Within the Mountain of Souls, orphans are raised as remorseless assassins called the Chosen—a cohort trained to cleanse the seven kingdoms of evil and usher in the return of a legendary king. Malina is an orphan with yellow eyes and deathly pale skin, seen as weak and doomed to fail selection. Against all expectation she survives and becomes Chosen, finding friendship, love, and a home—but the journey corrupts as much as it shapes.

Malina is defined by the gap between her apparent weakness and her actual resilience. She is neither popular nor conventionally powerful, surviving by determination and wit rather than strength. Centuries of loss, immortality, and the weight of terrible choices reshape her from survivor to queen to something harder and more tragic—a woman who has paid for every victory.

Across five books spanning centuries, Malina's arc moves from surviving assassin training to questioning the king she was made to serve, to becoming a queen, to confronting the existential threat of the All Father's war between fey and humankind. The series is a full epic fantasy saga: brutal, morally complex, and built around a heroine who outlives her original purpose to find new ones—only to discover the chains of destiny bind her still.