Even after my father broke my core with his own hand, I never stopped believing that someone in that hall would step forward and say my name. No one did. I was too proud to see the smiles behind their grief, and far too foolish to understand that once the Abyss closed over me, the boy they had known would never climb back out. My family traded me for their house. The girl I loved forgot me. My friends turned their faces away. I used to think the blood pact was only a bargain, that she kept me alive because my death would be her death too. I never thought that a witch the gods had chained in the dark would give me everything they took.