So, regretfully, she said, “I have what I need. Go home, McKenna.”
“I do not think so, Thunder. I am going to do whatever it takes to make sure you are safe. I have decided you’re worth fighting for.”
Warmth spread through her. “Let me take care of Marisala… then we’ll talk about it,” Ella hedged. She didn’t know what she was going to do once she got to the rez, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “Please, Tiernan.”
Reluctantly, he backed off. She could feel his energy buzz around her as she pulled Marisala through the crowd to the parking lot. She piled the young woman into the passenger seat and then, voices still buzzing around her, got behind the wheel and started the engine.
The last she saw of Tiernan was him with a small woman with wispy brown hair—he was waving a piece of paper in front of her narrow face, and they were headed away from the parking lot. Fast. What in the world was he up to? she wondered.
A banging on the car’s hood and trunk put Tiernan out of mind for the moment. Lakota surrounded the SUV with threatening expressions and stances. Her anger flaring, Ella laid on the horn and slowly backed out of the space, gratified when two men had to scramble out of the way. She inched out of the parking lot. Next to her, Marisala moaned and rocked in her seat.
“Are you all right? You’re not hurt, are you?” Ella asked.
“No.” Marisala suddenly looked around as if she didn’t know where they were.
“I’m taking you back to the rez, to Grandmother. Why did you leave the clinic?”
“Clinic?”
“Where I left you. Remember? I took you there this morning, because you weren’t feeling well. They were going to take care of you.”
Marisala shrugged her shoulders. “Nathan will take care of me. He promised.”
“Nathan.” The breath caught in Ella’s throat. She could hardly believe Marisala had brought up his name herself. “Nathan is your friend?”
She glanced at the other woman to see her nod.
“Is he your new boyfriend? The one you wanted the love potion for?”
“Love potion,” Marisala murmured, her forehead creasing as if she were trying to remember. “Need a love potion…” Then she simply appeared confused.
Ella tried to get some clarity but Marisala wasn’t up to making any sense. She hoped Grandmother would be able to help the poor woman. She could at least take care of Marisala while Ella found Nathan and did what she had to. There had to be some way she could make him take the spell off the young woman, could make him restore her mind.
As she drove through the rez, people left their trailers and houses to watch her. The hair on the back of her neck stood straight when she got to the center of town and people spilled from the casino and government building.
She pulled in front of the house and helped Marisala out of the SUV. “C’mon, let me help you inside. Grandmother will give you something to eat, and then you can rest.”
Marisala was docile, didn’t say anything, simply let Ella lead her to the house.
The door opened before they got to it. With a fierce expression on her leathery face, Grandmother held out her arms and pulled Marisala inside. Ella glanced back once and realized people had come out on their porches and others had stopped their vehicles to watch. An old familiar feeling sent a shudder of revulsion through her, and she slammed the door shut on prying eyes.
Grandmother got Marisala to sit in the living room and fussed over her to make her comfortable.
“Where is her mother?” Ella asked. “I’ll go find her and let her know Marisala is here.”
“Her mother died years ago. Starved to death,” Grandmother said.
“Oh, my God,” Ella whispered, some things about Marisala becoming very clear to her. No wonder she had wanted power over a man. She hadn’t wanted to be abandoned again.
“What happened to this poor girl?” Grandfather asked.
“Something warped her mind.”
“Something… or someone?”
“I don’t know for sure.”
Ella prayed she wouldn’t have to tell them that Nathan—their other grandchild—was evil. She wouldn’t do it yet, not until she was certain. A little spark of hope still burned in her breast that her cousin was innocent.
“Ella, I have some soup on the stove.”
“I’m not hungry, Grandmother, but perhaps Marisala could eat.”
“It’ll be there when you’re ready.”
Though Ella didn’t know that she would be here.
Going to the window, she peered out at the street, now crowded with people, all surrounding this house. Her chest went tight and she felt sick inside.
“What is wrong, Ella?” Grandfather asked.
“They think I did this.” She indicated Marisala, folded in on herself.
“They think you harmed someone? Why?”
“Because they think I’m like Father.”
Indeed, it wasn’t long before she heard someone shout, “Come out and meet your accusers, sorceress!”
The deep voice rumbled through the walls to get to her. Though she was no longer thirteen, Ella felt a lump in her throat as she returned to the window and saw the familiar angry faces. She was hurt and afraid, but she was angry, too. Was this how her father had felt when he’d been betrayed by the very people he’d helped?
This couldn’t be happening again.
“Come out, sorceress!” demanded a woman. “Before we burn down your house!”
Ami Badeau! A lump in Ella’s throat threatened to choke her, and her eyes burned as she went to the door. She couldn’t let an out of control crowd hurt anyone else when it was her they wanted. That’s why her father had gone out to reason with The People—to protect his family. Knowing she had to do likewise, Ella turned back to see the grandparents staring at her, eyes wide with horror. No doubt they saw the past repeating itself.
“Stop them, Ella,” Grandmother said, her dark eyes shiny with wetness. “Do not let them do to you what they did to your father. Use your power to stop them!”
“I can’t, Grandmother. You know that. The People are not evil. They are superstitious. Afraid. Possibly under the spell of the true sorcerer.”
Like her father before her, she knew it wasn’t right to use her powers for self-gain, especially not if it meant hurting innocent people in the process. That was left to someone with evil in his heart. It had taken all these years to understand that. The People were innocent, victims of their own narrow lives and real fears, their minds twisted by the frightening things that had been happening all around them again. And, yes, they could be under the spell of the evil one, as well.
“Don’t open the door!” Grandfather said.
“I must. It is my destiny to do this.” Remembering Father’s words, she echoed him. “It is time.”
She felt it in her blood, in her heart, in her whole being. It was time to face her fears and somehow beat them.
The grandparents huddled together as Ella finally opened the door, and exchanged the safety of the house for the fear-charged dusk. Raising her voice, she said, “I have done nothing to any of you. I’ve done no evil—”
“Liar!” came several voices.