After throwing her drink at Draven, Selena flees the tavern. Using her intimate knowledge of the city, she escapes the pursuing patrol. She stops at the Golden Gate and looks out at the Golden Palace. The Seelie Court’s royalty used to live there, but the palace is now surrounded by an iron wall, a metal that drains fae magic. She reflects on the fae’s history: Millennia ago, her ancestors used “dragon steel” to enslave the dragon shifters. The shifters eventually rebelled, killed the adult fae, and imprisoned the fae children within the Seelie Court, which is surrounded by an impassable, magical forest of thorns.

Selena is determined to prove her worth to the resistance. She notices a poster for the Atonement Trials, a tournament held every 150 years where three fae winners are granted freedom. She decides to enter, hoping to win and become a spy. She goes to the administrator’s office and registers for the trials. When she reveals she has emotion magic, the dragon shifter administrator becomes wary, but he completes her registration.

Selena visits her parents, feeling anxious and unwelcome in her childhood home. When she tells them she has registered for the Atonement Trials, her father reacts with fear and anger. Her mother dismissively remarks that a “fish cutter with emotion magic” cannot win (22). Selena recalls how, when she was a child, her uncontrollable emotion magic caused conflict in her parents’ marriage. She accuses herself for ruining her parents’ only chance to have a happy family, as fae can only have one child. They offer no encouragement and tell her not to contact them if she wins.

Dejected, Selena goes to a tavern for her single daily meal, a system designed by the shifters to keep the fae weak. When the tavern keeper gives her the wrong order, Selena is too conflict-averse to speak up, a trait she despises in herself. She eats the fish stew alone, resolving that winning the trials will finally earn her the trust and acceptance she craves.

Two and a half weeks later, watchtower bells announce the arrival of dragons, signaling the start of the Atonement Trials. All fae are required to gather on the Dragon Field to greet them. Empress Jessina and Emperor Bane Iceheart, who are in their silver dragon forms, land first, followed by Draven in his black dragon form and seven other clan leaders. The empress and emperor express their boredom and demand an “interesting” tournament. Gremar Fireclaw, the Red Dragon Clan leader and the official responsible for maintaining the shifters’ control over the Seelie Court, sees a single new leaf growing on one of the thorn forest’s barren trees. The fae see it as a hopeful sign, but Gremar incinerates the leaf. 

Recognizing Selena as the fae who threw a drink in his face, Draven approaches Selena, threatens her with his sword, and tells her to withdraw from the trials. She refuses. Imar, the trial overseer, dismisses all non-contestants. He then announces the first unofficial test: Only those who can make it inside the iron wall surrounding the Golden Palace by sundown will be allowed to compete. This triggers a chaotic race to the palace gate.

Selena sprints toward the Golden Palace but is not fast enough to reach the gate before it is blocked by Alistair Geller, a fae with fire magic, and his gang, who intend to reduce the competition. While a few contestants use their unique magic to get over the wall, Selena tries to sneak past a muscular man named Tommen. When he catches her, she bows her head to hide her eyes, which glow when she uses magic. She feigns helplessness and channels her emotion magic to grow a small spark of sympathy in him, causing him to loosen his grip. Before she can escape, Alistair wrenches her head up, exposing her glowing eyes, calls her “Selena Soulstealer,” and warns Tommen about her powers. Alistair attacks Selena with fire, but she dodges and escapes. Realizing the gate is impassable, she decides to climb the iron wall. The touch of iron is excruciatingly painful and drains her magic and energy, but after a desperate struggle, she hauls herself over the top and drops to the ground inside, completely exhausted but successful.

As Selena lies on the ground, drained from climbing the iron wall, Draven appears. He warns her that she should have given up when she had the chance and threatens to throw her back over the wall. Before he can act, Imar arrives and officially registers her for the trials. Later, inside the Golden Palace, Imar explains the rules to the contestants, stressing that anyone who harms another competitor outside of a trial will be executed.

Selena is stunned by the luxury of her room, which, unlike the rest of the palace, still has magical faelights instead of the shifters’ fire torches. After finding a new nightgown, she decides to bathe. In the shared bathing chamber, she briefly encounters Isera Shaw, a fae competitor with ice magic, who gives her a nod of acknowledgment. On her way back to her room, Selena sees Alistair and his gang in the hallway and decides to explore the palace to avoid revealing her room’s location. 

