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When Aphrodite saw that vision, it had happened on the exact same day that Zoey Redbird had arrived to the House of Night. The girl had confused everyone by having the crescent moon on her forehead already full. Aphrodite had thought the girl came from another House of Night at first but then she had heard that she had been marked just a few days before. She had wished the girl had gone to another House of Night instead because the Tulsa school was in the throes of turmoil. Two professors had died suspiciously and their deaths had been said to be caused by the religious extremists in Tulsa. The atmosphere of the school was darker and there was something strange in the night air. It was definitely not a place for new students right now.
And then Aphrodite had seen a vision of a suspicious-looking winged angel rising from the ground and summoning hordes of hideous looking human-raven hybrids from under the ground. He and Neferet had brought the school to its knees—but not that girl. This one had stood straight and walked towards the black-winged man and said something to him in a language that Aphrodite did not recognize. Winged man had focused all of his attention on her and had only said one word, “A-ya,” in that language. And then the vision had ended when Neferet was about to attack the newcomer to take her life because the girl had drawn winged man’s attention to her.
Aphrodite shivered. She had never seen such a horrible behavior from the High Priestess of the House of Night even though she knew she was a malevolent monster. She firmly believed that Neferet had killed those professors. One of them, Loren Blake, had been Neferet's lover. Aphrodite did not understand why professor Nolan had died because she had been harmless. Aphrodite was glad that Neferet couldn’t read her thoughts because she genuinely thought that Loren must have been insane to even agree to have a relationship with someone as shady as Neferet was. When Aphrodite had her first vision of the depraved High Priestess doing shady things, she had decided to not to tell her about them. She had been suspicious of her ever since.
Aphrodite had considered telling the leader of the high priestesses Shekinah about her visions related to Neferet and the bad feelings that she awakened in her but she never had a chance to talk with Shekinah alone and therefore exposing Neferet became impossible. She had tried everything she could think of but nothing had helped. If she left her anonymous letters, they never reached Shekinah – they were found crumpled in the trash cans or thrown into the gas lamps that lit up the corridors of the school, and Aphrodite only found burnt pieces of the letters on the floor later. Aphrodite was sure Neferet was behind it and it really pissed off the young seer.
And then came the fateful ritual that changed everyone's lives and brought Zoey Redbird into Aphrodite's personal war against Neferet. The fledglings and the vampires moved to the oak tree near the eastern wall because that's where Professor Nolan had died. Shekinah was going to hold a purification ritual there and she would have a few fledglings who had a connection to the four elements to help her. Afrodite didn't know those fledglings particularly well but that would change after today. When Shekinah started ritual, it went on without any problems. She summoned the five elements, blessed the goblet of blood, into which Erik Night dropped few drops of blood into and had started to pray to Nyx when the Neferet arrived to the scene. She had James Stark – who was thought to be dead – with her. He had very creepy looking red eyes now instead of the brown that they had been before.
Another reason why Neferet is a shady bitch, Aphrodite thought as she added “brings dead kids back to life somehow” to her list called Why Neferet Is The Villain.
"Hey, didn't that guy die a while ago?" someone murmured in wonder. "How can he be alive suddenly?"
"Maybe he experienced a divine resurrection or something," replied another voice, giggling. "He seems like the perfect bad boy to sleep with though."
Afrodite rolled her eyes at the idiocy when the girl's friend started to giggle at her friend’s statement.
“What is this, High Priestess Neferet?” asked Shekinah in a shrill tone. "You're interfering the ritual!"
“You are a heathen, Shekinah, I have decided to change things here,” Neferet announced. “Stark, shoot the heathen priestess,” she added to Stark, who immediately obeyed, raising two arrows from his bow. They flew through the air and hit their target, a shocked looking leader of the high priestesses. Shekinah fell to the ground, bleeding profusely onto the grass.
A cold wave ran through Aphrodite as she watched what was happening. Neferet had just committed a huge crime against the Nyx and the vampire society as well. However, she couldn't fight back as Stark readied a new arrow after Neferet whispered something to him and the boy followed the high priestess to the horrified looking circle of students. Shocked, the fledglings retreated from Neferet and Stark. They threw their candles on the ground which caused the circle to break. Aphrodite decided to sneak up to them, sensing that something would soon happen that would require them to flee the House of Night. No one paid her any attention when she did that. Not even Neferet who was just talking about the start of a great new beginning to the fledglings and the professors who looked at her suspiciously.
