I need some of your blood.”

Adilene Rivera heard the voice behind her and knew who it belonged to, but that didn’t make what was said any less creepy.

“You . . . you need my what?” Adilene closed her locker and spun around.

Sasha Brexil showcased a confident smile, her teeth practically sparkling. “I said I need some of your blood.” Her tone sounded casual, but she did lower her voice, as several other students moved down the hall toward their first-period classes.

Adilene immediately noted that Sasha was wearing a dress, makeup, and bright golden earrings. She had worn those sorts of things at the beginning of the school year, but all that had changed the moment her mom had been ExSponged by Mezzarix. Gone was the sassy, perfectly manicured Sasha. In her place was a broken girl with a nasty temper and a short fuse who wore sweats to school and sunglasses to hide her wet eyes from everyone else.

But today the old Sasha was back.

“I figured it out.” Sasha leaned in close to Adilene.

Adilene could smell spearmint gum on Sasha’s breath as she smacked her lips, chomping noisily. She pressed her back against the lockers, feeling the combination lock digging into her shoulder.

“The tracking potion,” Sasha said before Adilene could ask. “Well, not the tracking potion. That one’s worthless. I don’t know how my mom managed to destroy the most important steps of the recipe, but I’m getting nowhere with it. But I found a new one. It should work if I have the right ingredients.”

Over the past couple of weeks, Sasha had been obsessed with finding a way to pinpoint where Mezzarix had taken the Vessel. Her mom had had a recipe, but most of the instructions had somehow been lost. And since she no longer had any potion-making ability, or even any memory of how to brew, Mrs. Brexil’s incomplete tracking potion was impossible to recreate.

Adilene knew Sasha was waiting for Gordy to come back to town, because she believed he had the ability to fill in the missing pieces, but the girl was too impatient and determined to figure the potion out herself. With her mom’s ExSpongement, the Brexils had lost their prestigious position within the potion-making community, and Sasha had lost most of her edge.

“Okay . . .” Adilene cast a wary glance around the hallway. “But what does that have to do with me?”

“You drank a whole vial of Silt. This new tracking potion works like a magnet. It can take a sample of any substance and lead you to where more can be found. And since we’re certain Silt doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world . . .” She clicked her tongue and beamed with enthusiasm. “There you go. Problem solved.”

“Where did you find this recipe again?”

“Online,” Sasha answered.

“You can find them online?” Adilene asked, suddenly interested. She had never thought to turn to the internet for potion recipes. “I mean, you know, ones that actually work?”

“Um, yeah. If you know where to look. This potion is not exactly legal with B.R.E.W, but like I care anymore.” Sasha glanced down at her fingernails. They had also been painted recently. Discovering this lead had clearly breathed new life back into her.

“Sounds tricky. What do you need to make it?” An illegal potion probably required illegal ingredients. Sasha may have been harboring ill feelings toward B.R.E.W. because of what happened to her mother, but Adilene doubted she suddenly had access to those types of substances.

Sasha smirked. “You’re not seriously questioning my ability, are you? I’m almost an Elixirist—something you’ll never be—and I have practically everything I need. I’m just missing one key ingredient.” She raised her eyebrows at Adilene, her glare vanishing in an instant and replaced by one of faux innocence. “Dearest Adilene, won’t you help me? You’re the only one who has swallowed Silt.”

“Gordy drank some,” Adilene reasoned. “And his mom and—”

Sasha held up her hand impatiently. “I meant the only one . . . here.” She jabbed a finger at the floor. “If Gordy really wanted to help, he would’ve come back, and I wouldn’t be forced to take these measures. So, I’m sorry, but I’m going to need your blood.”

“Whoa!” Max suddenly rounded the corner from a side hallway and strolled up to the two girls. “Did you just ask her for her blood?”

“Shut up, Maxwell!” Adilene hissed as a few other students turned their heads toward them. Gordy would have thrown a fit at how blatantly indiscreet the three of them were being. They were breaking the first rule of an Elixirist: never draw unnecessary attention to the potion community. Adilene had the rules memorized.

Max laughed maniacally, then deepened his voice. “And so it begins! Sasha’s final transformation into a vampire! I knew we were close.” He pressed his hands together as if praying and closed his eyes. “I could sense it among the stars.”

Sasha glowered at him, but she didn’t seem to care that several of her classmates could hear the conversation. “You are a moron,” she said.

“A moron?” Max looked appalled. “Yeah, well you . . . are a pupitre.”

Sasha opened her mouth but then screwed up her face in confusion, glancing at Adilene for an explanation.

Adilene rolled her eyes. “You don’t know what you’re saying, Max.”

Max grinned with pride. “I know exactly what I’m saying.”

“You just called her a desk.”

“Exactly.” He leaned into the lockers, the clink of glass bottles suddenly loud in the hallway.

Adilene noticed that Max’s backpack seemed more jam-packed than usual. “What did you bring with you?” she demanded, her eyes narrowing.

Max’s eyes shifted between the two girls, and he turned away, but Adilene grabbed his backpack by the straps and removed it from his shoulders.

