The Once and Future Witches Summary: A Spellbinding Feminist Fantasy
The Once and Future Witches blends historical fantasy with an alternative 1893 New Salem where magic has been erased from public life.
Three sisters reunite and accidentally call back an ancient tower.
The story follows their efforts to restore witchcraft while facing a powerful witch-hunter.
The following sections break down what happens, who the key figures are, and the central ideas present in the narrative.
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TL;DR: The Quick Take
Three estranged sisters—Juniper, Agnes, and Bella—reunite in a world where witchcraft has been reduced to nursery rhymes.
They form a secret coven to bring magic back into the open.
Their actions draw the attention of Gideon Hill, an immortal witch-hunter now running for mayor. The story ends with a major sacrifice that restores magic to the world.
- Main characters: the three Eastwood sisters and their allies.
- Core conflict: restoring suppressed magic against a patriarchal, witch-hunting system.
- Key themes: sisterhood, lost history, resistance, and intergenerational power.
- Ending involves a permanent loss and the return of magic.
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Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| James Juniper Eastwood | Youngest Eastwood sister; a fugitive wanted for murder who becomes the president of the Sisters of Avalon and later sacrifices herself to destroy Gideon Hill. |
| Agnes Amaranth Eastwood | Middle Eastwood sister; a mill worker and mother of Eve who becomes the coven’s maternal figure. |
| Beatrice Belladonna Eastwood | Oldest Eastwood sister; a librarian at Salem College who discovers lost spells and falls in love with Cleo Quinn. |
| Gideon Hill | Primary antagonist; a city councilman and later mayor who is the immortal witch-hunter George of Hyll. |
| Cleopatra “Cleo” Quinn | Black journalist for The New Salem Defender and high-ranking member of the Daughters of Tituba; becomes Bella’s romantic partner. |
| Mama Mags | The sisters’ grandmother who secretly taught them the Will, Words, and Way of magic before her death. |
| Eve Everlasting | Agnes’s daughter, born during the restoration of Avalon; represents the future of witches. |
| August Lee | Socialist labor organizer and Agnes’s love interest; helps with Latin-based spells and rescues Eve. |
| Jennie Lind | Daughter of a former mayor who leaves her privileged life to join the coven as secretary. |
| Grace Wiggin | Leader of the Women’s Christian Union and Hill’s puppet “daughter”; eventually rebels and kills Hill. |
The Once and Future Witches Summary
SPOILER WARNING: This section recounts the entire plot, including the ending.
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The story begins on the spring equinox in 1893. James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna Eastwood arrive in New Salem independently after seven years apart. Juniper is a fugitive wanted for murder. Agnes works at the Baldwin Brothers Bonded Mill.
Bella is a librarian at Salem College.
During a suffrage rally in St. George’s Square, Bella recites an old rhyme from a book. The sisters’ combined presence triggers a magical rift.
A rose-covered black tower appears briefly under strange stars. This event forces the sisters to confront their shared past and the magic their grandmother taught them.
They form the Sisters of Avalon, a clandestine coven disguised as a suffrage society. They recruit women from mills and the city’s edges, including Cleopatra “Cleo” Quinn and the Daughters of Tituba.
The coven performs public spectacles of magic, such as turning a statue of Saint George into a bronze pig and causing wild vines to erupt at a burned factory site.
Gideon Hill, a rising politician, hunts them. He is revealed to be the immortal soul of George of Hyll, the original witch-hunter. Hill maintains immortality by stealing bodies and shadows from young, defenseless people. He ambushes the coven at a “golden tree” ritual, leading to Juniper’s arrest.
Juniper is imprisoned in the Deeps, a flooded, magic-dampening dungeon. She is tortured with a burning iron witch-collar.
Bella and Cleo travel to the ruins of Old Salem to find missing words for restoring magic. Agnes initially hides because she is pregnant, but later helps rescue Juniper.
During the rescue, Agnes gives birth to Eve Everlasting. The sisters successfully summon the Lost Way of Avalon, which turns out to be a vast ancient library of women’s knowledge. They hide the tower in “nowhere” using a binding spell.
Gideon Hill wins the mayoral election in a landslide. He institutes a “Trial by Fire” for all suspected witches and kidnaps baby Eve to force the sisters to surrender.
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In the climax, the sisters are bound to stakes in St. George’s Square for a public burning.
Instead of dying, they use the collective will of hundreds of women in the crowd to cast a massive spell.
The witch-light exposes Hill’s rotting soul and turns his wolf familiar against him. Grace Wiggin, Hill’s “adopted daughter” whose will he stole, breaks free and strangles him with her suffrage sash.
Juniper binds Hill’s spirit to her own and steps into the pyre to sunder his soul forever.
She dies in the fire, but her soul lingers as a protective spirit within Avalon because of the earlier binding. Agnes and Bella escape the city on rowan-wood branches.
In the epilogue, magic has returned to the world.
Agnes and Bella teach witchcraft to women across the country. The burned library of Avalon is slowly rebuilt as a sanctuary for lost girls.
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FAQ
What happens at the end of The Once and Future Witches?
At the end, Juniper binds Gideon Hill’s soul to her own and steps into the fire, dying to destroy him permanently. Agnes and Bella escape the city, magic returns to the world, and they later rebuild the library of Avalon as a sanctuary for lost girls.
Is The Once and Future Witches a standalone novel?
Yes, The Once and Future Witches is a standalone historical fantasy novel. It does not have a sequel, but it shares thematic connections with Alix E. Harrow’s other works.
Who is Gideon Hill in The Once and Future Witches?
Gideon Hill is the main antagonist and the immortal witch-hunter George of Hyll. He steals bodies and shadows to remain alive and becomes the mayor of New Salem to enforce anti-witch laws.
What are the main themes in The Once and Future Witches?
The main themes are sisterhood, female solidarity, resistance against patriarchal oppression, the restoration of lost oral tradition, and the intergenerational transmission of power.
Does The Once and Future Witches have a happy ending?
The ending is bittersweet. Juniper dies to defeat Hill, but magic is restored, Agnes and Bella survive, and the future for witches is hopeful.
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