After enduring a traumatic childhood, twenty-two-year-old Briar Clarke has learned two things: never get close enough for anyone to disappoint her again, and the fire living inside her must never reach the surface. But it's these two things that prevent Briar from finding the one thing she craves deeply-a home. When Briar is involved in a tragic accident that should have killed her, she wakes in a different world entirely. Elysian, she is told, is a land where the magic powered by the High Queen keeps its creatures living. But the rightful heir is missing, a Dark Queen falsely sits in her place, and the land is slowly dying in response.

Briar must journey through the realms in search of a way back to her world. But when word spreads of this strange human's impossible arrival, the Dark Queen takes interest, and soon Briar is fleeing more than just the crumpling realms. Forced further into Elysian, she encounters kingdoms plagued by political strife, danger lurking in every shadow, and untrustworthy allies with dark intentions. But with each step closer to her destination, Briar can't help but feel like she's moving in the wrong direction. There is something about Elysian soil that has awakened the fire beneath her skin. The very fire she has told herself must be kept buried at all costs. A fiery rage that could aid Elysian in the downfall of its false queen.

Briar has never fought a day in her life, and if she doesn't do so now, any chance of saving Elysian-or finding home-will crumple to ash.