PROLOGUE
SOPHIE COULDN'T FEEL ANYTHING. She was completely numb. And the world around her was silent. She knew that her friends had to be yelling for her to wake up, to snap out of it, but she didn't want to. The blackness beckoned her. Come, it seemed to say. Free.
And the blackness was right. Sophie had too much responsibility for a 13 year-old. No one wanted her anyways. The Black Swan had publicly disowned her, the Council wanted to make her Talentless, and she only hurt everyone she loved.
Sophie paused at the edge of the precipice. She took one look over her shoulder and images flashed through her mind. Alden's empty face after his mind shattered. Kenric's toothy grin. Fitz's teal eyes. Dex's dimples. Biana's friendly smile, and Keefe's trademark smirk. The most powerful, though, were the expressions on Grady and Edaline's faces each and every one of the times they'd told her they loved her.
Sophie processed all of these memories, internally weighing the benefits and consequences of her actions. Would her friends and family miss her? Probably. Would they get over her? Of course. She wasn't that special anyway. She recalled a pair of vivid teal eyes, telling her she finally belonged. Her first friend. Without another moment of hesitation, Sophie turned to the precipice and hurled herself into the chasm.