The wicked witch below Everwatch has been imprisoned longer than even the faerie lords can remember. Her name is a curse, and her sins haunt nightmares.

Gavriel Hall, bastard son of a dead king, wants nothing more than to escape the underground prison-city he calls home. But he's a pathological liar who avoids conflict at all costs, and he doesn't dare brave the boundary stones.

On bad days, he records the names of those sacrificed as part of the soul tithe. On good days, he lets himself pine for his best friend Aziz, a mysterious outcast with the twin swords of a forgotten hero.

When his half-siblings' war for the throne turns Everwatch into a battlefield-and a spectacularly ill-timed kiss drives Aziz away-Gavriel thinks his hopes of a new life are destroyed. That is, until the witch locked below offers him enough dark magic to fix everything. For a price.

As bloodshed engulfs the city, Gavriel must decide what he's willing to pay for new horizons-and whether he's truly the coward everyone believes him to be.