“It’s time you forgot your magic.”

As a soft cry escaped her lips, I turned back to the crowd. “My mother doesn’t only take your worst moments; she takes whatever she wants. I don’t know what she’s stolen, but it’s time you know the truth.”

People looked around at one another. While some shook their heads in disbelief, others nodded slowly, mouths open as if trying to piece together gaps in their own memories.

“Are you quite finished?” my mother asked.

My stomach bottomed out. I gripped the microphone tighter and turned.

“I’m glad you came to me with your worries,” she said. “But you should’ve known I’d do what was best for this family. Nate, please get your brother off the stage.”

Nate stood at the base of the steps sneering. I hadn’t seen him arrive.

“But…”

Before I could finish the thought, a heavy buzzing filled the air.

The crowd parted.

Irene ran toward me, surrounded by a winged swarm, a blood-drenched child in her arms. My heart froze at the sight of her. I blinked, tried to reconcile what I saw. A scream pierced the cacophony as Taylor ran for her.

Irene opened her mouth, and the sound ceased. She confronted Nate. “You killed my brother.”

The silence that followed was thick with her pain.

My head went light. Nolan was dead?

“You didn’t really think I’d drink Bonner’s with you, did you?” Nate’s laughter cut like a knife. “I talked to the bartender well before you showed up to make sure you had the family recipe, not me.”

I brought a hand to my throat as I realized the implication.

I watched in horror as my father appeared behind Maura in the crowd. He grabbed her around the middle and shoved a bourbon ball into her mouth. She tried to push him off, but he was too big. No one helped. They were all too focused on the woman dripping blood.

My mother nodded to Nate, who hopped off the stage and started toward the antique still. Then, to the crowd, Sylvia said, “I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but it’s time you all forget the Haywoods ever owned the land where we grow our corn. You can forget about this little conversation, too—this whole summer, in fact—and everything you know about my son Kaden beyond his name. Like none of it ever happened at all.”

Lips parted. Smoke poured into the air, the gloom thicker than I’d ever seen it. Eyes glazed over as the dark mist swirled up and around and toward the old still.

My mother leaned in closer to me and whispered, “I think it would be best if you forgot your friendship with Irene, with her family and her friends—that she and Nate ever ended things.”