The Once and Future Witches

The following day at the library, Bella delves into research related to the black tower and a possible way to call back the Last Three witches. Much to her surprise, Cleo Quinn arrives and presses Bella for more information about the tower. Bella shares her belief that magic might still exist, hidden in storybooks and rhymes. Quinn volunteers to help Bella ferret out this power. The two spend the rest of the day poring over old volumes to find more secrets of witchcraft.

Meanwhile, Juniper has happily ensconced herself at suffragette headquarters, where the group plans a demonstration: they will hold a march during the town’s Centennial Fair. Their planning is interrupted when conservative mayoral candidate and current city councilman Gideon Hill arrives and informs the ladies that the City Council has voted unanimously to ban the rally. Juniper secretly decides to organize a demonstration anyway.

Back in Bella’s apartment that night, Juniper announces her plans to stage a rally. Bella is shocked but can’t dissuade her younger sister. Elsewhere, Agnes has trouble sleeping. She has decided to keep the baby, and this decision causes her some insomnia. Agnes is also upset because Juniper invited her to the rally the following afternoon.

At the Centennial Fair the next day, Juniper has convinced six other suffragettes to join her demonstration. She uses a cloaking spell to hide their white suffrage costumes under gray and olive clothing. At four o’clock, during the height of the speechmaking, Juniper drops the spell and unfurls a banner reading: VOTES FOR WOMEN. The crowd erupts into confusion and protest, though many of the younger women seem fascinated by this display of magic.

Juniper and her cohorts try to slip away in the crowd, but their path is blocked by the conservative Christian Union women’s group. Their leader, Grace Wiggin, denounces Juniper and her friends. Juniper notices that Grace’s shadow has grown larger and detached itself. This is evidence of witchcraft, and Juniper speculates that Grace might be an evil witch.

Bella and Quinn have been watching the riot unfold from the shadows. They try to flee but are pinned in a narrow street by an approaching gang of men. Quinn works a spell to conceal their presence. Bella is amazed when Quinn admits that her own grandmother taught her magic.

Agnes has also been watching Juniper’s demonstration. As the riot gets out of hand, she sees Juniper about to be beaten by a teenage boy with an iron pipe. Juniper is on the point of conjuring a red snake that will kill the boy, but Agnes intervenes and hurries her younger sister to safety. The two women take refuge in a brothel for the night until the streets quiet down.

During the night, Agnes apologizes for abandoning Juniper seven years earlier. She explains that she was pregnant at the time but aborted the fetus, and that their father sent the two elder sisters away. Agnes goes on to say that the three girls were together in the barn when their father descended furiously on them. Bella had apparently told him about Agnes’s abortion, and he meant to punish all three by burning them. Agnes remembered a protection spell against fire that Mama Mags taught her. She pulled her sister close just as the barn caught fire. Their father grabbed hold of Juniper’s leg, which explains her burned ankle and the subsequent infection that left her permanently injured.

Agnes says that Juniper needs to be more careful about displaying magic in public. Juniper counters that Bella is researching ways to bring back the Last Three witches. Juniper convinces Agnes to join the suffrage movement the following day.

The next morning, Bella goes to suffrage headquarters to try to reason with Juniper, but she and Agnes haven’t arrived yet. Miss Stone, the president of the group, tries to dissuade Bella from associating with her sisters. When Juniper and Agnes appear, Juniper tells Miss Stone that the suffragettes should combine their cause with magic. Incensed at the suggestion, Miss Stone banishes all three sisters from the organization.

Later, Bella discloses her hunch that they might be able to bring magic back into the world. She admits that she was the one who uttered the verses that raised the black tower apparition. Juniper is quick to notice the correlation between the mythical Maiden, Mother, and Crone and the three Eastwood sisters reuniting on the evening of the equinox. Bella warily agrees to keep digging through the lore to find more magic that might help them. As they agree to continue their quest, one of Juniper’s suffrage friends, Jennie, wants to join them.