Draven catches her wandering the palace and calls her “a little rebel” (49). She briefly fears that he’s discovered her involvement with the resistance, but he’s unaware of this. He pressures her to drop out of the trials again, but she defiantly rejects his warning.

The next morning, the contestants gather for breakfast. Selena observes her competitors, including Alistair’s group and Isera. Selena admires Isera’s confidence when she coldly dismisses two men bothering her. In contrast, Selena gives up her own table when another couple asks for it.

To gain an advantage, Selena questions Kevlin, a two-time competitor, about the first trial. At first, he’s resistant to giving her information, so she says she’s worried about being an embarrassment to her family to foster a spark of sympathy, which she channels her magic to grow. He reveals the first test is a power demonstration. Tommen interrupts and loudly accuses her of manipulating Kevlin’s emotions. Enraged, Kevlin attacks Selena, throwing her into another table and warning everyone she is a backstabber. Selena is now an outcast among the competitors, but she knows what to expect in the test.

For the first official test, contestants gather before Empress Jessina, Emperor Bane, and the clan leaders. Due to the incident at breakfast, the other fae give Selena a wide berth. The test requires each contestant to use their magic to make Imar move. Alistair uses a fireball, Lavendera Dawnwalker grows a tree directly underneath Imar to lift him off the ground, and Isera hurls a block of ice.

When Selena is called, Draven steps in, declaring he will be her opponent. He is able to completely block his emotions, leaving Selena’s magic ineffective. With time running out, Selena removes her shirt. The move startles Draven, creating a spark of shock. Selena latches onto it with her magic, then “stacks” it with panic, causing the formidable commander to become visibly overwhelmed and flustered. After the test is halted, Bane declares her “Approved.” Selena gives Draven a theatrical, mocking bow before joining the other successful contestants.

Back in her room, Selena finds a large box on her bed containing a beautiful silver dress and a note inviting all contestants to a celebratory ball. Suspicious that it might be a trap, she leaves to see if any of the other competitors received a similar package. She runs into Fenriel, a friendly fae with a magical hawk companion named Talon. He is the first person to call her emotion magic “cool.” He also received an invitation and was equally wary.

Lavendera appears and explains the ball is a power play by the shifters, meant to show the fae all the comforts they are deliberately denied. She advises them to attend and play along. Having confirmed the invitation is for everyone, Fenriel and Selena agree to see each other at the ball.

At the ball, all the fae contestants are dressed in silver, the imperial color of the ruling Silver Dragon Clan. Feeling anxious and out of place, Selena tries to join a group of contestants, but they ignore her attempts to contribute to the conversation. One woman steals a joke Selena makes and passes it off as her own. When a man in the group notices she has said nothing and asks if she is always this quiet, a humiliated Selena escapes to an empty corridor for fresh air.

Draven finds her there and corners her against a wall. Instead of being afraid, Selena is sarcastic towards him, which seems to amuse him. He discovers the knife she has strapped to her thigh. After a tense moment where he holds the knife to her throat, he makes an offer: He will forget her “threatening actions” towards her if she gives him one dance. Stunned, Selena agrees.

On the dance floor, Selena panics and admits she doesn’t know how to dance. Draven tells her to follow his lead. They trade barbs as they move, and he explains that he’s wearing a cape over his wings as a statement of power, showing he is so confident he doesn’t even need his wings to win a fight. The dance becomes intimate, and he notes that while she is submissive with other fae, she is sharp-tongued with him. She admits it’s because she doesn’t care if he hates her.

As the dance ends, Draven reveals that, by singling her out for a dance, he has now put a “gigantic target on [her] back” (90). Realizing all the other contestants are now watching her with suspicion, Selena immediately tries to minimize the damage he’s caused. She circulates through the ballroom, telling everyone that Draven was simply getting revenge for an earlier incident where she spilled a drink on him. As the evening winds down, Imar announces that the first official trial will begin the next day. Shortly after, Selena and many other contestants become violently ill. She sees Alistair and a fae with poison magic named Maximus grinning, and strongly suspects they were behind the sudden illness.