“I didn’t want to risk what we had,” I said. “Your friendship means everything to me.”

“If it had been you instead of Nate…” She shook her head. Tears filled her eyes. “I’d never have learned the truth about your family.”

“I’d have told you,” I said. “I’m sure of it.” But the only thing I was sure of in that moment was that I wanted to kiss her tears away.

He was sitting in the Haywoods’ kitchen.

A little girl ran, laughing, through the room, followed by a stream of dragonflies. Nolan scooped her up from the ground and peppered her forehead with kisses before he sat beside Taylor.

“You should’ve told us sooner,” he said.

“I know. I thought…” I shook my head. “I don’t know what I thought. That we weren’t all that different from your family?”

Maura planted her hands on the table. “I made this possible. I have to stop it.”

“How?” Irene asked. “The bourbon’s already out there in the world. It’s not like we can just recall it.”

There was only one option.

“We must expose my family,” I said.

Maura nodded slowly. “I’ll kick them off my land. Without the dark corn, without the soil, everything will go back to how it was before.”

“It’s not enough,” I said.

“What other choice do we have?” Irene said.

“I could try to take it from them.”

“You can do that?” Clem asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “But I have to try.”

Kaden’s mind whirled through flashes of dark and light until he stood in the VIP tent at the bourbon festival with Irene and Yarrow’s mayor, Tim Stokes.

A young, pregnant Indian woman stood beside us, head tilted. Her long dark hair fell past her shoulders, and she wore a white tank top, a pair of jeans, and dark sunglasses. Susheila Das Baker—Casey Baker’s wife and a staff writer for the Yarrow Gazette.

She pulled her shades down enough to look at Kaden and Irene over the top of her lenses. “I have to be honest. When I married Casey and took a job out here, I didn’t expect to uncover something like… this.” She popped a bourbon ball into her mouth. “I’m off today, so I didn’t bring my steno, which means I’m going to need a full interview later to get it right.”

“And you’ll let us read the article before you publish?” Irene asked.

She nodded, eyes gleaming. “This is one hell of a story.”

Kaden stood staring out at the bourbon festival, his mother at his side.

I held my hand out for the mic as the crowd parted. Cicadas swarmed overhead so heavy the sky seemed black. Irene gripped her niece tight against her chest. Blood stained her shirt. Her eyes locked on mine.