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Chapter 1

Kailani

If I don’t escape my jailers before tomorrow’s auction, I’m dead

“We’ll get a fortune for her I can feel the stein” The Caretaker’s gruff laugh ered hands as if ushering in the glittering coins

My stomach churns

“We can charge anything The Ocretions are desperate to reverse engineer her for her antiviral properties to eliles, a sound that doesn’t match his thick, warty body “We can retire”

“We have the alaxy”

The two Kraa eye each other across the battered table; despite their boastful banter and their reen skin, it’s obvious they have zero trust Their alliance is forged on greed and desperation–and I’m the unfortunate item they plan to sell at auction

I pull back fro cell and spider-walk down the ceainst cracks in the rough texture My bio-enhanced muscles and tendons allow me to climb surfaces that are unscalable by normal humans

When I’round, I twist and leap silently to the packed earth floor, landing without effort, fingertips ofand sway around my shoulders

My cell is pitch black, but h a particularly painful procedure several sun cycles ago, so ht “Just like a wild anier described roup of Kraa politicians

I pace the room on soundless feet The Ocretions are known to be brutal to their huer for ways to er, faster What the Overseer : The Ocretions will perform experiments on me to assess my enhanced human functionality then dissect me

If I enter their custody, the rest of ht now–

I breathe deeply to force back panic, in and out, until my heartbeat is slow and even

“You can do this,” I recite theunreachable to those who have courage”