Chosen (house of Night, #3)

The third installment in the House of Night series follows Zoey Redbird, a fledgling vampyre at the House of Night, a finishing school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where teenagers Marked by the goddess Nyx undergo a Change that will either transform them into adult vampyres or kill them. Zoey is uniquely gifted, possessing an unprecedented affinity for all five elements (air, fire, water, earth, and spirit) and leading the Dark Daughters and Sons, the school's most prestigious student organization.

Zoey turns 17 on December 24 while carrying a crushing secret. Her best friend, Stevie Rae, appeared to die a month earlier when her body rejected the Change, but Zoey knows she survived as an undead creature living in tunnels beneath Tulsa. Zoey cannot tell anyone because Neferet, the House of Night's High Priestess and Zoey's former mentor, created the undead fledglings, and Neferet's psychic abilities allow her to read the minds of nearly everyone Zoey might confide in.

At Zoey's birthday party, her boyfriend Erik Night, her friends Damien Maslin, the "Twins" Shaunee Cole and Erin Bates, and Damien's boyfriend Jack Twist give her Christmas-themed gifts. A package from Heath, Zoey's human ex-boyfriend with whom she shares an Imprint, a psychic blood-bond, reveals that Zoey hates having her birthday merged with the holiday. Later, a visit with her grandmother, Grandma Redbird, a Cherokee woman, is ambushed by her mother, Linda Heffer, and stepfather, John Heffer, an Elder of the People of Faith Church. Linda gives Zoey a Bible in which John has rewritten the family tree to list himself as Zoey's father. When Zoey rejects the gift, John warns that "God-fearing people" will no longer tolerate vampyres.

That night, Zoey tracks Stevie Rae to a downtown alley and finds her feeding on a homeless woman. Stevie Rae is hostile and barely recognizable, but glimpses of her old self surface. Zoey uses her air affinity to rescue the woman and persuades Stevie Rae to meet her the following night. Meanwhile, Zoey reconciles with Erik, and during a passionate kiss she accidentally tastes his blood. Loren Blake, the Vampyre Poet Laureate and a professor, catches them, and tension flares between the two males.

The next day, Loren finds Zoey in the library, quotes Shakespeare, and kisses her. During a practice circle casting, the earth candle flies from Erik's hands and strikes Aphrodite, the former Dark Daughters leader, who claims Nyx sent her. When Zoey repeats the invocation with Aphrodite, the element manifests powerfully, confirming Nyx has given Aphrodite an affinity for earth. Afterward, Aphrodite privately reveals visions of vampyres being killed and of Neferet murdering Stevie Rae by dragging her into sunlight. She offers her parents' garage apartment as a safe house, seeking atonement.

Zoey retrieves Stevie Rae and installs her at the apartment, where Aphrodite invites Stevie Rae across the threshold. Tensions erupt, but Aphrodite inadvertently sparks a key insight: Perhaps Zoey simply needs to ask Nyx to heal Stevie Rae's fractured soul rather than searching for a complex ritual.

That night, while returning to campus, Zoey discovers Professor Patricia Nolan's body nailed to a wooden cross on the school's east wall. A note reads: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," with "repent" underlined. Neferet, who has returned early from Europe, calls in the Sons of Erebus, an elite corps of vampyre warriors, and casts a blood-fueled protective spell around campus that detects anyone entering or leaving. Zoey connects the killing to a card her stepfather sent but decides not to report her suspicions.

Despite the lockdown, Zoey uses her growing powers to leave campus and meet Heath. When she tries to end things, he slashes his own neck, knowing the scent will compel her to drink. She succumbs to bloodlust. When two men threaten them, Zoey commands the wind to hurl the men into the street, where a truck hits them. Heath tells her Nyx would not want her using powers cruelly.

At the Full Moon Ritual, Zoey announces Aphrodite's earth affinity and her addition to the Prefect Council, the organization's student leadership body. After the ritual, Erik collapses and undergoes the Change into an adult vampyre. His apparent death throes trigger Zoey's unprocessed grief, and she sobs in the rec hall. Loren finds her and presses her to confide. She tells him about Stevie Rae, her location, and her disposable cell phone but omits Neferet's involvement and Aphrodite's role. Loren slashes his chest for Zoey to drink, then drinks from her. They Imprint, severing Zoey's bond with Heath, and have sex.

Erik, newly Changed, walks in on them. Later, Zoey goes to Loren's loft and overhears him with Neferet. Loren dismisses Zoey as "easy to lead around," calling her lost virginity a sacrifice "to the god of deception and hormones." Neferet reveals she sent Erik to discover them together, confirming the affair was a manipulation. As Loren embraces Neferet, she looks directly at Zoey in the doorway. Zoey flees, vomits, and tears off the diamond earrings Loren gave her.

Her friends, alerted by Aphrodite, find Zoey at the east wall. Erik arrives and announces Zoey has been sleeping with Loren. Aphrodite defends Zoey and drives Erik away. Then Stevie Rae walks through a trapdoor in the wall, saying Zoey texted her to come. Zoey realizes Neferet used her stolen phone to lure Stevie Rae to campus. Damien notes the perimeter spell missed Stevie Rae because she is neither human, fledgling, nor vampyre. Zoey's friends agree to help heal Stevie Rae but tell Zoey they no longer trust her.

Zoey casts a candleless circle of raw elemental power. When she reaches earth, Stevie Rae attacks Aphrodite, furious that Aphrodite has claimed her element, and bites into her neck. Damien shouts that Zoey must complete the circle by calling spirit. She channels all five elements into a healing incantation. Inside a glowing bubble of power, Aphrodite holds Stevie Rae against her neck, telepathically telling Zoey she made this sacrifice freely. When the bubble breaks, Stevie Rae's crescent moon is filled in and surrounded by floral tattoos in scarlet instead of sapphire blue, marking her as a new kind of vampyre with her humanity restored. Aphrodite revives, but her Mark has vanished; she has become human, the cost of the magic.

As warriors investigate, Zoey feels Loren being tortured and killed through their Imprint. At an emergency assembly, the warrior Darius interrupts with news that Loren's body has been found nailed to the school's front gate, decapitated and disemboweled. Neferet declares a covert war against humans. Afterward, Neferet blames Zoey for Loren's death, but Zoey uses elemental power to shove Neferet to the ground. Erik, who witnesses the confrontation, acknowledges something bigger is happening with Neferet but tells Zoey it does not change what she did.

Walking to her dorm, Zoey takes stock: Stevie Rae is healed, her Imprints are broken, and new tattoos around her waist confirm Nyx's continued favor. But she has lost her virginity to a lie, her friends do not trust her, Aphrodite has been rendered human, and the most powerful High Priestess is her sworn enemy on the brink of war. Nyx's voice whispers through her mind: "Believe in yourself, Daughter, and get ready for what is to come."