17. You fall in love with someone whose heartbeat matches a song you haven't heard since childhood 36. You are told to choose a weapon before battle but when you approach the table, the only weapons laid out are musical instruments. 45. "Kings have honour, soldiers are brave, poets have heart and all I have is rage!

AMBASSADORS' PICK FOR ROUND ONE, ONC 2026 ⭐ Before France burned and crowns fell, it once starved to live. Before he was a king, he was a boy who once feared the silence. Before she was a revolutionary, she was a girl who once believed in love. Years before his marriage to Marie Antoinette, before alliances forged him into the King the world will remember, Louis was only a quiet prince who found comfort in the laughter of a printer's daughter from the Third Estate. Camille was never meant to stand beside a monarch. She never asked to love a prince. She asked for bread. For justice. For a France that did not bleed its poorest dry. But when a prophecy, whispered in the still halls of Versailles, follows Louis into manhood, "He will love two women. One will save his life. The other will destroy it." The trouble is, love does not wear a name. As France trembles beneath famine, debt, and rising fury, the prince becomes king. The king becomes a symbol. And the girl he once loved becomes something far more dangerous than memory. Revolution has many faces. Sometimes, it looks like the woman you once promised forever. Kings have honour. Soldiers are brave. Poets have hearts. And all Camille has left... is rage. As history sharpens its blade and the guillotine waits for its final applause, Louis must decide which love was his salvation, and which was his ruin. Because in a country built on hierarchy and hunger, loving the wrong person does not merely break a heart. It breaks a crown.