I felt my lips curve up in a not-nice smile that made Oliver swear and Vivian swallow hard. Pierce alone seemed to have expected the nasty expression of confident, bitter satisfaction that I knew I was now wearing. I’d seen it on Al, and only now did I understand it. We were all fools. All of us.

“Ku’Sox tearing apart your reality isn’t my problem,” I said as I eyed my nails and wished I knew how to change my clothes into something suitably overbearing and sexy. “Who wants to banish me? Send me home?”

I hit the last word hard with sarcasm, and Pierce gave Oliver a dark look that said to shut up and stop his muttering about demons. “Rachel, please,” he asked. “He’s destroying everything, killing people. You beat him before.”

“Yeah?” I said, and Pierce lowered his eyes. “That was when I was a witch. Where are Ivy and Jenks?”

All bluster and overdone emotion, Oliver strode forward until the hissing kerosene light made harsh shadows on his face. “You filthy demon. You’re in my circle, and you’ll do what I say!”

I tapped the barrier between us to make his aura run from the dimple of impact. It held firm, even if only Oliver was holding it. He looked old. Tired. Not a surprise if he’d been fighting Ku’Sox for three days. “It doesn’t work that way,” I said lightly. “The thing about demons is they can say no, and I don’t like you.” Smiling wickedly, I leaned close, the barrier humming a complaint. “It’s called Let’s Make a Deal for a reason. You shunned me, sent fairies to burn my church, tried to kill me and my friends. Then you made me drag my sorry ass clear across the continent chasing a promise of forgiveness that I won from you fair and square, only to have you curse me and call me a demon. And now, when you’re in trouble, you have the balls to ask for my help?” I shook my head, not believing that Trent had anticipated all of this and prepared for it.

“What on earth might you have that I want…hmmmm, I wonder,” I mused sarcastically, glancing at each of them in turn, Oliver in hate, Vivian in disappointment, and Pierce…well, he looked too tired to be sorry, but I could see his guilt.

“I can’t begin to make reparation for this,” Pierce said, his old-world accent ringing clear. “And I’m prepared to make amends any way you see possible. I wasn’t of a mind that me winning the coven seat would put you in such straits. This was never my intent. It simply…happened.”

It simply happened. The story of my life, and I slumped.

The three coven witches watched me with varying degrees of hope, shame, and disgust, and I licked my lips. Three days ago, I would have said, “Give me my citizenship, and I’ll take Ku’Sox on,” but after having spent three days sleeping under Al’s protection because he thought I was vulnerable, I was having second, third, and fourth thoughts.