Born to be a monster, Daemian acts like one - cruel, ruthless, feared by all. But when he saves Lune from a ritual sacrifice, his defiance sparks a rebellion that could topple his mother, the Blood Queen, and rewrite her world built on fear. In a kingdom ruled by prophecy, mercy may be the deadliest power of all.

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐨 𝐠𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲... 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭. For most of her twenty-one years of life, 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙮𝙣 has lived in a gilded cage. Though as any young woman would, the princess longs for one thing only; freedom. Freedom to run into the sea, to dance under the sun... to be her very own. Sadly, as merely a pawn in a king's game and with war looming on the horizon, she is asked to put aside desire for duty. Destined to wed 𝙎𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙣. A rakish brute of a prince from a heathen country without summer, in need of an heir and a broodmare to produce it. However, when an attempt is made on her life, Rosalyn is assigned a sworn-protector. 𝙎𝙞𝙧 𝙂𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙩 The Butcher; a faceless knight of the Faith and retired crusader with haunted eyes and a penchant for gardening. The soft-spoken knight is unlike anyone she's ever met. A grumpy enigma always hidden beneath a helm. 𝘐𝘧 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦... When the threat of war increases, The Butcher is tasked with transporting the princess in secret. A perilous journey that will test not only Geralt's skill as a knight, his faith, his patience, but perhaps even his self control as a mere man. For when forbidden desire blooms, two questions arise: 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘎𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴? 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘯 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦... 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙠𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩?

|| ONC 2026 Round 1 Winner || Martin Marvingale lives by two rules: work hard and put others first. So when a baby dragon rips a hole in reality above his freshly planted petunias and the desperate fairytale land inside begs him to step in as their king, he says yes. Turns out, their old king got cursed with zombie-ism, and now a horde of undead nobility are ravaging the countryside. The castle is suffering from a bad bout of slime, the peasants are one more cancelled festival away from revolting, and none of the local lords (who aren't brain-eating monsters) seem to be interested in lifting a finger to help. His only hope at putting things back to rights is to make nice with a princess who hates his face -- and the fact that he might have accidentally just stolen her job. Undeterred, Martin plans to win her over by being the best king anyone could ask for. Which would be a little easier if he knew what a fairytale king was supposed to do exactly. Or how he was supposed to look. Or... anything about his kingdom, really. In retrospect, maybe he should have asked a few more questions before taking the job. ____________________ Cover © 2026 Avadel Ink

Clara Morel arrives at a fashionable Riviera resort after a most determined journey, fully prepared to prevent a wedding she considers both foolish and ill-advised. Unfortunately, she arrives a day too late. The ceremony has already taken place with admirable efficiency. What remains is a nearly empty hotel, a quantity of unused champagne, and a handful of guests whose politeness seems somewhat strained. Each of them appears to have a private grievance, an awkward history, or an inconvenient secret. Clara soon discovers that while she may have missed the wedding, she has arrived in perfect time for something else entirely. After all, in a place where everyone has a reason to resent someone, it rarely takes much for resentment to become murder.

Ella Hudson-Woods is the nicest girl at Briarleaf High School. But kindness can sometimes become a target. When Orion Decker, the school's charming quarterback, pulls a cruel prank at the Winter Formal, Ella's world turns upside down. Soaked and humiliated, she escapes to the football field, where an unexpected visitor - a Fairy Godmother - offers her a chance to rewrite her fate. The Fairy Godmother says she can send Ella in the past to change everything from happening, and Ella accepts - and uses her mother's locket as collateral. So, Ella travels a month in the past and changes one thing: she ends up partnering with Dalton Kinslow on the big end-of-the-semester project in their Honors English class. The problem with this partnership is that Dalton is the school's biggest troublemaker and, coincidentally, the mayor's son. But as the timer counts down to a hypothetical midnight, Ella realizes that magic isn't always useful. How can she and Dalton brave past the strange things happening to them? By the end of it all, Ella hopes that it was all more than a dream. --- ONC 2026, PROMPT #13: "A quiet student is stuck sitting next to the school's resident troublemaker year after year. But when a wish unexpectedly changes the troublemaker's ways, both must face new feelings and the strange magic behind the transformation."