The ground began to shake and the bystanders were clearly startled by it. They probably suspected there was going to be an earthquake but Aphrodite didn't believe it.. She knew that all this would lead to what she had seen happening and quickened her steps as she slipped through the group of the sons of Erebus. They didn't notice her either and Aphrodite knew right away that Nyx had hidden her from everyone’s view for now. She thanked the goddess for that because she didn't want to get shot by Stark. She knew that the boy's arrow would surely find its way to its target even if the target would try to hide from it.
"Hold on," Aphrodite whispered as she reached the four fledglings.
“Aphrodite?” asked a boy in the group whose name she remembered to be Damien.
"We need to get out of here but there's someone we need to take with us before we leave," Aphrodite told them quickly. "She hasn't revealed herself to me yet but this is how I saw her in a vision. She is important. Very, very important.”
“Why are you telling—”
"Shut up, this is important!" Aphrodite said sternly, glancing at Stark's direction, afraid that he would start shooting them like he had done to Shekinah. Fortunately the arrow boy didn't notice them, instead he concentrated on the audience who were obviously watching him warily.
The ground shuddered again and a large oak nearby shook once, a second time, and a third time until it rose from the ground and smashed against the eastern wall. A man with huge black wings jumped out from under the ground.
"What the hell?" said the Twins in unison as they looked at the man who looked around in triumph and then raised his hands in the air.
"Come, my children!" he said in a voice full of power. Hundreds of huge black creatures emerged from the ground. They had human legs and arms and red eyes as they flew through the sky. They all looked terrible.
Just like in Aphrodite’s vision.
Neferet walked up to the man looking sly and touched his chest. “My king,” she purred.
"My queen," he said to her.
Neferet turned to the crowd and addressed them. "This is Erebus who has come to earth, the consort of our goddess Nyx. And I am the incarnation of Nyx.”
"Bow to us!" winged man said in a voice full of power.
Aphrodite felt like kneeling before him but decided to not to listen. She shook her head at the fledglings with her and they nodded and did not do as “Erebus” ordered. However, the same could not be said about the vampires and fledglings present. They immediately fell to their knees.
But among the fledglings was one who did not kneel with the others. It was the dark-haired girl with that filled mark on her forehead. She walked with a determined look on her face from the audience and stood before them. She didn't care when James Stark raised his bow at her. She looked directly at the winged man and said something to her in a language that Aphrodite recognized as the same one she had heard in her vision. Her words seemed to have an immediate effect on the winged man as he studied the girl for a moment and actually smiled more triumphantly than before.
“A-ya,” the man said.
"Yes. You and I have met before and we put you to your prison because you deserved it!” the girl said fearlessly.
"But my little A-ya, of course you're glad that we're meeting again," he said with an amused tone in his voice.
"No, Kalona, I am not happy. I swear I’m putting you back into your prison where you belong,” girl said firmly.
Winged man, Kalona, looked at her in a calculating look in his eyes for a while but didn't have time to say anything when another voice intervened.
“Stark, shoot her!” Neferet's voice cracked like a whip.
Dark haired girl immediately turned her gaze to Arrow Boy who was about to shoot her but when the their eyes met, Stark froze in place and was unable to act. The girl spoke again and directly to him.
"I do not know you. We've never met but I still feel like I know you, Stark. You are not evil at heart. The path of the goddess is always open to you,” she said fearlessly. “You won't shoot me. You can feel our connection.”
Stark looked at her, his bow hand shaking. Finally he lowered his bow, shaking his head and his eyes no longer looked red. They were back brown.
"She has power. A lot,” Damien whispered to Aphrodite. "Nyx is with her even now."
“We have to save her,” Afrodite said. "Neferet will try to kill her next!"
"I'll get her," came another whisper right next to Aphrodite and the blonde turned to look. He recognized it as Darius’, one of the sons of Erebus. This one smiled warmly at Aphrodite and then stood up from the position he had been standing in. He started running towards the girl.
