What happened in Sea Witch by Sarah Henning - Recaptains

The basics

Title: Sea Witch

Author: Sarah Henning

Series: Sea Witch #1

- Sea Witch (2018)
- Sea Witch Rising (2019)

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Goodreads Summary:

Everyone knows what happens in the end. A mermaid, a prince, a true love’s kiss. But before that young siren’s tale, there were three friends. One feared, one royal, and one already dead.

Ever since her best friend, Anna, drowned, Evie has been an outcast in her small fishing town. A freak. A curse. A witch.

A girl with an uncanny resemblance to Anna appears offshore and, though the girl denies it, Evie is convinced that her best friend actually survived. That her own magic wasn’t so powerless after all. And, as the two girls catch the eyes—and hearts—of two charming princes, Evie believes that she might finally have a chance at her own happily ever after.

But her new friend has secrets of her own. She can’t stay in Havnestad, or on two legs, unless Evie finds a way to help her. Now Evie will do anything to save her friend’s humanity, along with her prince’s heart—harnessing the power of her magic, her ocean, and her love until she discovers, too late, the truth of her bargain.

Here is a spoiler summary of what happened in Sea Witch by Sarah Henning to help refresh your memory before you read the sequel. Sea Witch Rising is out on 6th August and we’re so darn excited!

what happened in Sea Witch?

• Prologue: Evie nearly dies (“drowns on thin air”) because she saves her BFF Nik from cracking his head open on a rock. Her mother performs a ritual which ends her own life to save her daughter’s.
• It’s Nik’s sixteenth birthday. Iker, his cousin, arrives late. Evie goes below deck to find candles, and she thinks she sees Anna, her supposedly dead friend, under the water.
• There’s a storm, and Nik falls into the sea. He’s rescued by what we now know is a mermaid.
• Iker kisses Evie and leaves on his boat.
• We learn that Nik saved Evie from drowning, but he wasn’t able to save Anna.
• While waiting for Iker to return, Evie comes across Annemette, who says she ran away from her home in the countryside. The thing is, she is just an older version of Anna.
• Evie takes Annemette to her cottage. Tante Hansa welcomes Anna back from the dead.
• Annemette makes matching necklaces for herself and Evie. She shows Evie that she can control her magic, but she says she can’t stay to teach her.
• Evie figures out that Annemette is a mermaid. Annemette says she has always been one, and is very interested in meeting Nik.
• Evie introduces Annemette to Nik and they get on like a house on fire.
• Nik asks Evie and Annemette to stay at the castle. Hansa is annoyed about this.
• Annemette tells Evie that she has three days left to get her true love’s kiss so she can be human forever. Otherwise she’ll die. No big deal.
• Iker returns from his whale hunt, sans whale. He and Evie catch up.
• Flashback: We learn that Iker was there that day on the beach when Anna drowned.
• Nik asks Evie about her relationship with Iker, and admits he doesn’t think he’ll love Annemette.
• Flashback: Nik sees Anna at the bottom of the sea and is heading towards her when Iker pulls him back up to the surface.
• Iker is suspicious of Annemette and thinks she could be an impostor.
• Nik and Evie play a game, and Evie falls into the river when someone throws a branch at her. Annemette almost uses her magic to save her but in the end Iker rescues her.
• Flashback: Evie cries black tears after casting a spell to try to save Anna from drowning.
• Evie and Annemette bump into Anna’s grandma, who thinks that Annemette is her granddaughter. Annemette plays along. She and Evie help Frau Liesel get home. Liesel warns Annemette about hanging out with Evie. “That little witch will be the death of you.”
• Annemette asks about Anna. Annemette says she can’t be Anna because mermaids don’t have souls. Evie asks if that’s why she’s here – for part of Nik’s soul.
• Flashback: The queen tries to stop Nik from hanging out with Evie. The king overrules her.
• Annemette thinks she has failed and will die. Evie researches some spells that’ll help save her friend.
• On the last day, Nik and Iker argue over Annemette.
• While Nik is sleeping, Iker asks Annemette some questions about herself. He is suspicious of her.
• A storm hits while they’re on the boat. They head to the cove. They have to swim to shore.
• Flashback: We see Anna become a mermaid. She has her memory wiped. Her new older sister is allowed to go to the surface on her 15th birthday. Anna finds it weird that she can’t remember two of her older sisters doing the same thing.
• There’s a ball happening that evening. Annemette casts a spell to get Evie ready in time.
• Flashback: We’re back at the beginning when Evie saw Anna in the porthole. Anna sees Evie and remembers everything. She’s angry with Evie for suggesting the race that got her killed and with Nik for rescuing Evie first. Also Iker because he stopped Nik from rescuing her. She starts the storm that causes Nik to fall overboard. She wants revenge.
• Flashback: Anna’s fake mermaid mother, Mette, was a human witch that the humans tried to drown. Anna searched her fake dad’s records to find a way to go to the surface. She finds a record of the day she was taken to the merkingdom. She finds a spell to turn her human. She’ll have to kill someone to do it.
• Iker and Evie dance at the ball. Iker tells Evie that Annemette is a predator. Nik asks Evie to dance and Annemette gets upset.
• Flashback: Anna considers killing Iker but she figures he will hurt Evie with his playboy ways so she allows him to live.
• Evie tells the guys that Annemette is a mermaid out of desperation. Annemette tells them Evie is a witch out of spite.
• Flashback: Anna kills Evie’s father with a harpoon. This is part of the spell.
• Iker calls the guards. Nik plans to send Annemette back to the water.
• Nik tells Evie that he has always loved her. This is why he hasn’t shown interest in Annemette. Evie loves him too.
• Iker accuses Evie of casting a spell over Nik. Nik’s father orders the guards to kill Evie.
• Evie runs to the beach and starts to cast a spell. Hansa tries to stop her.
• Annemette reveals herself and her plan. She also says Evie has been ruining the sea with her spells.
• Annemette shows Evie her dead dad.
• Evie gets shot and “breathes her last breath”.
• Annemette tells Nik that she is Anna. Nik tries to stop her father’s men from killing her. Evie, who is still alive, shouts from the water, distracting Nik, and Anna stabs Nik in the back.
• Evie removes her necklace, which was casting a spell on her and connecting the two girls.
• Hansa tries to heal Nik.
• Anna stabs the king. The queen tells her guards to kill Anna and Evie.
• Evie gives her life for Nik’s, like her mother did when she was younger.
• Evie throws Anna into the sea with her.
• The octopus from the cove starts feeding on Evie’s magic and she becomes a… meroctopus? An octomaid?

how did Sea Witch end?

Epilogue: Evie is tied to the cove now. Everyone she knew is now dead, fifty years on. Hansa gave Evie her tomes before she died. Evie is visiting by a young mermaid, who says she is in love with Nik’s grandson and she wants to go to the surface to be with him. Evie takes the mermaid’s voice so that she can’t lie, and sends her to the surface. Evie gives the voice to her plant, and the plant that has been growing from Anna’s bones speaks to her.

That’s what happened in Sea Witch! Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!

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