How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Without any more hesitation, I flung my spirit forward and down into the crevasse, following the trail of my blood and the silver memory of my grandma's whisper until I came to the smooth floor of a cave-like room. (5.35)
Zoey's vision of sending her spirit into a cave is reminiscent of vision quests, hallucinations, or both. Like, come on, she's following a trail of her own blood, and she's hearing words in her head that also manifest as colors. This is seriously supernatural territory.
Quote #2
Believe in yourself, Zoey Redbird…Within you is combined the magic blood of ancient Wise Women and Elders, as well as insight into and understanding of the modern world. (5.57)
Nyx tells Zoey that her heritage combines ancient magic with an understanding of the modern world, which is apparently pretty special. Zoey doesn't seem to give much thought to her heritage until this moment. Finding out that you've got supernatural vibes running through your veins must be a bit of a shock.
Quote #3
"Every High Priestess is given an affinity—what you would probably think of as special powers—by the Goddess…The affinities can be unusual cognitive skills, like reading minds or having visions and being able to predict the future. Or the affinity can be for something in the physical realm, like a special connection to one of the four elements, or to animals." (7.22)
The way Nefret explains it, Nyx gifts her chosen few with superpowers. These special individuals become High Priestesses, and (ideally) use their powers for good. There's a range of affinities out there, too—Nefret, for example, has an understanding of cats, and she can also heal. Talk about a multitalented (cat) lady.
Quote #4
I should have probably been afraid of the odd sensations breaking over me, but they filled me with an almost unbearable lightness—I felt good! (15.76)
At Zoey's first Full Moon Ritual, she has these amazing and strange sensations all over her body. Nobody warned her about them, so she doesn't know whether it's normal to feel each element as it's invoked. When she finally talks to Stevie Rae about it, she's in for a shock because she learns that this affinity is incredibly rare.
Quote #5
"Close your eyes, Children of Nyx," Nefret said "and send a secret desire to your Goddess. Tonight, when the veil between the worlds is thin—when magic is afoot within the mundane—perhaps Nyx will grant your petitions and dust you with the gossamer mist of dreams fulfilled." (15.86)
During the Full Moon Ritual, Nefret directs the participants to send out a dream, wish, or prayer to Nyx. Sounds like magic to us. We're not so sure about that whole gossamer mist thing, though—that sounds kind of woo-woo.
Quote #6
"I don't think there's a record of any High Priestess who has had an affinity with all five elements." Damien's voice got more excited as he spoke. (22.37)
We've established that Damien is the smart kid of the group, so when he says that there haven't been any historical records of High Priestesses with affinities for all five elements, we're inclined to believe him. This means that not only is Zoey more powerful than she thinks, she's also pretty darn unique.
Quote #7
"Please. Just please, Stevie Rae," Shaunee said, frowning through the smoke to Stevie Rae. "You can not be a vampyre and be afraid of ghosts." (23.52)
How much can we get our supernatural wires crossed? In a world with vampyres and magic, is there also room for ghosts? (Spoiler alert: Yes.) But then how do the two interact, if at all? We bet Zoey's going to learn more about the rest of the supernatural world before the series is done.
Quote #8
Incredibly, it seemed that I was suddenly surrounded by the four elements, that I was in the middle of a whirlpool made up of air and fire, water and earth. But it wasn't scary, not at all. (23.90)
In her first attempt at summoning the four elements to her own ritual circle, Zoey is totally successful. And as she discovers, it's a bit of a head rush. We imagine that it feels like being on a rollercoaster but with all of your senses turned on to full power simultaneously. Whatever it feels like, though, that's some powerful magic happening right there.
Quote #9
My head jerked up to see Aphrodite's body convulse as gray wisps seeped out of her. She let out a gasp that was a cross between a sob and a scream. The spirits, including the ones that had obviously been possessing her, rushed to the edge of the circle, pressing against it in an effort to break free and get to Heath. (28.28)
Well this is pretty creepy: Not only is Aphrodite possessed by the very spirits she summoned to honor on Samhain, but the spirits are also trying to break out of the ritual circle. Why? So they can feed on Heath and his tasty blood. We're guessing this doesn't normally happen at vampyre rituals, but we can't be sure since the supernatural world is as new to us as it is to Zoey.
Quote #10
The magical wind caught the smoky shapes and tore them from their victims, and with a deafening roar, it sucked them back into the boundary of my circle. Suddenly I was surrounded by ghostly shapes, from which I could feel danger and hunger pulsing, as clearly as I had felt Heath's blood earlier. (28.65)
When Zoey comes into her own as a High Priestess in training, she is able to sense the Samhain ghosts. She can tell that they're hungry and not very nice, and she can feel the ritual circle and the elements around her. These concerns strike us as very different from the things she cared about at the start of the book, when she was a fairly normal teenage girl. Now a lot of the action in her life revolves around supernatural stuff, which can be both scary and exhilarating.