I couldn’t answer that without outright lying. “Take me in!” I begged as Glenn pushed our way to the steps, and I tripped, falling right in front of her. “Please,” I begged to the camera, stalling, so Vivian could show up. “I’m a good witch! They made me do it! It was my only way out!” Which they did. Sort of. In a roundabout way.

“Corruption in the coven. I’m going to get an Emmy for this,” the woman said, then turned to Trent as Glenn hoisted me out of her reach. “Mr. Kalamack! Sir! Is that your statue?”

Trent was behind three big guys, but he wasn’t leaving. “I’ve no idea what is going on.”

The FIB had taken the stage, and with his hand around my elbow, Glenn hesitated. “Sir, if that’s not yours, we need it as evidence.”

Trent’s face went white. Slowly Quen brought the statue back into the sun, and cameras whirred and snapped as it changed hands. Trent’s look at me was murderously calm. If this didn’t work, I was going to be so-o-o-o dead.

“It’s his,” I babbled for the cameras. “I stole it out of his vault yesterday. The coven shunned me. I had no choice!” Where in hell is Vivian?

“Will someone read that woman her rights and get her to shut up?” Trent said, but the cameras were on me.

“The coven told you to steal it?” one of the reporters asked.

Glenn’s grip on me tightened, and I followed his gaze to where the crowd was parting. Black suits and power ties. It was the coven, but it wasn’t Vivian, it was Oliver!

“That woman is mine!” Oliver shouted even before he found the steps, his face red as he strode forward, amulets swinging and Möbius cuff links shining in the sun. “I claim jurisdiction. She is a black witch, shunned, and I won’t have her spreading lies of corruption in the coven!”

I pressed back into Glenn, the air cold on my knees. It was about to get tricky.

“Sir!” the reporter was saying, her mike aimed at Oliver as he found the stairs. “Did you tell Morgan to steal the statue from Mr. Kalamack to get her shunning removed?”

The man stopped on the stairs, looking aghast. “Of course not!”

She looked at her ring, and I realized the thing was an amulet, glowing a steady green. It was a truth charm. Shit. I had to work fast. Good thing I hadn’t lied.

“I tried to keep the demon from taking Brooke,” I babbled. “Friday. At sunset. You heard the explosion. All of Cincinnati did! Oliver, you have to believe me. She summoned a demon. I told her not to, but she did. I tried to save her, and she told him to kill me!”