word as if talking to Oliver alone. “And since we can’t do anything without a full quorum, we’re going to take five minutes and swear in a new coven member.”
Beside me, Pierce trembled. His hands formed fists, and then he opened them, setting them on his pants with his fingers spread wide. There was an excited reaction from the crowd, and my attention went to the five hopefuls sitting in the same row we were but on the other side of the theater.
“Initiates?” Vivian said, her mood shifting to one of ceremony.
“Excuse me,” Pierce said as he stood, causing a stir among the people who noticed him.
Trent looked up at him in surprise. “Where is he going?”
I didn’t answer, instead leaning back when Ivy touched my shoulder and whispered, “This should be interesting.”
Vivian hadn’t noticed him crossing to the second set of stairs, focused on the other five hopefuls coming up the left side. “After much deliberation…,” she began, then hesitated as the crowd reacted to Pierce taking the stage and walking steadily forward. Vivian turned to him, and I swear her eyes held amused anticipation.
Pierce halted, just shy of center stage. “May I approach, Madam Coven Member?” he asked, voice booming so he could be heard without an amulet.
Oliver reached to touch his own amulet. “No,” he said flatly, and Vivian gave him a withering look.
“You gave me this job, Oliver,” she said sharply. “Let me do it.” And as Oliver frowned, she turned and dramatically crossed the stage to hand him another amulet. “The coven recognizes Gordian Pierce.”
Pierce fingered the metal ring, his eyes going everywhere but to me as he took off his coat and went to set it over the podium. Slowly he took over the stage without saying a word. His head came up, and the crowd became still. He wasn’t wearing anything unusual, just brown slacks, a white shirt, and that flamboyant vest, carefully buttoned and holding a pocket watch. The way he carried himself evolved as he stood there, and I stifled a shiver as Trent grunted in surprise. He was different, dangerous. And I had no idea what he was going to do.
“I’m of a mind to beg your pardon, Madam Coven Member,” he said softly, his words going out perfectly with the help of the amulet. “And with all due respect to those fine witches you have assembled here, sworn in and ready to commit their lives to service, there is no coven opening. I am here.
I am the sixth. And that’s all the pie there is.”
The crowd stirred, most of the noise swallowed up by the space. With a sliding sound of wood, Oliver stood. “Get him out of here!” he roared, stirring the people into a buzzing whisper.
Pierce didn’t recognize him, fixed on Vivian, waiting out the noise.
“You are a black witch!” Oliver shouted. “Shunned and—”
Pierce spun, and Oliver’s words choked off. “Bricked into the ground, aye, where I gasped out my last, six feet under, buried alive and breaking my nails to bloody stumps as I tried to claw my way free. And I died despite it. But I’m a coven member nonetheless, and I have returned to claim my position. And 156 years of back pay.”
Ivy leaned forward and tapped my shoulder. “I take back everything I said about your sleeping with him.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said dryly, and Trent stifled a guffaw. Jenks, though, clattered his wings for us to shut up so he could hear.
The other coven members put their heads together, and I waited, watching them. Amanda looked scared, Oliver full of bluster, Wyatt peeved, and Leon like he wanted it to be over.
It took only a moment, and then Oliver said, “You are a black witch, tried and condemned. You have lost your claim. Security!”
Dropping back a step, Pierce took a stiff stance. I knew he couldn’t tap a line, but it was dramatic, and the approaching men halted before they even hit the puddle of light.
“I will be heard!” he shouted, eyes angry. “This meeting, called for Rachel Morgan to apologize for using black magic in her effort to save lives, is a farce. The goal here is to validate or deny the use of black magic for the greater good, not apologize for using it. I opine that until you make a fist of the issue, I have a claim!”
Vivian waved security back, and Pierce relaxed. From the audience rose a nervous murmur. Oliver, though, seemed too catty for my comfort. He looked to his left, then his right, to get everyone’s opinion and their nods, and sat back down with a magnanimous gesture.
Crap, it was all or nothing now. Apologizing wasn’t going to do it. I had to justify myself. Thanks, Pierce.
Vivian’s smile grew wide, as if that was a good thing, and I let out a breath, unaware that I’d been holding it. “The vacant coven membership remains in question then,” she said, glancing back into the wings to someone on the support staff. “All in favor of exploring the validity of legalizing black magic in specific people for the intent of the greater good and using the case of Rachel Morgan as the cornerstone?”
As one, they all muttered their ayes.
“Opposed?”
It was simply a formality, but no one breathed as she waited to the count of five. Clearly pleased, Vivian looked down at me, and my heart stopped. “Rachel, is this okay with you?”
“S-sure,” I stammered when Trent jabbed his elbow into me.
“Can we have two more chairs up here?” Vivian asked someone in the wings, and a skinny, tall man in black slacks and shirt emerged with two plain brown folding chairs.
“Well, get your ass up there,” Jenks said, and I had a moment of panic.
“Wish me luck,” I whispered as I set my bag on my chair and stood. I was feeling Jenks’s loss already as he stayed, perched on the back of my chair, beside Trent, where his dust sifted over a cooing Lucy, reaching for him with her little hands.
I felt unreal as I watched my steps, head down and looking at the red-and-silver pattern in the carpet as I made my way to the stage. The stairs had treads on them, but I still held the railing as I went up, my palms starting to sweat. Someone in the crowd hissed as I found the light. It was warm up here, but I shivered. Pierce stood beside the podium where the two new chairs waited. He wasn’t smiling. And I was so friggin’ scared.
“Come on, Rachel!” Jenks shrilled. “You’re a badass, not a bad witch!”
My head came up, jaw clenched. He was right, and I gave him a bunny-eared kiss-kiss. Someone laughed. I couldn’t see who it was through the lights, but I breathed easier.
Vivian’s Möbius-strip pin caught the glint of the spotlight, and wisps of her blond hair that had escaped her elaborate coiffure drifted in the heat as she approached me. Confident and sure, she looked miles away from the tangled mess in the back of my car. Handing me my amplification amulet, she gave my shoulder a squeeze to publicly show her support. It was a bold move on her part, and I appreciated it. She couldn’t be fired, but as Pierce had proved, you could be retired.
“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
