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Plot Summary
This volume in the House of Night series, a young adult paranormal fantasy, is set at the Tulsa House of Night, a boarding school for vampyre fledglings, young people undergoing the transformation into full vampyres. The former High Priestess Neferet has been exposed as a servant of Darkness who sacrificed Zoey Redbird's mother to the white bull, an ancient embodiment of evil. Thanatos, the acting High Priestess whose affinity is for death, has reported Neferet's crimes to the Vampyre High Council. Even as the truth emerges, Neferet sets new destruction in motion.
Neferet sacrifices Dragon Lankford's cat familiar, Shadowfax, in a blood ritual commanding her shapeshifting Vessel, Aurox, to kill Rephaim, son of the winged immortal Kalona. A reveal ritual at the lavender farm of Zoey's grandmother, Sylvia Redbird, succeeds despite Neferet's interference, but Dragon, the school's Sword Master, dies protecting Rephaim from Aurox's bull form. As Neferet's tendrils of Darkness, snake-like minions she commands, carry out her orders, one knocks over a gas lantern in the stables, and Neferet allows the fire to spread.
Lenobia, the Horse Mistress, races into the burning stables to free the horses and rescue Travis Foster, a human cowboy whose eyes remind her of Martin, the man she loved on a voyage from France to New Orleans and who died saving her from a fire in 1788. Nicole, a red fledgling, helps Lenobia drag Travis to safety. Red fledglings are fledglings who died during the Change and were resurrected, marked by a red crescent rather than the standard blue. Before paramedics take Travis, Lenobia kisses him, and he tells her he has been waiting to find his way home.
Aurox flees in despair, having killed Dragon while Darkness controlled him. He collapses near the farmhouse of Grandma Redbird, Zoey's grandmother and a Cherokee Wise Woman. Grandma names him tsu-ka-nv-s-di-na (the Cherokee word for bull), feeds him, and offers sanctuary on the condition he controls the beast within him. Aurox leaves resolved to find redemption and sneaks onto the House of Night grounds, where he falls into a pit beneath a shattered oak tree.
Zoey Redbird is a fledgling High Priestess gifted by the vampyre Goddess Nyx with affinities for all five elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. During the ritual, she looks through her Seer Stone, an amulet of old magick, and sees her deceased human love, Heath, glowing on Aurox, which is why she shields Aurox from the Warriors. Stark, her Guardian (a Warrior sworn to protect her) and lover, is a red vampyre. He grows jealous when Zoey calls Heath's name in her sleep. Aphrodite, the school's Prophetess, and Stevie Rae, a Red Vampyre High Priestess, insist she tell Stark she may be vulnerable to Aurox.
Neferet holds a televised press conference framing herself as a reformer and allies with Mayor Charles LaFont, Aphrodite's father, who appoints her Vampyre Liaison on a city committee. Privately, she instructs Dallas, a red vampyre leading a rogue faction, to sow dissension in Zoey's circle, targeting Erin, a fledgling with an affinity for water. Thanatos counters by challenging Zoey's group to develop their gifts and planning an open house to present the school as welcoming and normal.
When Zoey uses the Seer Stone at the shattered oak, she sees a vortex of shadow creatures before a brilliant moon-colored light destroys them and discovers she lost three hours, a disturbing effect of old magick. Later, the stone reveals Travis as the soul of Lenobia's lost love, Martin, returned after 224 years. Stark concedes the stone shows truth but insists this does not prove Aurox is Heath.
Shaunee breaks from her inseparable best friend Erin, unable to tolerate Erin's growing cruelty. When Erin begins a relationship with Dallas and stays at the House of Night rather than returning to the depot tunnels, the group lets her go, knowing anything Erin learns will reach Dallas and therefore Neferet.
At Dragon's funeral, Thanatos reveals that Aurox was created through the sacrifice of Zoey's mother. Kalona pledges to serve as the school's protector. The Vampyre High Council formally shuns Neferet, stripping all recognition of her priesthood. The white bull also withdraws his direct aid, calling Neferet predictable, and she resolves to create a more perfect weapon.
Neferet then captures Grandma Redbird at her farm. Though Grandma has prepared a Goddess Bundle, a protective talisman of turquoise, sweet grass, and lavender, at the guidance of the Earth Mother (a manifestation of Nyx in her Cherokee aspect), Neferet overcomes her defenses by gouging her own wounds to feed the tendrils. She cages Grandma in living strands of Darkness and carries her away.
