Hunted (House of Night) Chapter 26: Zoey and Co Plan for Their Escape

Hunted (House of Night) Chapter 26:

Zoey goes to fencing class, and Dragon winks at her, so she’s confident he’s on their side. In case you all start calling foul on Zoey fencing while she’s supposed to still be injured, don’t worry, she’s just on the sidelines watching.

While observing class, Zoey has some insightful comments about the public school system:

I was frowning at a group of guys who would normally have been getting at least a couple of reprimands from Dragon, along with reminders to pay attention and not act like idiots (at the House of Night professors can call kids idiots when they act like idiots because the idiot children can’t run home to their mommies and cry about it; hence there is a lot less idiot behavior at the House of Night than at most public schools)…

Calling kids idiots? So simple and yet so effective. This is exactly the kind of problem-solving we need to improve our nation’s education.

After fencing, Zoey heads to lunch to catch up with her friends about their ongoing plans. Damien comes up with a very subtle way for them to discuss what’s going on without the Raven Mockers overhearing them:

‘I’m thinking we really need to go over the new vocab for the lit test next week,’ Damien said loudly, opening his ever-ready notebook and taking out a number two pencil.

Everyone loudly pretends to be discussing vocabulary words and then writing down things like, “Dragon is on our side.” The weird thing is, it’s Damien who writes that last bit, not Zoey. So I’m not sure why we had that whole scene at the beginning where Zoey was excited about Dragon winking at her or when Damien was meant to have spoken to him.

Zoey thinks long and hard how they’re going to escape from the school, and suddenly it comes to her:

‘That’s it!’

The Twins and Damien stared at me. I grinned at them. ‘I remembered what “ubiquitous” means!’ I lied. ‘And I have an idea about studying. I’m going to write definitions for some of the words on pieces of paper. I’ll give one to each of you, which you’re going to be expected to study and learn…’

[…]

I was ripping strips of notebook paper and writing furiously on them: Get to the stables. After folding each one carefully, I said, ‘Just think about the definitions we’ve gone over. Don’t read the word I gave you until the bell rings for the end of sixth hour. I mean it.’ I handed each of them their ‘word.’

The Raven Mockers, Neferet, and Kalona must all be complete idiots to fall for this. Come on, villains, intercept these pieces of clearly suspicious paper!

‘Just remember, don’t peek until the bell,’ I said.

‘We won’t,’ Damien said. ‘And when we do, maybe we should call our individual elements to us, just to help us focus?’

So subtle. I bet the Raven Mockers are just totally fooled by this:

Raven Mocker 1: Did you hear that, fellow Raven Mocker? They’re just studying for their vocabulary test, and they’re going to call the elements to help study for their test!

Raven Mocker 2: Solid plan. The elements are the fucking bomb at vocab tests.

Raven Mocker 1: I’m so glad these kids aren’t trying to escape anymore, it makes our jobs so much easier.

Shaunee also announces “subtly” that she’s going to the bathroom right now with the sheet of paper they’ve been writing on to burn it by calling fire to her. That seems like overkill and a waste of the element’s time. Erin goes with her because what else is she going to do?

Aphrodite shows up, and Zoey asks Damien to leave so she can talk to Aphrodite. Remember, Zoey can speak freely to Aphrodite without worrying that Neferet can read her mind. However, it makes no sense that she can speak freely to Aphrodite right now given the whole reason they were writing things down was so the Raven Mockers couldn’t overhear them.

So it’s really bizarre and stupid when Zoey immediately explains to Aphrodite that the vocab notes are actually all part of her big plan!

‘It’s just a way I’m getting them to meet me in the stables right after school without them knowing beforehand. Maybe if it’s a surprise to them, it’ll take a while for Neferet to know what we’re up to.’

EXCEPT I THOUGHT THE RAVEN MOCKERS WERE ALSO LISTENING WITH THEIR GREAT HEARING?

Zoey also reveals literally everything about the plan! That she thinks the professors are on their side and going to help, that they’re going to the abbey instead of back to the tunnels, that they’re going to use horses to escape…But she says she put her head close to Aphrodite’s when she told her, so I guess the plan is still top secret.

Aphrodite also confirms to Zoey that Stevie Rae has been hiding something from her, and it seems like there are probably more red fledglings lurking about that she hasn’t told them about. Aphrodite says that Stevie Rae still loves Zoey and is choosing to be good, she just also “has more secrets than Paris Hilton has purses.” A timeless reference.

We also have to read multiple pages where Aphrodite reminds us that her Imprint with Stevie Rae isn’t sexual. Thanks, Aphrodite.

The girls then have a heart to heart about all of Zoey’s boy drama, and Aphrodite points out what we’ve all been thinking: Stark and Erik are BOTH terrible options, please run. She also tells Zoey that she needs to focus on the big issues at hand for the time being…then she can worry about boys and Stevie Rae. Good call, Aphrodite.