“It’s a ley-line charm,” she said. “But you have to touch it for it to work. Good luck.”

“Thanks.” I looped the amulet over my head, making sure that the small disc wasn’t touching skin. I didn’t want anyone hearing my private words to Pierce.

He sat a moment after I did, and I tried to look attractive but not slutty in my leather dress. I had a moment’s thought for the cap I’d forgotten, on the couch back at the hotel, and then I turned to Pierce as he said, “Are you well?”

“I’m okay. Yourself?” I was going to puke. I knew it.

Pierce sent his gaze into the glare. “About the same. Having died once, the outcome of a public trial has lost much of its threat.”

“I’d think it would be the other way around,” I said, then jerked when Vivian called my name. She was back at the podium, waiting.

“Rachel? I think everyone knows why you’re here. Would you like to say anything?”

Some of the crowd muttered, and I thought I heard “black witch,” but I stood, trying to gather everyone’s attention with a moment of silence. I picked out Trent through the glare, thinking he looked worried as he tried to keep Lucy quiet. I daren’t look at my mother or Ivy, and Jenks was too small. This would be tricky. If I lied, the silver bell on the table would ring. I had come here under the lie of having been forced into black magic to test Trent’s security systems. That wasn’t the issue anymore, and I’d have to be careful with what I said.

Finally there was silence. I took a breath. Feeling dizzy, I reached to touch my amulet. “I’m here because of manipulation by both the coven and outside forces, and I’m claiming my shunning should be permanently annulled.”

You’d think I’d dropped a bloody vampire into a sweet-sixteen pajama party. The crowd burst into noise, and I felt sick when from up in the balcony, the chant “Burn her, burn her” drifted down.

“Steady, Rachel,” Pierce said, his eyes narrowed as he sat beside me. “They’re ignorant and frightened.”

“Yeah, but they can still kill me,” I said, thinking longingly of my kitchen.

“Enough!” Vivian shouted. “You want me to clear the auditorium and do this behind closed doors?”

Fear tightened my shoulders, and I almost panicked. A private “trial” would be my end. The threat of my going public with our origins would be gone. I’d never even get my say, but would be shoved on a boat and be on my way to Alcatraz on the midnight run. But Vivian was only trying to get them to be quiet, and it worked. Still holding her frown, aimed at the crowd, she gestured for me to continue.

“I was forced into learning black magic in order to survive,” I said truthfully, nodding to Trent, in the first row. That a hundred circumstances had forced me, not Trent, was beside the point, and I couldn’t help it if they thought I was talking about him. “I know black magic, but I’ve never hurt anyone but myself. And I’m not going to apologize for it.” My eye twitched as I thought of the fairies, and from the coven’s table, there was a tiny ping of sound as the silver bell rang, giving evidence of my lie.