33: ????

"We're off schedule thanks to you," Rocco goes on, but then lets out a sigh. "That's alright, though. I'm glad you're here."

I'm standing there, staring blankly at him, my sword clutched so tautly in my hand that my whole arm's shaking. He was in danger. He was freaking kidnapped by a dragon. I'd been worrying about him all this time, and he's just...been here, chilling? All my energy put into this, and now—

I kick a limp vampire out of my way, striding toward the tracks' convergence. "Alright, Rocco, I'm gonna need you to tell me what's going on here," I say, quietly, cautiously, in case we're being watched. He's doing this because someone's telling him to. Right? "If it's something they're making you do, you don't have to anymore. I'm here now. See? So just—"

I cut off, because all of a sudden it feels as though all of my energy's drained. My shoulders slump and an almost livid pain shoots through my body, slowing all my nerves. As sweat clams up on my forehead, I glance down.

I've stepped right into a circle of salt, its white crystals laying there innocently against the blackened concrete.

Perfect.

Grunting, I try to scuff it with my shoe, but that's the thing about being half-demon while simultaneously being around salt. I can't. I can't move at all.

"Rocco," I say again, sliding my tongue over my fangs out of apprehension. "What is going on?"

"It wasn't supposed to come to this," he tells me with another exhale, shoving his hands in his pockets. His emerald eyes rake the semicircle of people behind me, squint at each of them in turn—Safiya, Jamie, River, Midge. Never once does the cold contempt in his gaze falter. "I wanted it to happen naturally, like it did for everyone else. You drink the water, I handle the rest. But I guess I forgot how dehydrated you are."

"The water?" repeats a perplexed Midge, even though the only thing I want to do is tell her to keep her mouth shut. This should be between Rocco and I and no one else. Whatever this is, anyway. "You didn't...oh God, no."

"See!" Rocco's voice raises in a sudden flourish. "She gets it, because she's smart. Why do you think those vampires, those werewolves, went berserk all of a sudden? It wasn't the energy disturbance. It wasn't anger. It's just—this." He waves the water bottle at me.

Cold spreads within me. Well, I was already cold anyway because there's zero heat down here, but this is a new dimension of cold, a cold beyond skin and more in being, in existence. I pinch myself, hoping to wake up. It's Rocco. Edmund Rocco, the same kid I've known since preschool, the same kid with the HotWheels and the bandages on his knees and the chip in his tooth from an incident in a baseball game. Yet I look at him here, and nothing feels the same.

It hurts.

It hurts so much more than I'm ready for.

"You tainted the water supply, didn't you?" I murmur, barely keeping my voice steady. "It's been you the whole time. Causing all of this."

"You're catching on," he commends. "I'm proud. It's easy, you know. Anyone—even me—can tap into the energy. It's all down here, below the city. You can harness it and do whatever the hell you want, and that's what they don't want you to know."

"So you lace the whole city's water supply with a hyper-murderer virus thing?" snaps Safiya, because she's so good at voicing her thoughts. I hide my face behind my palm, perhaps more frustrated than she is. "What a dick move. There's so many other things you could do with—"

"Shut it, would you?" Rocco cuts her off, and Safiya hisses at him, starting to lunge in his direction. Midge, thank God, yanks her back before she can hurt herself.

Rocco checks his watch, his fingers twitching. "I don't need any of you. I just need Grey. He's the last one. The final one. The one that'll tip the scales."

"Alright, I'm done with this," I say, folding my arms. "You fake your kidnapping, send that tape and get me all panicky over you...what's the big idea? If you needed me for whatever jacked-up ploy you've got, why wait for so long?"

"Well, think about it. It's a bit like playing a video game. You play through the level, each of your opponents getting more difficult until you fight the boss at the end. I had to build up to it. Get us all frustrated first. See, you are the boss, Grey. The final tier. The one that's going to tell them all—"

"Tell who all what?" I shout, past fed up and fifty miles from pissed-off and one right turn from I am literally going to blow my brains out if I hear another word of this.

"Humans can't live with people like you. We've all known it. I was just proving it."

This whole time, I've been waiting for him to double over laughing and say that it's all a prank, this whole thing, and boy, you should've seen the look on your face. But somehow, when he says that, shakes his hair away from his face with a nonchalant shrug, I know it's all painfully, painfully real. I've never been a friend to Rocco, just a pawn.

