When we last left off, Erik “I’VE CHANGED” Night had returned from running off into the darkness, despairing over Zoey’s betrayal, to reveal all of Zoey’s discretions. Also, Stevie Rae showed up because for some reason Neferet texted her from Zoey’s phone? You may hate her, but Neferet really is a very skilled, evil mastermind. She knew just when Erik would confront Zoey and her pals AND that Stevie Rae would show up just as Zoey was about to reveal the truth to them anyway.

House of Night, Chosen, Chapter 26:

Damien and the twins are currently hugging Stevie Rae, and she insists they put an end to this immediately. Some might argue this is because of her lack of humanity, but I argue it’s because of her growing realization that these people are terrible.

Beloved friends that they are, the gang tells Stevie Rae that she smells but that they don’t care. Wow, that is a pretty bad way to greet your not dead dead undead friend. The way to convince someone you don’t care how bad they smell is by pointing out how bad they smell.

“Hey, nerd herd members who are still alive,” Aphrodite called from where she’d retreated to under the big oak tree. “I suggest you step away from the undead dead kid. She bites.”

“You bite!” Shaunee snapped.

“Bitch!” Erin said.

“She’s telling you the truth,” Stevie Rae said. Then she looked from Damien and the Twins to me.“Explain it to them.

Aphrodite hasn’t done anything awful in…wait, what did she even do that was so awful at the beginning? Basically, my point is this bickering is not entertaining anymore, and the fact that I’m now a couple books ahead and their dynamic is exactly the same annoys me more than people who sit next to you on the bus when every other seat is empty. The Casts clearly came up with “nerd herd” together one night and then never had the heart to let it go.

Zoey gets everyone up to speed on the Stevie Rae sitch. She’s lacking humanity but holding on, and it’s up to the gang to heal her!

The Twins and Damien were quiet for what seemed like a long time. And then Damien said,“You’ve known about this for a month and you haven’t said anything to any of us?”

“You let us think that Stevie Rae was dead,” Shaunee said.

“You acted like you thought she was dead, too,” Erin said.

“Morons! She couldn’t tell you. You have no idea what kind of forces are at work here,” Aphrodite said.

To an extent, I do understand that Zoey’s friends have just been given a lot of shocking information, and it makes sense that they’d be mad that they were led to believe Stevie Rae was actually dead. However, if Aphrodite immediately chimed in and said there was something else going on, I might try to figure out what that was. Instead, they all just turn on Zoey immediately.

“I don’t care what Aphrodite said. We’re your friends. Your best friends. You should have told us,”Damien said.

“Extenuating circumstances?” Erin said. “Seems Aphrodite is suddenly a part of those circumstances.”

“Were there extenuating circumstances when you kept Loren a secret?” Shaunee said. Her voice was guarded. Her dark eyes narrowed at me warily.

Shaunee, you are being really harsh. FAIR ENOUGH if you are mad about the Stevie Rae stuff, but it’s pretty obvious why Zoey would keep the Loren stuff a secret, and it also has nothing to do with what’s happening right now. Shaunee. Do you remember the time Zoey asked you to keep it a secret that she was going to break up with Heath, and you and Erin immediately told Erik? YOU ARE NOT ALL THAT TRUSTWORTHY.

“How are we supposed to trust you if you keep things from us?” As usual, Damien summed up everyone’s feelings in one simple sentence.

Serious question – when has this ever happened before? At this point, the Casts could have written, “As usual, Damien was drinking a box of chocolate milk while he was speaking.” And I would be forced to just go along with it.

The twins and Damien agree that they’ll help heal Stevie Rae, but they don’t trust Zoey anymore. They sure are quick to turn on a beloved friend without even trying to find out why she would have kept these things from them. I have been sat here for about ten minutes trying to think back to when I was their age and how I or people I knew would have reacted in a similar, but less vampyre-y situation. I just don’t know. I really would have thought that Stevie Rae’s appearance would have clued them up that crazy things are going on, but I suppose tensions are running high.

It’s time to cast the circle to save Stevie Rae, but,

“We don’t have any candles,” Damien said.

“I can run and get some,” Jack said. He didn’t even look at me, but spoke directly to Damien.

I completely forgot Jack was still here. Why does he feel betrayed by Zoey?

