A pretty dark fantasy in a death prison where sentences never end, and the guards are free to abuse the prisoners without much repercussion. The main character is a seventeen year old healer who has been at the prison for the last ten years, when they dragged her in as an innocent along with her father. When the Rebel Queen who is trying to claim her allegedly stolen throne is brought into the prison for punishment, Kiva volunteers to undergo the magical trials instead of her.

The plot thickens gradually, then there's several twists at the end, and one of them just puts the whole book in a different light. I had to stop and process it and read it a few times because wow. I wasn't going to continue the series until then, but now I think I'll have to see where this is going.