"You can't stay here," Darius said to the girl and caught her in his arms. Then he quickly ran to Aphrodite and the others and straight to the secret door by the east wall.
"Rephraim, don't let A-ya leave!" Kalona shouted to the heavens as Aphrodite and the other fledglings followed Darius out of the House of Night. Aphrodite saw how a huge raven-human hybrid creature separated from the others and started flying towards them.
"Cover yourself in the night so that monster doesn't catch us!" Aphrodite commanded the group. They did as she ordered and the group ran off into the night.
*
When the gang made it to safety, they found themselves underground in the basement of an old train station in Tulsa. After catching her breath after running, the fearless girl looked at the group with an observant look in her brown eyes before she spoke.
"This was definitely a very eventful first day at the House of Night", she stated.
"Oh damn, today was your first day at school?" Shaunee asked.
"Well, it's a pretty crappy day, Twin," Erin nudged her and they nodded.
"Who is that winged man?" Darius asked the girl. "You spoke to him as if you knew him, fledgling."
“My name is Zoey. Hello everyone," girl said. "Kalona is really, really dangerous. In Cherokee stories, he is an angel who fell from heaven to earth. We celebrated him as a god until he began to abuse and rape Cherokee women. We imprisoned him underground, where he was until this day. It's been at least a thousand years," she continued.
“What about his children? What are they?" Erik asked her.
"Raven Mockers. Kalona raped their mothers and they became pregnant by him. They did not survive the birth."
"Terrible", commented the Twins.
"Did you know that Kalona is a prisoner under our campus?" Erik asked Zoey. “You could have said something if you knew about it!”
"I knew but your High Priestess forbade me and grandma to come here to sing to keep him there," the girl answered. “You can blame her for this instead of me, Professor Erik Night.”
"Well then," Aphrodite said before Erik continued his cocky and unprofessional behavior. "We need to hide here for a while before we return to the House of Night."
"And then what?" asked Damien.
"I do not know. To warn the High Council that there is a dangerous immortal on the loose and a High Priestess has lost her mind?” Aphrodite suggested.
"I have a feeling that you people don't really get along," Zoey said, watching us. "That’s not good. We are all in this together. We need to get along so they won’t win."
“She's right,” Darius announced. "Let's focus on the problem itself."
"And I need to know the names of the rest of you," Zoey added. "I know you, you, and you," he pointed at Aphrodite, Erik, and Darius, "but I know nothing about the rest of you."
When the introductions were taken care of, they focused on the matter itself. Aphrodite had been right when she had told others that Zoey was very important – she had a connection to all elements and she had noticed it when they were summoned into the circle earlier. And because of her Cherokee blood, she was clearly some sort of weapon against Kalona. Nyx had chosen her for a reason and Aphrodite knew that she should be kept alive no matter what.
"How did you stop Stark from killing you?" Stevie Rae asked Zoey curiously.
"When I saw him, I kind of knew he was going to join us," Zoey replied. "I felt a this really strong connection to him and I know he felt it too."
“I guess you'll save him then," Stevie Rae sighed. "So romantic!"
“But he shot Shekinah. When the High Council finds out about it, he's going to be in deep trouble,” Damien said with a serious look on his face.
"Not necessarily," Darius said. “Neferet was commanding him and Stark was clearly possessed by some power. He wasn't like that when he came to Tulsa.”
"Agreed!" said the Twins.
"And he also had that lovely dog. He can't be a bad guy,” Jack said.
“The darkness had a hold on him,” Zoey said. “When I spoke to him, he fought it and won in the end. His eyes changed color."
"It wasn't until you came forward and spoke to him that he began to fight the darkness. Before that he was Neferet's little bitch,” Aphrodite said.
"Zoey must have other powers than the ones we know about now," Darius said with a smile.
"Leave Stark to me," Zoey said, furrowing her eyebrows. “I'm supposed to handle it myself. I have a feeling that says so.”
"Nyx," Aphrodite and the others said in chorus.
"Huh?" Zoey said confused.
“Nyx tends to give us those hunch like feelings if we are supposed to do something," Darius said. "You should listen to them."
Zoey nodded at him. "Thanks for the clarification, Darius."
Darius nodded at her.