“No. We don’t have time for that,” I said. “We don’t need candles. We have the ability to manifestthe elements. Candles are just ceremonial.” I paused and added, “But I think you should probably go,Jack. I’m not sure what all’s going to happen and I don’t want to take a chance you might get hurt.”

“O-okay,” he stuttered. He put his hands in his pockets and walked slowly away.

“Looks like tonight we do away with ceremony,” Damien said, giving me a hard look.

“Yeah, tonight we do away with a lot of things.” Shaunee was watching me, but it felt like her eyes were those of a stranger. Erin nodded in silent but complete agreement with her.

This is so extreme. It really makes me question the strength of their supposed best-friendship. Damien is portrayed as this empathetic, rational person, and I would have thought that he at least might be interested in finding out what was actually going on. The twins are completely useless. And Jack is apparently still a character in this series.

CIRCLE TIME FOR REAL MINUS JACK!

Stevie Rae is angry that Aphrodite is standing in for Earth, but Zoey tells her to suck it up. All does not go well, though:

“No!” The word was an almost unrecognizable snarl of rage and despair. “She can’t be earth! I’m earth! It’s all that’s left of me! I won’t let her take it away!”

With blinding swiftness, Stevie Rae hurled herself on Aphrodite.

“No! Stevie Rae, stop it!” I cried, trying to pull Stevie Rae off her, but it was like trying to move a marble column. She was too strong. Aphrodite had been right. Stevie Rae wasn’t human or fledgling or vampyre. She was something more—and that more meant more dangerous. She was holding Aphrodite in an ugly parody of an embrace. I saw the sharp glint of her fangs and then Aphrodite screamed as Stevie Rae buried her teeth into her neck.

“Help me get her off!” I yelled, looking desperately at Damien and the Twins as I kept trying to pull Stevie Rae from Aphrodite.

“I can’t!” Damien cried. “I can’t move.”

“We can’t either!” Shaunee said.

The three of them had been rooted into place by their elements. Damien was being pressed to the ground by a furious wind. Shaunee was surrounded by a cage of fire. Erin was suddenly encased in a pool of bottomless water.

That sounds hilarious. Not the biting bit, but I want to see what it looks like that a furious wind is pressing Damien to the ground? And how is the pool of water bottomless? I hope a really stylish pool just appeared out of thin air to keep Erin in place. The cage of fire makes sense.

Damien tells Zoey she has to close the circle, so as usual magical words come to her, and she does some magical things, and then:

Now it was Aphrodite who was clutching Stevie Rae and forcing her to keep drinking from the wound on her neck. Stevie Rae wasstill drinking her blood, but she was struggling to stop—trying to pull away.

I rushed forward to try to separate them again, but when I hit the bubble of power it was like walking into a glass door. I couldn’t get through it, and I had no idea how to open it.

“Aphrodite! Let her go! She’s trying to stop before she kills you!” I cried.

Aphrodite’s eyes met mine. Her lips didn’t move, but I heard her voice clearly inside my head. No. This is how I make up for everything I caused. This time it’s me who was Chosen. Remember, I made this sacrifice freely.

Seriously, what did Aphrodite do that was so bad? I know you shouldn’t bully people and be mean to them, but I think a sincere apology is a good first step towards making amends.

The bubble of power (NOT MY WORDS) pops, and Zoey knows that Stevie Rae is Stevie Rae again, but is Aphrodite dead?!??!

“Her face!” Damien’s voice came from just behind me. “Look at her Mark.”

I blinked, not really understanding, and then I gasped. I’d been so busy looking into her eyes, sobusy seeing the old Stevie Rae, that I hadn’t noticed the obvious. The crescent moon that rested in themiddle of her forehead had been filled in. A beautiful pattern of tattoos made of swirling flowers with long, graceful stems all twined together framed her eyes and stretched down her cheek bones.

But the tattoos weren’t vampyre sapphire. They were the brilliant scarlet of new blood.

Aphrodite, who thank Nyx is not dead, informs everyone that Stevie Rae has Changed into a new kind of vampyre. Luckily she does not feel the need to proclaim, “I’VE CHANGED!!!!”

Tune in tomorrow to read the last chapter! I can’t believe this book is almost done already. God I love reading House of Night. 

Thank you so much to everyone that’s signed up for our Patreon so far. Matthew and I love you guys more than a Maddox bro loves a pointless, stupid, unnecessary good fight! More than Zoey loves brown pop and illicit affairs with professors! More than Uncle Jeb loves giving cave tours!