Free Gods and Monsters by Felicia Jedlicka Page A

on his generosity. Her rings were going back and forth between being problematic and helpful. So far, they had been problematic, and she was debating whether or not to make them helpful again.
    The door was locked and unlocked by an electronic number pad similar to the elemental cells upstairs. It was a faulty design, since Efrat could always fry them and escape his confines to roam the prison freely. Since she still had his power in her rings, there was no reason not to apply the same tactic.
    Technically she would be escaping. That meant she was risking being caught, which meant any progress she was gaining toward convincing Danato of who she was, would be lost.
    At this point, Danato was leery of her, Belus was distrustful, Ethan was indifferent to her, and she wasn’t sure what Gypsy thought of her, but it was a good guess that she didn’t really have a friend there.
    Cori cursed and pitted her frustrations into the door. It was hard to incur the power without the fear that usually accompanied it, but she knew it was just about concentration. It had always been about concentration, but the elementals were given too much power too fast. They didn’t have the mental capacity to focus that much power, let alone stop it when their emotions flared.
    The bolt she released was smaller than she was intending, but it did the trick. She saw sparks through the small window in the door and the door clicked open.
    She padded through the hall to the nurse’s station. Two nurses were on duty, one was reading a magazine and popping bubbles with her gum, and the other was painting her toe nails. Cori wondered if she should have been a nurse instead of a horticulturist. Maybe she wouldn’t be searching for a genie in a schism of her own life path.
    She hadn’t really planned out what to do after she left the cell. She could certainly attack the women and knock them out, but she wasn’t sure if they had an alarm button. If she could sneak out rather than galvanize the entire prison, she would have more time to deal with the genie.
    Cori took advantage of the preoccupied women, and slunk across the floor on her hands and knees. Once she was to the circular counter station, she leaned against the base. The main entrance was through a short field of clear glass that was considered a waiting area. Even if she could sneak to it, she still had to get out unnoticed.
    A man’s voice sounded from down the hall behind the hub station. It was most likely one of the doctors, since he managed to convey pomposity with a simple greeting. Cori grimaced at her fabulous luck. She didn’t want to make a snap decision, so she just did nothing. The man stopped at the hub to flirt with the ladies who were more than happy to oblige with sultry responses and ear grating giggles. His white tennis shoes and blue scrub pants were in view, but the overhang of the counter ledge kept the rest of him hidden.
    Cori tucked her legs in a little more and rethought the situation. She could have knocked out the two women with ease, but she wasn’t sure about the doctor. At any rate, three against one, was a bet she wasn’t willing to risk on her fluctuating skills.
    She waited while the three conversed. She had hoped they might all sneak off to an examine room for a three-way, but propriety and common decency was working against her.
    When she had enough of the cheeky laughter and benign small talk, Cori concentrated her energy on the doctor’s pant hem. She tried to imagine she was trying to burn a tiny ant with a magnifying glass on a sunny day, and not trying to set a man’s pants on fire, since a fire ball might have been noticeably abnormal.
    Eventually, the fabric of his pants started to smolder, wafting smoke up his leg. The conversation turned to comments about the smell, and Cori geared up for her escape. Just as the man’s pants produced a flame he discovered the source and started yelling and dancing around. The women screamed and one of them yelled for