Ainsley is a dragonblood princess, powerful but constantly restrained by her duties and her oppressive father, the king of Ellay. When a pirate crew makes a shaky truce with the king and asks for a guarantee of their safe travels around his country, he offers up Ainsley as an unwilling hostage and a show of good faith on his part. Ainsley suddenly finds herself powerless and trapped on a pirate ship, but the crew is nothing like what she expects, and neither is the lady captain, Gael, who defies every expectation and leaves Ainsley curious and unsure of where her loyalties lie. She tries her best to hate Gael and the pirates, but slowly, they're winning her over, and she must face the awful truth: to follow her heart will bring about catastrophic consequences, and she will need to be prepared to fight fire with fire.

In a future Earth where technology and magic combine, Maud Freeling, the spellcaster princess of the Northerns and heir to rulership of the country, spends her nights disguised as a man and performing vigilante justice, specializing in taking down users of dangerous dark magic. When she meets Gem, however, a girl who can't seem to keep herself out of trouble, Maud finds herself building a complicated series of lies to keep her intriguing new friend from discovering her true identity. She's fallen for someone who doesn't know of her royalty - doesn't even know she's a girl. Although greater threats loom on the horizon, Maud realizes one misstep is all it will take to destroy her delicate web. Written for ONC 2020.