“Hey!” he shouted, but she had already unzipped one of the pockets, revealing at least half a dozen corked vials of various substances tucked inside.

“What do you think you’re doing with these?” Adilene asked.

“I made them,” he said. He lunged for the pack, but she pulled it away from his grasp.

“You made them?” Sasha snatched one of the bottles and removed the cork stopper, sniffing the opening. Gagging, she immediately held it out in disgust. “I’m pretty sure this is essence of choresine.”

“Yeah, I know. I made it,” Max said. “Corta . . . uh . . . cortisone.”

Sasha rolled her eyes and recorked the bottle. “Not cortisone—choresine. And it’s not a potion, dummy. It’s a highly toxic poison found in a beetle from New Guinea.”

“Really?” Max gaped eagerly at the vial. “How toxic? Are we talking, like, melt-off-your-skin toxic?”

“Where did you get these?” Adilene eyed the other bottles in the pocket. Some were fizzing and bubbling, while others were letting off steam beneath their lids and rattling their corks. None of the potions were labeled. They could have been anything, and Max wouldn’t have had a clue of their contents.

Max puffed out his cheeks, obviously preparing some sort of lie, when Sasha grabbed his arm with her fingers and started pinching.

“All right, all right!” he shouted in pain, shaking his arm free from her grasp. “I got them from Gordy’s, okay?”

“From Gordy’s?” Adilene looked appalled. “What were you doing there?”

“What?” Max rubbed his arm, glaring at Sasha. “I know the garage code. I went there hoping to . . .” He trailed off.

“Hoping to what?” Sasha held out her fingers, threatening to pinch again.

“Hoping to find my rock,” Max finally answered.

Adilene frowned. “Your rock?” Then she nodded, understanding. “You mean Cadence’s rock. Max, Mezzarix took it with him. It’s gone.”

“Yeah, I know, but I was in the area, and I forgot, okay? And then I was hungry and I started thinking about all the snacks the Stitsers always have in their pantry, so I went inside anyway. It’s not like they’re coming back anytime soon.”

“Do you realize you could’ve been caught by B.R.E.W. and questioned about Gordy?” Adilene said.

Max rolled his eyes. “No one was there. The house was empty, and besides, it was the middle of the afternoon. Who breaks into someone’s house in the middle of the afternoon?”

“You do,” Sasha answered, folding her arms.

Max chuckled. “In and out, two minutes flat. Like a ninja! And the lab had already been ransacked, but I know where Gordy keeps the good stuff—in his closet. I just wanted to make sure we were armed if something bad were to happen.”

A warning bell rang, and Adilene’s eyes shot up to the hallway clock on the wall. “I’ve got to go. I can’t be tardy.”

Max reluctantly surrendered his stolen potions to Sasha, who wouldn’t let him sneak by. He muttered something in Spanish under his breath, though Adilene wasn’t sure it was an actual word. Max was horrible at Spanish. He shouldered his way past them and disappeared back around the corner. Adilene turned to leave as well, but Sasha stepped in front, blocking her path.

“Not so fast, friend,” she said. “We are friends now, aren’t we?”

“I guess.” More like mutual acquaintances. Most of their interactions ended with Sasha insulting Adilene in some way.

“Friends help each other, so you have to help me.”

“And give you my blood? Right here?”

“No, of course not,” Sasha answered. “We’ll meet somewhere tomorrow night. That way no one will find out. You can even set the rendezvous point if that makes you feel better.”

“It doesn’t,” Adilene said. “I don’t think I can do this.” How would Sasha even extract her blood? With a needle? It sounded sketchy.

“It’s not going to hurt, and yes, you can do this. Because you wouldn’t be just helping me. You’d be doing it to stop Mezzarix, and that helps Gordy too.” Sasha pouted, her lips puckering into a hopeful expression. “Poor Gordy. Whatever will he do without his brave Adilene?”

“You’re doing a horrible job of convincing me.” Adilene started to push past her.

“All right, fine. Don’t do it for honor. Do it for money. I can pay you.”

Adilene scoffed. “I don’t want your money.”

“How about I do your homework for a month? No—for the rest of the year. I get straight As, and you know my father’s the big cheese around here.”

Sasha’s dad wasn’t an Elixirist, but he was the principal at Kipland Middle School. At least he was for now. Adilene had heard rumors spreading through the school that Mr. Brexil’s time at Kipland may be running out.

“I don’t need you to do my homework either.” Adilene didn’t mind doing homework. It was the only thing she could do now that Gordy and all access to his lab were gone.

Sasha had a point, though. Locating the Vessel meant they would be able to find Mezzarix and stop whatever horrible things he was planning. And there was one other thing. Adilene thought of at least one favor she could ask of Sasha that would maybe make it worth it.

Closing her eyes, she sighed. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

Sasha grinned. “I knew you would.”

“I’ll text you later with the address of where we’ll meet,” Adilene said. “And I have a request in exchange for my, you know . . . my blood.” It felt weird saying it.

“Name it,” Sasha said. “I’m good for it.”

Adilene hugged her backpack and nodded. “I’ll text that to you later as well.”