The Kettle & Crumb is famous. Beatrice Kendrick is drowning.

Her Memory Teas are drawing visitors from three counties. Her scones have earned their own reputation. But every magical creation costs her another piece of herself, and she cannot keep bleeding emotions she has barely processed.

Then she discovers the shortcut.

Other people's emotions work just as well. A sip of someone else's grief. A taste of stolen joy. Magic that costs her nothing.

The tearoom has never been better. Beatrice has never felt emptier.

Her estranged sons are coming home for the Midwinter Feast.

The first time she will see them since Graham announced his engagement. She needs to be at her best. She needs magic that works without breaking her. She needs to not fall apart in front of sons who already think she is pathetic.

Borrowed power seems like the answer. But borrowed power is borrowed debt.

Aggie Pembrook, the oldest Taste Witch in Havenbrook, knows exactly what happens when a witch stops paying her own way. She has seen this before. She knows how it ends.

Gareth watches Beatrice hollow herself out and finally asks the question she has been avoiding: What are you so afraid of feeling?

The answer is everything.

The interest is steep. The reckoning is coming. And Beatrice might have already borrowed too much to pay it back.