let me. let me begin. let me begin again.

She wakes with missing hours, a burning imprint carved into her shoulder, and no memory of who put it there. Nyxara Blackvein is an assassin who survives by control. Control over her body. Her blades. Her choices. But the mark beneath her skin has a will of its own, pulling her toward Stillreach-a city protected by an impossible shield and a power no one dares to name. Torin Cross was never part of the plan. A half-elf bard with a charming smile and secrets of his own, he's headed in the same direction for reasons that don't quite add up. When violence forces them to fight side by side, trust forms before either of them is ready for it. Whatever waits in Stillreach is already watching. ONC 2026 Prompts used. 32. Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same secret mission, only to realize the assignment holds a much bigger truth. 86. A wasteland hides pockets of thriving communities protected by mysterious shields. 99. You wake up with a strange mark on your skin after a late-night encounter you can barely remember, and its meaning grows more unsettling by the hour.

After betraying the covert Agency that made her, fugitive operative Grace Sumer is hunted across Europe, until the football star she loves finds her, drawing them into a deadly conspiracy that threatens not only their lives, but the future they are desperate to build together. ◈ ◈ ◈ Grace Sumer is on the run from the Agency that raised her to be a weapon, moving across borders to stay out of reach. Hermes Mansi is not a man who gives up. Using every resource at his disposal, he launches a relentless search for the woman he loves, the one who walked away to protect him and his six-year-old son, Drax. Grace has taken refuge in Naples with a powerful Italian mafia family, trying to stay hidden as new dangers close in. When Hermes finally finds her at an elite event in Rome, their reunion sparks more than old feelings. It pulls them into a deadly investigation that exposes corruption at the highest levels of the Agency. With enemies closing in and allies shifting across borders, Grace and Hermes are forced into a race for the truth. But for Hermes, this has never been just about survival. He wants more than to save her. He wants a life with her. And he will chase her across the world until she believes she deserves it. ◈ ◈ ◈ Book two in the Grace Sumer series, sequel to "The Nanny Protocol."

I was never meant to shape their story. Only to witness it... and survive it. I am Qareh, advisor, diplomat, and the quiet scribe at the edge of the Hyksos throne. My duty has always been simple: observe, calculate, and keep my king's path free of ruin. Yet the gods saw fit to bind that duty to a Hyksos court, a punishment in all but name. Everything changed the day she arrived. Nebetiunet, daughter of Pharaoh Sobekhotep, stolen from her homeland and renamed Merit. A woman fashioned by hathor herself, though none of us understood it at first. She walked into our palace like a soft‑spoken storm, and the king I served, Khyan, conqueror of nations, fell to his knees without ever realizing he had knelt. I watched it all. I watched her learn him: his temper, his wounds, the hunger he hid behind command. I watched him unravel, obsessed and devoted, blind to the trap the gods had set. I watched their love ignite rebellions, shift kingdoms, and bend the will of men. And I watched the gods tighten their snare. For Khyan, love became a battlefield he could not win. For Nebetiunet, love became the weapon that would destroy her. And for me... it became the burden I was doomed to carry. Because some destinies are not meant to be changed. Some tragedies are not meant to be prevented. They are only meant to be witnessed and mourned. This is their story. But it is also mine. The story of the king who conquered Egypt... and the queen who conquered him.

Mr Shade just ruined the future. At Saul les Smith, the metrics are blank, the staff is unhinged, and a dream city under the sea is still due by morning. As authority turns feral and professionalism becomes a weapon, survival means breaking the future everyone else is working overtime to build. ONC 2026. Prompt 97: When the world slips into endless darkness, something begins to move in the shadows and you must find a way to survive in a night that never ends.

Seventeen-year-old Aemilia, an orphan raised at a secretive Scottish academy, becomes obsessed with an ancient arch hidden in the nearby woods. When she deciphers its forgotten inscription, it opens a portal to a magical medieval kingdom. There she meets Brian, a young prince she cannot forget. Back home, the young man she had been enamoured of for years, Francis, finally returns her affection-but Aemilia's heart is divided between two worlds. As she continues crossing the portal, Brian's hidden destiny awakens: he is a dragon shifter whose power threatens both realms. When he is declared an enemy, Aemilia must choose-destroy the dragon to save her world, or protect the boy she loves. My entry for the ONC 2026.

{2026 Open Novella Contest - Round 3 Qualifier} {Ranked 1 in #bandmembers (5/1-5/21)} {Ranked 1 in #songwriting (4/22-4/25)} {Ranked 2 in #opennovellacontest (5/5-5/15)} {Ranked 3 in #drummer (5/1-5/2)} {Ranked 4 in #guitar (5/12-5/16)} {Ranked 9 in #onc2026 (4/29-4/30)} "𝘔𝘴. 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘴" 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳-𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 - 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭, 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰. Althea has always considered herself unlucky in love. What she never realized was that love had been circling her for years, just slightly out of step. On her thirtieth birthday, the four-man band who shaped her youth arrive late (as always). One confession breaks the careful silence they've kept for years, forcing the past into the present and cracking open a decade of almosts. They chose friendship because it was safer. They stayed professional because it was necessary. And sometimes... life, simply and tragically, got in the way.

Nakeeta has spent her entire life training to enter the healer division of the army, but when initiation day comes around, she is assigned to the hunters; an elite group of fighters that are gifted the ability to shapeshift in order to fight the spreading corruption. Left with no other choice, Nakeeta must either adapt, or die. This is an entry for #ONC2026.

She is sent to kill the dragon. Instead, she might become his only salvation. *** In a world swallowed by the Ever-Dark, Iva Vernigora is nothing more than a lowly servant in the house of the cruel Voivode Yakub Ivanov, Duke of Highroot. But when Voivode blackmails her with the lives of her parents, Iva is forced to pretend she's his daughter, as she infiltrates the royal academy of magic - Kolegium. Voivode Yakub's order is absolute: poison the Prince Konstantin Veliki. Prince Konstantin is the heir to the throne, the last of the line of Dragons - a Zmey warrior of light, who was blessed with a dragon-shifting gift. At a first glance, he is nothing but a smug, pompous royal, and everything Iva is supposed to hate. Yet every touch, and every shared lesson at Kolegium blurs the line between the enemy she must kill and the man she is beginning to crave. While Iva stalks her prey as a knife in the dark, waiting for the chance to extinguish Konstantin's light, she discovers that the dragon everyone fears is the only thing standing between humanity and the void. As the Ever-Dark Shades rise, Iva must make an impossible choice. Will she carry out her sinister orders and secure her parents' freedom, or will she stand by the Dragon in the battle for the world's last light? *** The Shades are coming. The Dragons are falling. And the Eternal Spark is waiting for its host. © 2026 EvelynHail Exclusively on Wattpad Based on prompts: 97. "When the world slips into endless darkness, something begins to move in the shadows and you must find a way to survive in a night that never ends." 4. "You discover that the dragon everyone fears is in danger, and you are the only one who can save it from the knight sworn to slay it ."

ONC 2026 entry, prompt 5. Every day at the exact same time your cat slips out of your home. One afternoon, curiosity gets the better of you, and you follow, only to discover it's living a secret life you never imagined. My take, cats save the world as a backdrop to a romcom.