“Vivian, stop inflaming the issue,” Oliver stated when he could be heard again, and Vivian turned to the crowd, talking to them.

“I have seen my skills brushed aside as if nothing, and I am scared. Ignorance and denial will get us enslaved or dead. Don’t let fear blind you. Don’t let fear cause you to destroy someone who can stand against them. Rachel fought off a day-walking demon that was released when the arch fell, and you want to shun her?”

She was shouting, but most people were listening. “We all saw the news!” she said, gesturing. “We all felt the tragedy, saw the lives ended. I can’t stop it! The coven can’t stop it. She can!”

“I think she freed it!” Oliver shouted, standing to point a finger at me. “She was there!”

The crowd held its breath, and in the silence, I sat straighter. “I didn’t release the demon from under the arch,” I said, and there was no ping of the bell.

Oliver grimaced as his trap sprang with me safe outside it. The auditorium quieted beyond the haze of the lights, and Oliver’s chair squeaked as he leaned back.

“What scares me,” Vivian said, softer now that she had everyone’s attention, “is that my circle, well drawn and able to handle anything, was nothing to him. This day-walking demon brushed through it. Rachel saved my life at great risk to herself—knowing that I had been sent to spy on her.”

“With black magic,” Oliver muttered.

“Are you that stupid, Oliver?” Vivian belted out, and I realized that most of my trial was going to be a fight for power between these two. The rest of the coven would vote with the winner. My life hinged upon a narrow-minded man and his fears.

“Of course she used black magic!” Vivian said. “Demons are laughing at us for our self-imposed ignorance. Rachel used black magic against a demon. It hurt none but herself and saved my life. I have a hard time finding wrong in that.”

Vivian dropped back a step to let people think about it.

“What about Las Vegas?” Oliver stated, too confident in himself to get up. “Property damage and lives ended. The same demon, yes? The same black magic.”

Vivian nodded. “Yes. It took both Pierce and Rachel that time, and the curse they used unfortunately set the building on fire. The bodies found therein were ended by the demon before they could banish it. I can truthfully say that Rachel and Pierce both used restraint in twisting curses. Rachel uses more restraint, actually,” she said as she glanced at me. “And while the demon was not destroyed, it was successfully banished.”

Oliver chuckled. “To do more mischief.”

“Hey!” I blurted out, making Lucy jump in her sleep. “We were trying to survive!”

“And the demon just showed up?” Oliver asked, looking from me to the bell.

“The demon just showed up,” I said clearly, daring the damn bell to ring.

“You are a menace,” Oliver said loudly when it didn’t. “I say we give you to this demon, and maybe it will go away.”