Starting, Ella realized she’d entered rez land. Fear tore through her like a bullet because it seemed she couldn’t help but face her destiny.
If she tried and failed…
Shoving the possibility—and the potential consequences—out of mind, she looked for a gravel road and turned onto it. Grandmother had told her Marisala lived alone in a trailer a half mile north. What she hadn’t done was describe the trailer—a fancy double-wide with an awning, surrounded by a neat picket fence and a flower garden.
Marisala had claimed to have enough money to pay for the love potion. Apparently so. She lived alone and better than most on the rez. Once more, Ella wondered where the money came from. Ella hoped Marisala hadn’t been doing anything illegal to afford the pretty place.
A convertible was parked outside the gate, so someone must be home. Ella pulled up next to it and hopped out. Thinking surely Marisala heard her, she wondered why the young woman didn’t come to the door. A knock got no response. She tried again and wondered if Marisala had gone off with her lover in his vehicle.
About to go back to the movie set, Ella hesitated. Something didn’t feel right.
“Marisala!” she called, slamming her hand against the door. “Open up, please!”
She banged again for a minute straight and was about to give up when she heard light footsteps. Then suddenly the door swung open. Marisala stood there, her expression slack, her gaze unfocused. Her hair was matted around her pale face, and her clothes were wrinkled as if she’d slept in them. She didn’t seem fully aware.
“Did I wake you?”
Marisala blinked. “Ella?” she whispered, looking puzzled, as if she was confused.
“Who were you expecting?” Ella asked. “That man you told me about?”
Marisala shuddered but didn’t answer.
Ella’s unsettled feeling deepened. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” the young woman echoed, seeming confused, almost as if she were asleep now.
Ella took her hands. They were as cold as ice. “Are you all right?”
Finally, Marisala focused. “What day is this?”
“Saturday. You were expected to be on the set hours ago.”
“Oh.”
Like a pale ghost of herself, Marisala floated to the kitchen. She moved slowly, deliberately, as if she were on automatic pilot.
So, what in the hell was she on? Ella wondered. Or was it simply a hangover?
Following, Ella said, “You realize you’re late for work, right? You’re holding up production. If you don’t get cleaned up and on set fast, they may replace you.”
No matter that Ella put urgency into her tone, Marisala looked as if nothing was getting through to her, as if she’d had some bizarre break with reality.
In the end, Ella realized it didn’t matter what she said. The young woman didn’t need to go to work, she needed help. She bullied Marisala into making herself barely presentable and getting into the SUV.
It was then she saw something she’d missed going inside—a raven’s track cut into the earth just outside the gate.
Furious, Ella marched over to the sign and stepped on it, obliterating it, just as she would like to see happen to whomever had left the horrid sign there.
What in the world had that person done to Marisala? Ella wondered, remembering the day Father had died, and the accusations that he’d taken Nelson Bird’s mind.
Was there really a connection?
She’d always thought Nelson had mental problems, but perhaps that wasn’t the case. Perhaps the real sorcerer had for some reason taken the man’s mind.
And Marisala’s?
A very scary thought.
One that haunted her as she drove.
First the horses… now Marisala… both echoing things that had happened fifteen years ago.
Wanting to believe in coincidence, Ella kept her racing imagination in check and quickly got Marisala to the health clinic located in the government building. When they entered, Jimmy Iron Horse was standing in the hallway, talking to another officer.
Jimmy took one look at Marisala and said, “What the hell did you do to her, Ella?”
“Me? Nothing. I found her like this and decided to bring her to the clinic to get her help.”
Ami Badeau was just leaving the clinic with her mother Hannah, who was coughing up a storm. When she spotted Ella with Marisala, she turned to Jimmy and said, “Arrest that woman! She’s making people ill! Mother saw her the other day, and she’s been coughing ever since!”
“Stop blaming Ella,” Hannah said. “I’m old. Old people get sick.”
“A lot of people have been getting sick since Ella Thunder returned.”
Ella didn’t miss the emphasis.
Jimmy asked, “Are you accusing Ella of putting some kind of a curse on your mother?”
“Well, look to Marisala,” Ami said, indicating the woman who stood there, a silent shadow of herself. “Marisala saw Ella the other day to ask her for a potion.”
“How do you know that?” Ella demanded. As far as she was aware, no one had been privy to their conversation.
“Just so you know, Marisala told me.” Ami turned back to Jimmy. “She was her usual beautiful, outgoing self before she met with Ella. But not now, is she? Look at her! Something bad happened to the poor girl,” Ami said knowingly. “You should arrest Ella, Jimmy.”
“I need evidence—”
“Then get it!”
“Ami, stop such nonsense,” Hannah said, between coughs. “You’ll have everyone thinking Ella is—”
“A sorceress?” Ami finished for her. “Like father, like daughter.”
Heat shot through Ella and she said, “Father was not a sorcerer! He was a shaman, devoted to his People, doing only good. He committed no crime, but what happened to him was a crime.”
One that had gone unpunished.
Ami helped her mother to the door. “Well, you heed my words, Jimmy,” she said, lingering a moment and then shifting her vicious gaze to Ella. “The responsible members of the rez take care of their own.”
Jimmy didn’t respond, simply stared at Ella with those gray eyes that spooked her. Was he holding back a smile of satisfaction? Or was that simply a grimace in response to the violence of the past?
Ami said people who’d been in contact with her had fallen ill. How many people? What kind of illness?
The responsible members of the rez take care of their own.
Had that been a threat? Was Ami suggesting The People might do to her what they did to her father?
Realizing that Marisala was making soft noises and swaying on her feet, Ella took hold of her and pushed her toward the clinic door without so much as giving him another glance.
She only wished she could dispel her growing sense of horror so easily
***
By the time Ella returned to the set, the word was somehow out—Marisala had some bizarre break with reality. She ignored the questions from a couple of crew members and went in search of the producer.
Ella spotted Jane in conference with the director near the makeup tent. She hadn’t gotten to the producer and director before crew and cast members gathered to bombard her with more questions, Tiernan included.
“What is going on?” he asked.