Aurox finds blood at the empty farmhouse and deduces Grandma was taken alive. He returns to campus and warns the group. Zoey calls on spirit to calm the beast stirring within him. Kalona volunteers to rescue Grandma from Neferet's penthouse at the Mayo Hotel but fails: His return to Light has severed his alliance with Darkness, and the tendrils feed on his immortal blood to grow stronger. He retreats defeated.
Before dawn, Zoey prays for guidance. The Earth Mother appears and tells her to be a High Priestess, not a frightened child. Kramisha, the Vampyre Poet Laureate, delivers a spell-like poem beginning "Ancient mirror / Magick mirror" (255). The group plans for Aurox to enter the penthouse, since the tendrils cannot feed from a creature of Darkness. They test whether the five elements can sustain his humanity; when Zoey directs each element holder to channel joy with their element, the combined power drowns the beast's rage. Shaylin, a fledgling with True Sight who sees people's inner natures as colors, replaces Erin as the water element.
At dusk, Thanatos casts a protective circle around the Mayo, stationing each element holder at a compass point while Zoey maintains a hidden spirit candle in the restaurant. Aurox enters alone and feigns loyalty, but when he tears open Grandma's cage, Neferet detects the elements within him, forces tendrils into his body, and awakens the beast.
The elements snap back to their holders. Zoey leads everyone to the penthouse and calls all five elements to contain the beast, but Neferet invokes an invitation rule against red vampyres, hurling Stevie Rae, Shaylin, and Stark from the room. With only spirit, air, and fire, the containment falters. Damien, Zoey's close friend with an affinity for air, and Shaunee, who holds fire, collapse from exhaustion.
Zoey remembers Kramisha's spell. She pulls out her blazing Seer Stone and recites the incantation; the stone expands into a mirror. Turning it on Neferet, Zoey sees a young, battered version of the former priestess with evidence of abuse from her youth. Neferet recoils, sobbing, her tendrils dissolving. She charges Zoey. Zoey releases the beast and redirects spirit to Aurox. Still partly transformed, one of his horns pierces Neferet's chest, carrying them both over the balcony. Kalona catches Aurox before the now fully human boy hits the pavement. Neferet crashes into the street, and her body dissolves into thousands of black spiders that vanish into the gutters.
Thanatos tells Zoey she does not know if Neferet is truly dead. Stark uses the Seer Stone on Aurox, and the mirror reveals Heath's face. Stark acknowledges the truth: "That's Heath. Which means somehow you're a friend of mine" (302). Zoey tells Aurox: "Heath was my humanity," adding, "And now it looks like he's become your humanity" (302). Stark takes her hand and tells her that no matter what, they have love. Zoey pockets the stone, knowing Neferet may return and the battle is far from over.
Neferet sacrifices Dragon Lankford's cat familiar, Shadowfax, in a blood ritual commanding her shapeshifting Vessel, Aurox, to kill Rephaim, son of the winged immortal Kalona. A reveal ritual at the lavender farm of Zoey's grandmother, Sylvia Redbird, succeeds despite Neferet's interference, but Dragon, the school's Sword Master, dies protecting Rephaim from Aurox's bull form. As Neferet's tendrils of Darkness, snake-like minions she commands, carry out her orders, one knocks over a gas lantern in the stables, and Neferet allows the fire to spread.
Lenobia, the Horse Mistress, races into the burning stables to free the horses and rescue Travis Foster, a human cowboy whose eyes remind her of Martin, the man she loved on a voyage from France to New Orleans and who died saving her from a fire in 1788. Nicole, a red fledgling, helps Lenobia drag Travis to safety. Red fledglings are fledglings who died during the Change and were resurrected, marked by a red crescent rather than the standard blue. Before paramedics take Travis, Lenobia kisses him, and he tells her he has been waiting to find his way home.
Aurox flees in despair, having killed Dragon while Darkness controlled him. He collapses near the farmhouse of Grandma Redbird, Zoey's grandmother and a Cherokee Wise Woman. Grandma names him tsu-ka-nv-s-di-na (the Cherokee word for bull), feeds him, and offers sanctuary on the condition he controls the beast within him. Aurox leaves resolved to find redemption and sneaks onto the House of Night grounds, where he falls into a pit beneath a shattered oak tree.
Zoey Redbird is a fledgling High Priestess gifted by the vampyre Goddess Nyx with affinities for all five elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. During the ritual, she looks through her Seer Stone, an amulet of old magick, and sees her deceased human love, Heath, glowing on Aurox, which is why she shields Aurox from the Warriors. Stark, her Guardian (a Warrior sworn to protect her) and lover, is a red vampyre. He grows jealous when Zoey calls Heath's name in her sleep. Aphrodite, the school's Prophetess, and Stevie Rae, a Red Vampyre High Priestess, insist she tell Stark she may be vulnerable to Aurox.
