The Fae have always loved their games... and we were nothing but their pawns. The Aedic Faeries had been gifted with the elemental magic of fire by the Elder Tree but when the last Aedic King died with no clear heir, their magic had started to die. By the wisdom of the Elder Tree, the one who endures its three trials will emerge the new Aedic King Ash hardly cared. Humans were just a blip of existence to the Fae's and it showed in the way that her kind was treated. Fearing for her life (and her mind) every day, privy to the horrors that they all endured, she just hoped that whenever the next Aedic King was coronated, it was long after she was dead... ... and not a moment too soon when she's picked by the Elder Tree to undergo its three trials, an unwelcome addition to the six who'd already been chosen to compete. Maybe this was better - at least her death will be swift, a victory in and of itself.