She went simply by Danielle, but everyone in the field called her Madam Grim. She worked for the (day-walking) mafia that worked for the Coven of Deriabin- a group of Dark Ones known as vampires in the modern tongue. Danielle wasn't supposed to know that, but then no one knew she was a witch hiding out from monsters scarier than mere vampires. Deceiving everyone around her into thinking she was just a rather particular hitman was easy. Until her unit assists in a raid against the Palvovs for trading drugs with the Juarez of Mexico without prior authorization. She was already raging a war of her own against an enemy closer to her than anyone else. Getting caught between two rogue vampires and becoming a last resort of power for one of them wasn't in the briefing. Now she has to find the bonded Dark One and cut the gold-colored String of Fate he forged through a Mark. Only when Danielle finds him does the vamp have the audacity to say she has the wrong person.

(Round One Winner) All Hima can do is practice her apologies to Afroz in her head. God knows there's so much she needs to apologize for but it feels like a death sentence every time she even think of hitting her up again. Part cowardice and part self-inflicted penance, she stays away without being able to fully forget Afroz. Until a butt-dial on a random Tuesday forces her to deal with everything she's been trying to avoid.

"Nothing is what it seems in dreams." In the depths of a dark and twisted forest, Aris, crown prince of Lancaster, is tormented by recurring nightmares of the Tainted--monstrous creations of the black fae, a corrupting force that seeps into all who live within its woods. Relentlessly hunted in the dreams, he finds unexpected aid from a mysterious girl named Elara, and with her help he is able to elude the creatures each time, breaking free from the nightmare's clutches. But when Aris is wounded by one of the Tainted, the line between dream and reality begins to blur. When a weapon deadly to the black fae appears in his grasp from the dream, Aris and his sisters--Tamryn, Maeve, Maeril, and Aine--must race against time and Aris' failing health to uncover the ancient truth behind the forest's curse--or face the imminent threat of the black fae and its vengeful master, the guardian of the dark forest, Erebus Nocturne. ✧☽ ✧ ☼ ✧ ☽ ✧ Submitted for the Open Novella Contest 2026. Main Prompt: 75. A cursed forest hides an ancient creature longing for freedom. When it senses someone carrying the bloodline of the witch who once bound it, the creature summons monsters to a mansion where the forest and human worlds collide. The doors are open to anyone brave enough to enter. Side Prompts: 18. At eighteen, you begin dreaming of a stranger who feels like your other half. When they finally appear in real life, everything you thought you knew about love and reality begins to shift. 78. You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems.

⭐️ ONC 2026 Round 1 Winner ⭐️|| Once, he was the Morning Star. Now, he is the Abyss. Betrayed by his own clan and cast into a lightless void, Riven survived by becoming the very darkness that tried to crush him. Transformed into a living Singularity-a creature of dense dark matter and eternal hunger-he is convinced he is a hideous monster beyond redemption. Lyra fell from the sky with no memories and a volatile star, the Regulus Core, burning inside her chest. Protected by Asterion, the flawless and cold Silver High Fae she has grown to love, she lives a life of borrowed safety. But when she stumbles upon a broken, dying creature in a crystal cave, Lyra doesn't see a monster. She offers him her light, saving his life and unknowingly waking the heart of the Abyss. Riven would devour the world to protect her. Yet, believing himself too ugly and broken to stand beside her light-especially when she belongs to Asterion, the very man who once executed him-Riven makes a heartbreaking choice. Unaware that his abyssal metamorphosis has actually forged him into a breathtakingly lethal Prince of Darkness, Riven hides his face behind a silver mask and walks away to claim the throne of the Night Court. In a universe where light and gravity violently collide, can a fallen star ever reclaim the sun that saved him? Or will the shadows consume them both?

Nam Min Joon is self-centered, demanding, and currently... homeless. After a disastrous mix of bad press and tax evasion rumors sends Nam Corp's stock into a tailspin, Min Joon is left penniless. Enter Bo Young, the assistant who knows his coffee order, his schedule, and now, his lack of a backup plan. Out of pity, she offers him a place to stay for seven days. But as "one week" stretches on, the corporate boundaries begin to blur. Bo Young is determined to restore Min Joon to his former glory just so she can finally have her apartment back and get some sleepㅡbut the more time they spend in close quarters, the more she realizes she might not want him to leave. #onc2026 prompt 48