I didn’t know what to do. He had said trust him, but this…

“Oliver, we can’t,” Vivian exclaimed, aghast enough to tell me she thought it might be possible. “That’s inhuman!”

“She’s a demon!” Oliver shouted. “Human morality doesn’t apply to her!”

A thump reverberated across the barrier sheltering the stage, and everyone cowered as the shimmering ever-after pulsed. Ivy had ripped a chair from the floor and thrown it. She looked wild, eyes black, shaking with anger given free rein. Oliver gave the incensed vampire a disparaging glance. “Can you do it?” he asked Trent.

Pierce was being restrained. I knew he could break from it and was following my lead of wait-and-see. Trent glanced at him before nodding. My heart thudded. Trust him?

“I need a collective,” he said, and I could imagine my life ending. I’d never be able to return, I’d never see the sun—unless this was part of his plan. How bad had it been, I wondered, when he had been a demon’s slave? How much hatred had he hidden from me? Was he going to laugh at me now? Hurt me?

“You putrid elf! That’s my daughter!” my mother screamed, and Trent twitched. He’d been named. His secret was out. But I didn’t think it mattered. He had left his daughter’s ears undocked. The elves were coming out of the closet with her. The directive of the next generation. He’d given me a say in it. Or had it all been a lie?

Oliver shifted into motion. “Isolate them,” he directed, pointing at my mother and Ivy, now struggling violently. “Form a collective! We do this now!”

“Oliver! We need to think about this!” Vivian demanded as she confronted him, but Oliver motioned for security, and she was restrained.

“You are outvoted,” Oliver said with satisfaction. “Put her with coven member Pierce.”

I felt sick, unable to move. It wasn’t the plastic straps with the charmed silver at their core that kept me from reacting; it was Trent. He had said to trust him. He had said I had to lose. He’d told me to go quietly, but I didn’t know why!

The light from above was eclipsed as security shoved me into a circle one of the junior coven members had sketched and I fell to my knees. Trent’s shadow lay heavily on me. I looked up, his stone-cold face scaring me. Lucy was bawling in someone else’s arms—her wailing giving my unvoiced fear a sound. “T-Trent?” I stammered. He could do it. He said he had a curse, and I believed he could do it. He’d been dropping elven wild magic the entire trip, and apparently he had a new trick to show me.

“Betray me, and I’ll never rest until you’re dead,” I vowed, my hands bound behind me, kneeling before him and the entire witch council.

He grabbed my shoulder, hauling me up as the crowd shouted its approval. Not as far from our witch-burning past as I had hoped, I guess.