Maeve Raines has seen golden strings since her teenage years-thin, luminous threads tied to people's pinkies, binding them through choice, emotion, and consequence. Friendship. Betrayal. Belief. Obsession. Love. Everyone has them. Some have many. Having only one is rare. Having none is impossible. Except Maeve cannot see her own. Now in her late twenties, she lives a life that demands silence and observation. Her secret stays hidden, pressed between unanswered questions and the letters she writes to the Fates-quiet confessions meant for powers she isn't sure are listening. Over the years, she has learned every shade of gold that exists and memorized their meanings. There is nothing left about the strings that should surprise her. To the world, she is someone else entirely. She goes by Juno-a name chosen, not given. A name she wears like armor. Under that name, she drifts. Watches. Learns how lives knot and unravel. Until she meets Theo Mercer. Her neighbor is gentle, reserved, and marked by something she has never encountered before. He has no visible strings. Not one. The absence unsettles her more than any bond ever has-because she knows what every shade should mean, and yet he fits none of them. Theo knows nothing of fate or golden threads-only that being near Juno feels fragile, like something he shouldn't expect to keep. What unfolds between them is not loud or dramatic. It is slow. Measured. Built from shared glances, half-confessions, and the quiet comfort of being understood without explanation. And for the first time, Maeve feels something she cannot categorize-a pull, a burn around her own pinkie whenever she turns away from him. Still unable to see her string, she prays-desperately-that if it exists, it will not be the worst kind. The color of love that never gets to stay. To the Fates is a quiet, tragic exploration of destiny misunderstood, love interrupted, and the cost of seeing what others cannot.

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!

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.

In a ghost town where cornfields outnumber people, Lieutenant Gianna Park arrests the new guy, Nicolae Badea, for biting her on her first date. When bodies begin to surface-young men found mummified, bitten, and strangled-Gianna suspects the man she once handcuffed. Yet, the evidence refuses to align. The wounds are wrong. The hunger is deliberate. Eighteen years ago, a boy was killed and forgotten. Now the dead are coming back the same way. As Gianna uncovers a hidden world of vampires who police their own kind, she learns that monsters are not defined by blood but by what they choose to feed on. Nicolae Badea claims it was not desire on his part, but restraint. He survives by restraint, faith, and silence. The killer survives by power. Only one of them hunts humans. The Coffin of Nicolae is a gothic crime novel about addiction, romance, and the violence we excuse when it wears a human face-asking what justice means when the law has no language for the truth. And what waits inside Nicolae's coffin. *** Content Warning: This novel includes strong, explicit language and depictions of violence, sexual scenes that some readers may find offensive.

Rich and spoiled Samantha Astor has dreamed of becoming a music artist since she was a little girl, and finally it is time for that dream to become real. Only problem is that the music critic she sent her music to doesn't like her singing. Luckily, she got a hold of the review before it was published. Unluckily, she can't get a hold of the critic to convince him to change it. With no other option available to her, she decides to kidnap the critic. But instead of the critic, she accidentally kidnaps a mafia boss. ----- Mature rating due to crude language. Other warnings include toxic/abuse relationship (not between FL and ML, though their relationship might not become the healthiest), and there will be a dose of Stockholm syndrome There won't be any sexually explicit scene, though sex might be a conversation topic in the story

River Kinsella is a fine art student struggling to keep her head above the water. On a rather eventful journey home, she crosses paths with Beatrice Ashcroft, a witch of the Umbral Coven who is destined to change her life forever. River isn't quite ready to accept that, but little does she know that events have already been set in motion. A powerful archdemon vies for a power she doesn't know she possesses yet, and will stop at nothing to attain it. It's Beatrice's job to make sure River accepts her new reality and rises to fulfill her potential, following in her mother's footsteps before things can turn awry. Beatrice's task is this: bring River into the Umbral Coven and, together, avert the archdemon Kain's plans to bring about the end of the world as we know it. Prompt: 11) The daughter of the most powerful witch is not like her mother. Content warnings: Language (swearing), explicit violence and gore, sexual themes, kidnapping.

A secret uprising hinges on a prophecy that can only be fulfilled if a wizard wins the favor of a princess-and Caen of Piddler's Grove is determined to be that wizard. But when his ambition leads him to choose the wrong familiar in his quest to woo Princess Ori of the Sun Throne, he sets in motion a mistake that will forever change the kingdom of Sporque.

In the quiet town of Duquense in Iniqui Parish, l Louisiana, a gruesome murder dredged up the past for Rowan March, whose little sister, Willow, went missing during the last spree of unsolved murders. Rowan, determined to prove once and for all that his sister is gone, returns to the town of his youth and confronts a terrible secret buried deep underground.

You're never too old to go on an adventure. ------------ Every year in the kingdom of Asledia, a handful of eighteen-year-olds are chosen by the gods to complete a quest. If they are successful, a grand reward awaits. Gwyneira Fowler is pushing forty and content with her role as both a spinster and an assistant manager at her parents' flower farm. When a cat-sized dragon appears in one of the family hothouses and declares that she has been chosen, Gwyneira's quiet, predictable life is upended. Within days, she finds herself on the back of a strong, steady mule, headed gods-know-where in search of a sacred garden. And the little dragon? She's coming, too, much to Gwyneira's chagrin. Stepping outside of one's comfort zone can be difficult. Sometimes all you need is a little push. And a muzzle for the dragon. ONC '26 Prompt #3: You don't expect much excitement in your quiet garden until the day a dragon suddenly appears among the flowers.

Zora had been forgotten by humanity, abandoned by her parents and kicked around a small town until she stumbles into the lair of a dragon hidden underneath the grounds. Within the forest, life is simpler, filled with days of harvesting fruits and collecting ore for the markets before returning to the dragon's den where it does nothing but sleep. All is peaceful until one day at the market, she hears of a prophecy foretelling the return of the dragon of shadows that once nearly wiped out humanity. The whispers vary, but all agree that a great calamity is on the horizon. Either the dragon will wake to lay waste to humanity, its rise freeing its kind and subjugating every man woman and child, or the great warriors who defeated it once will return to end its reign of terror for good. Since the prophesy's origin, every dragon with obsidian scales had been found and put to the sword. Dragons passed on their memories to their children, so any descendant of the shadows could be the death knell for humanity. Only one dragon of shadows remains, asleep under the ground of a rural village. Resting. Recuperating. Waiting for its time.