Neferet holds a televised press conference framing herself as a reformer and allies with Mayor Charles LaFont, Aphrodite's father, who appoints her Vampyre Liaison on a city committee. Privately, she instructs Dallas, a red vampyre leading a rogue faction, to sow dissension in Zoey's circle, targeting Erin, a fledgling with an affinity for water. Thanatos counters by challenging Zoey's group to develop their gifts and planning an open house to present the school as welcoming and normal.
When Zoey uses the Seer Stone at the shattered oak, she sees a vortex of shadow creatures before a brilliant moon-colored light destroys them and discovers she lost three hours, a disturbing effect of old magick. Later, the stone reveals Travis as the soul of Lenobia's lost love, Martin, returned after 224 years. Stark concedes the stone shows truth but insists this does not prove Aurox is Heath.
Shaunee breaks from her inseparable best friend Erin, unable to tolerate Erin's growing cruelty. When Erin begins a relationship with Dallas and stays at the House of Night rather than returning to the depot tunnels, the group lets her go, knowing anything Erin learns will reach Dallas and therefore Neferet.
At Dragon's funeral, Thanatos reveals that Aurox was created through the sacrifice of Zoey's mother. Kalona pledges to serve as the school's protector. The Vampyre High Council formally shuns Neferet, stripping all recognition of her priesthood. The white bull also withdraws his direct aid, calling Neferet predictable, and she resolves to create a more perfect weapon.
Neferet then captures Grandma Redbird at her farm. Though Grandma has prepared a Goddess Bundle, a protective talisman of turquoise, sweet grass, and lavender, at the guidance of the Earth Mother (a manifestation of Nyx in her Cherokee aspect), Neferet overcomes her defenses by gouging her own wounds to feed the tendrils. She cages Grandma in living strands of Darkness and carries her away.
Aurox finds blood at the empty farmhouse and deduces Grandma was taken alive. He returns to campus and warns the group. Zoey calls on spirit to calm the beast stirring within him. Kalona volunteers to rescue Grandma from Neferet's penthouse at the Mayo Hotel but fails: His return to Light has severed his alliance with Darkness, and the tendrils feed on his immortal blood to grow stronger. He retreats defeated.
Before dawn, Zoey prays for guidance. The Earth Mother appears and tells her to be a High Priestess, not a frightened child. Kramisha, the Vampyre Poet Laureate, delivers a spell-like poem beginning "Ancient mirror / Magick mirror" (255). The group plans for Aurox to enter the penthouse, since the tendrils cannot feed from a creature of Darkness. They test whether the five elements can sustain his humanity; when Zoey directs each element holder to channel joy with their element, the combined power drowns the beast's rage. Shaylin, a fledgling with True Sight who sees people's inner natures as colors, replaces Erin as the water element.
At dusk, Thanatos casts a protective circle around the Mayo, stationing each element holder at a compass point while Zoey maintains a hidden spirit candle in the restaurant. Aurox enters alone and feigns loyalty, but when he tears open Grandma's cage, Neferet detects the elements within him, forces tendrils into his body, and awakens the beast.
The elements snap back to their holders. Zoey leads everyone to the penthouse and calls all five elements to contain the beast, but Neferet invokes an invitation rule against red vampyres, hurling Stevie Rae, Shaylin, and Stark from the room. With only spirit, air, and fire, the containment falters. Damien, Zoey's close friend with an affinity for air, and Shaunee, who holds fire, collapse from exhaustion.
Zoey remembers Kramisha's spell. She pulls out her blazing Seer Stone and recites the incantation; the stone expands into a mirror. Turning it on Neferet, Zoey sees a young, battered version of the former priestess with evidence of abuse from her youth. Neferet recoils, sobbing, her tendrils dissolving. She charges Zoey. Zoey releases the beast and redirects spirit to Aurox. Still partly transformed, one of his horns pierces Neferet's chest, carrying them both over the balcony. Kalona catches Aurox before the now fully human boy hits the pavement. Neferet crashes into the street, and her body dissolves into thousands of black spiders that vanish into the gutters.
Thanatos tells Zoey she does not know if Neferet is truly dead. Stark uses the Seer Stone on Aurox, and the mirror reveals Heath's face. Stark acknowledges the truth: "That's Heath. Which means somehow you're a friend of mine" (302). Zoey tells Aurox: "Heath was my humanity," adding, "And now it looks like he's become your humanity" (302). Stark takes her hand and tells her that no matter what, they have love. Zoey pockets the stone, knowing Neferet may return and the battle is far from over.
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