Sage Stevenson fears she has gone insane. Scars form unbidden on her flesh, then sink below her skin. A young police deputy—Marq Marchant—finds that his arms and legs are becoming oddly numb. Both learn their ailments are somehow connected to a series of ritualistic murders. Even more strangely, they are also both connected to the mysterious and recently departed Artemesia. "Only the living can change the past," Artemesia was fond of saying. But is that really true?