- Zoey's climb up the side of the bluffs is making her sore and dizzy in ways it never has before. She can't breathe without releasing tons of snot, and she starts to wonder if the Change is already starting in her body, and also whether it's killing her.
- So Zoey focuses on finding Grandma Redbird. According to her grandma, the wisdom from their Cherokee heritage had skipped a generation (since Zoey's mom married that loser), but it means that Zoey has an extra dose of ancient magic.
- As she walks, Zoey remembers some of the Cherokee stories from her grandma, and also some of the drums and stuff from powwows. Can she actually hear drums now? Freaky. And where did that wind come from?
- Zoey thinks she hears the words of Cherokee ghosts, and she can feel their presence too. She begins to run, but she stumbles, falls, feels pain, and blacks out.
- When Zoey wakes up, she feels warm and tingly—she glances down and sees her body lying on the ground with a cut on her forehead. Then she (her spirit) goes down toward a crevice in the ground, where she hears a voice calling to her. It sounds like her grandma.
- Zoey sends her spirit down into the crevice, following the voice and a stream and the trickle of her blood. She sees a beautiful black-haired woman sitting there.
- The woman is definitely not her grandma, but she greets Zoey. Zoey asks if she's dead, and the woman says (in Cherokee, which Zoey understands) no, but her spirit has been freed to wander temporarily.
- The woman tells Zoey that she's a unique mix of the Old Ways and the New World, ancient tribal blood and outsider blood. Then she introduces herself by many names: Kuan Yin, Grandmother Spider, and Nyx.
- Nyx is the goddess of the night and of vampyres. She encourages Zoey to accept her destiny and believe in herself—Zoey will be her first Daughter of the Night in this age because she's special.
- Nyx walks toward Zoey, takes her face in her hands, and tells her that she will be Nyx's eyes and ears in today's world, a world where the balance between good and evil has been upset.
- Zoey's like, wait, she's sixteen and can't even parallel park yet, how is she supposed to do this? But Nyx tells her to believe in herself, and kisses Zoey on the forehead. Zoey passes out again.