"You killed so many people. So many people that didn't have to die. Why would you...I just don't understand," I say, and a cough rips from my throat, my whole chest spasming. The salt's making me weak, rubbing blurs into my vision. This combined with everything else Rocco's doing makes me unsure of how much longer I can go.

"Remember in grade school? Kids were scared of you, and they should be. Everyone should be. Just admit it. It'd be a whole lot easier if we didn't have to live with that fear. So I'm giving us humans a reason to chase it out—to chase you out. It's just what's best."

My balance wavers; I slip to my knees, a plume of dust rising into my face as I do. As I let out another cough, I hear Midge shout my name, her footsteps pattering in my direction. Rocco grits his teeth, however, lowering himself to the ground and spreading his spindly fingers across the floor. A pulsing green light splinters out from his palm, and I hear a yelp as Midge is thrown backwards, knocking River over with her.

"Midge!" I shout, then lift my bloodshot eyes to Rocco. "Lay another hand on her, I dare you—"

"I won't," he answers, straightening up again. The green gleam dissipates, and I realize with a start that it's the energy, the city's energy, and that's what he's been using. He'd been right, somehow, when he'd said that anyone could use it. I just don't know what to think. "You're here now, so it'll be over soon, and I won't touch any of your friends. Just take a break, drink some water, and I'll let them go. I promise you."

My fingers are dug into the ground, the tips dark with soot and grime. I wipe sweat from my forehead. "You're just asking me to let you use me, as a scapegoat. That's what this is."

"Sure," Rocco answers with a shrug. He picks up a glass I hadn't noticed was sitting neatly beside him. Uncapping the water bottle, he tips its mouth, pouring some into the cup. "But I know you. You're not going to say no. You're just too righteous: a demon who parades around like an angel. It's going to be the end of you. Really."

"I'm half demon."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," he replies, then sets the glass of water in front of me with a clink. Now that I'm so close to it, I do notice a subtle, unnatural twinkle in the water, just an inkling of something wrong. "Drink," Rocco orders. "I'm getting tired of waiting."

I shrink back as far as I can, and shake my head. "I'm not going to."

He squints an eye at me, then shrugs, snapping his fingers. As if woken suddenly by a silent alarm, all the vampires that had guarded the entrance to the convergence awaken again, snapping their jaws. There's a chorus of shouts as they seize each of my friends. Safiya's struggling, threatening to rip their heads off; Midge is trying to do stuff with her wand, but the power fizzles out like flat soda; Jamie lets out a sorrowful bay as he's pinned down by at least twelve of the guys. And River just looks like he's on the verge of tears.

My heart jumps up in my throat.

"Tell me no again," Rocco says, "and I'll kill one of them, easy. So stand up and drink it, Grey. You don't have a choice."

For a second, it seems like he's right.

It takes me a few moments, but I stagger to my feet again, hacking once more. Blood drips down onto my shirt, but I ignore it, gripping the glass in my trembling hands and lifting it towards my lips.

Then I chuck it at the ground.

Shards of glass scuff the salt, and I step through, my whole body coming to its senses again, energy coursing within me like I've been struck by lightning. I fold a glass shard into my palm, and as Rocco struggles away from me, I catch him by his arm, sliding the glass up and into his chest.

It's silent save for his feeble sputtering, blood painting his teeth red. Hot tears stain my face. It doesn't matter if he did this, if he did all of this. He was my best friend and now—and now I've become just what he already thought I was.

Rocco sinks down the floor, groping at the glass stuck in his chest indolently. I go with him, everything in me shuddering.

"You can't...you can't kill me," he hisses, and though I can tell he's trying to retain whatever dignity he has left, the look on his face is of blatant fear. It makes it worse. It makes it all so much worse. "What are—what are the humans going to think then?"

I shake sweaty hair from my face, pressing the glass in further as Rocco sputters with a final groan. "I'm sorry, Rocco, but it won't matter what they think," I tell him, glancing up. My eyes meet Midge's, and she's staring at me, her arms still held back by the vampire, but her eyes wide with a mix of terror and almost...relief.

I drop my gaze. "No one's going to know you existed, anyway."

A final spittle of blood escapes Rocco's lips, and he inhales, and does not exhale again.

I take a step back, wiping a trembling hand across my cheek.

The back of my palm is smeared with blood—Rocco's, mine, who knows.

I take in a breath, and then I crumple beside him.