Lily grew up hearing her mother Maggie's tragic tale of the murder of her grandmother Elizabeth Ridley. Lily started to research Calydons as a child in hopes of preventing the same fate for her uncle Trig. He died when he had his Calydon dream.
When Lily was seventeen, she was kidnapped by six Calydons who wanted her Satinka magic. They tied her up and raped her for three days before they killed each other over her.
Her horrific life experiences with Calydons led Lily to become an expert in Calydon studies. She wrote hundreds of papers on and lectured about their cold, ruthless nature. In time, she realized that she was genetically predisposed to be a sheva like her grandmother, so she avoided relationships.
As part of her research, she went to Nate Tipton's home to interview him. He held her captive there for two years until she was rescued by Gideon and Ian Fitzgerald.