Maura handed her own bottle over. “Show him mine, too. It won’t give him his own memories back, but it might give him an idea of where to look for copies of my contract with Sylvia if they still exist.”

“Show the Bakers, too,” Quinn said.

Clem nodded.

“What if this doesn’t work?” Irene asked. “Kaden tried taking the memories from Sylvia before, and we failed.”

“Last time, I showed my cards. I told her what I’d learned about Nate. She knew I wanted to protect you—and without the engagement, there was no way your family would let her stay on your land,” Kaden said. “She didn’t have any bourbon in her system. She made sure of that.”

“She drank the spiked lemonade at her house today,” Quinn said.

Kaden nodded. “We have to take her memory of the magic away. Only this time, we make sure she doesn’t see it coming.”

Chapter 42

Kaden

The gloom had grown so thick it blocked out the sun. Kaden peered into the garden, but it was impossible to make out person or plant. He knew where the guesthouse should be—the memory still fresh from the bourbon—but even that was swallowed up in the fog.

“Does anyone see them?” Irene called out.

Kaden gripped her hand tightly, afraid she’d take one too many steps and disappear into the shadows. All around them, the others had gone as far as the edge of the patio, staring off in different directions.

“Why is there so much gloom?” Kaden asked.

Irene reached for a flash of yellow-green light and opened her hand to find the lightning bug crawling along her palm. A puff of shadow escaped onto her skin. “It almost looks like the fireflies brought it here.”

“I thought they chased away the darkness,” Taylor said.

“Maybe they haven’t been chasing it away,” Irene said. “What if they’ve been capturing it?”

“They’re as much a part of Yarrow as these plants are,” Maura said as she dropped into a crouch and pressed her hand to the dirt. She squinted into the shadow. “The soil’s depleted. If the gloom really is the memories that didn’t make it into the bottle—the angel’s share of our town’s sorrow—it’s possible the garden is trying to call the fireflies here to make up for what the soil is lacking.”

“Look!” Quinn pointed into the haze.

Yellow and green flashed in synchronicity, and in the glow of their light, Kaden could just make out three shadows moving through the darkness.

“That has to be them,” he said.