Power is a slow death sentence. And Corvina Arvith has been chosen to die. The Obsidian Throne rules through the Hollow Crown Trials, a brutal contest where seven factions sacrifice their most gifted youths to the Evergaol, a sentient labyrinth that devours magic and flesh. Only one victor emerges, wielding power beyond reckoning. None outlive their reign. Corvina, daughter of the infamous Oathbreaker, is the Hollowborn faction's last gamble. Cursed with devouring shadows and a body failing her, she is already more ghost than girl. But the Trials are a lie. The throne does not crown victors. It harvests them. In the Evergaol's depths, Corvina unearths truths buried beneath centuries of slaughter. The shadows she commands whisper of betrayal. The outcasts lurking in the dark are not mere rebels, they are the lost champions of old, hollowed and hungry. And beneath the throne's gilded lies, something stirs. Something watching. To survive, Corvina must choose: submit to the throne's will or defy it and let the shadows inside her consume what little remains. But the Evergaol does not release its prey. It transforms them.