Twenty-three-year-old Ava Cross is serving a life sentence for a murder she did not commit. Betrayed by her stepmother, abandoned by her fiancé, and branded a killer by the world, Ava has spent three years rotting in Blackthorn Women's Prison until the night she was chosen for the Ascension Trials. A secret tournament that the government denies exists. One hundred prisoners. Deadly survival games. One winner earns freedom with a new identity and an unimaginable wealth. Everyone else disappears. Forced into the arena, Ava finds herself surrounded by dangerous men with secrets of their own. But as bodies pile up and the trials grow deadlier, she uncovers a terrifying truth: her father's death, her conviction, and the Ascension Trials are all connected. Someone powerful put her in prison for a reason. And if she wants to survive, she'll have to uncover the truth before it kills her. In a game where everyone is a criminal, trusting the wrong person could be the deadliest mistake of all! Will she make it out alive?