Marked Chapter 16 Summary

  • Stevie Rae walks Zoey to the building where the Dark Daughters ritual will take place; Erik greets her there.
  • Erik draws a pentagram on her forehead, and ushers her into the decorated rec room (it's a little odd in there because it smells like pot, and there's a slumped figure at the table who doesn't participate). Aphrodite takes over from there, giving Zoey a dress to change into for the ritual.
  • It's pretty clear that Aphrodite's not all that happy to have Zoey there, and is just being polite because Zoey is Nefret's new mentee.
  • Zoey meets Aphrodite's groupies, whose names are Deino (which translates to "terrible"), Pemphredo ("wasp"), and Enyo ("warlike").
  • Aphrodite dances for the opening ceremony, in a sort of crude imitation of Nefret from the night before. Again, though, as each element is invoked, Zoey feels a jolt of energy from each element.
  • During the ritual, Aphrodite offers Zoey a goblet, and whatever's in it tastes amazing to Zoey.
  • When the ritual ends, the slumped over figure stirs, and Zoey sees that it's Elliott, the pudgy homophobe. Then Aphrodite's groupies tell Zoey that she was drinking blood… Elliott's blood, to be exact. Gulp.
  • Zoey is freaked out by how much she loved the taste of it, and she runs outside and pukes. Can't say we blame her.