sonal luggage and took out a bag of real coffee beans-part of her signing bonus-and the a

butter she'd smuggled in. It tasted like cardboard, but it was warm and fil

s place was a n

No backstabbing cousins. And a fully-stock

nt cells. Each was a sealed box of reinforced alloy and energy shielding. In the corner of e

s outside the cells. They could administer sedatives, but they couldn't fix th

cility was bathed in a

and frantic, blare

N CELL BLOCK 01. ALL PERSONNEL EVACUA

or of Cell 01 was visibly bowing o

on the tiled floor. Its mechanical arm shot out and

ent Kyler William is experienc

ncentration. She could feel it. A wave of raw, untamed power washing through the very air. It was pure, chaoti

arced from a surging power conduit behind the stove, a symptom o

The tiny sprout she'd struggled to sum

touched

nstantly

ean energy surged through Hadley's veins. It was like a starving woman taking her fir

appened-exactly as she had calculated-but the sheer efficiency of it was

ed, easily twisting her a

two reinforced blast doors to reach the observation window for Cell 01. The m

indow was intense, but she ignored it.

s a d

molten gold. It was slamming its massive body against the walls of the cell, its roars of agony shakin

hal Kyler William i

nward, destroying its host. The dragon's huge, sl

he metal walls around the window were beginning to warp and glow. But

nt of raw energy flowed into her, a chaotic flood that her

id nitrogen into the cell. The dragon only became more enrag

surged, consolidating, strengthening. Her plant powers had just broken through to l

strous insectoids. Here? She just had to stand outside a window and somethi

iful, tormented creature. It was part pity, part the raw excite

uld not only regain her former

r-a shockwave that vibrated through the plasteel, through the floor, and into her very bones. But the roar was aimed at the window, no

k, her heart hammer

laration. She ran back to the safety of her