“I’ve got to be honest,” Nate said. “I didn’t expect your call.”

“Well,” I said. “If Kaden and I are going to do this thing, I was going to run into you eventually.”

“Mom’s happy anyway,” Nate said.

The thought made my skin crawl.

The bartender brought our drinks to the table. I held up my shot, and we all clinked our glasses before throwing them back.

“We thought we could meet up with everyone at the tea shop after this, head over to the distillery together,” Kaden said. “The bourbon festival’s all about leaving the past behind us, right?”

Nate nodded slowly. “I’m happy for you both. Maybe it was never right, what we had.”

“Obviously it wasn’t,” I said. “You cheated on me. For almost the entire relationship.”

“We got engaged too young,” he said, as if that had been the only problem.

I shook my head, glanced at Kaden. He gave me a short nod. I rested my elbows on the table and leaned toward Nate, relishing this moment, the chance to expose him for the bastard he was.

“I know what you did,” I said, voice low.

“You caught me in the act,” Nate said.

“Not that,” I said. “You made me forget that you cheated on me.”

He glanced at his brother. “Wow, I guess you’re serious about her.”

“How many times, Nate?” I asked.

He hesitated, but his eyes gleamed. “How many times did I cheat, or how many times did you catch me?”

“You disgust me,” I said.

“I can fix that,” he said. “Make you forget again.” He nodded to my glass.

“This isn’t Bonner’s.”

His eyes widened.

Kaden leaned forward. “I love you, Nate, but Irene’s right. It’s over. It’s time for you to forget about our family’s magic—every conversation we’ve ever had about it, every time you’ve used it, even the past few minutes.”

Nate cupped his hand over his mouth as if he could keep the memories in. He stood, backed away from them. Then, he blinked. He looked down at himself, up at them, and slowly sat at the table again.

“What were you saying?”

The memory released its hold on Irene long enough for her to realize they’d been wrong about how Kaden’s magic worked. The Bonners’ power didn’t come from drinking their own recipe; it was in their victim consuming it. As soon as she had the thought, she was back inside her own mind, standing outside the tea shop.

After we left the bar, we met up with Clem, Taylor, and Nolan outside Lavender & Lemon Balm. While Kaden had taken care of Nate’s magic, we didn’t think it was a good idea for Nate to be there when we exposed his mother. According to Kaden, his father didn’t know about the family’s magic, which left Sylvia as the last remaining threat.