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"Come on," Remi breathed heavily, taking Killure's hand in her own and darting towards the door.

Killure let out a low growl, blocking her with his arm so that she could go no further. He grasped the doorknob, and after he was satisfied that it wasn't hot, pulled the door back.

A heavy cloud of smoke plowed through the door like an avalanche, assaulting Remi's senses. It burned at her eyes, making them water. She tried to blink rapidly, but even that did little to nothing to stop the burning.

The smoke tendrils forced their way down her throat before she could snap her jaw shut, raking her windpipe on the way down and causing her to burst into a fit of coughing.

Still, Remi pressed onwards, ducking beneath the smoke and crawling along the floor.

When she stopped yet again to cough, Killure took the lead, dragging her behind him. "If you don't speed up, we won't make it to ground level before the fire does, and we'll die. Do you feel like burning to death today, master?"

Remi shot him an annoyed glare. "We're not going to die."

As he shuffled along the floor, Killure let out a dark cackle, sending chills down her spine. Hate dripped from his laugh like spoiled honey. "Oh, of course. You'll be brought back to life afterwards, but the same doesn't apply to me."

Remi interlocked her fingers with his, giving his hand a squeeze as they moved towards the stairs. "No. We can't bring something back from ashes. We can't even heal simple burns. It's every Designer's one weakness. If I die from this, I die for good."

Killure froze in place for a brief moment before pushing forward again, dragging her roughly behind him, but now with more urgency. "Well, well," he let out a breathy laugh. "Isn't that ironic."

They'd reached the tall staircase that would take them to the main level.

No one else had been down on this floor aside from the Shimmering Men, because they'd specifically reserved this floor for the purpose of the meeting.

Meeting in such an isolated place would prevent assassinations because of how well it hid them, but in a fire, they had the furthest to go to escape the building.

But no one had thought of that in the past, because no one had ever tried to kill them all before. No one had ever discovered any of the locations of the Shimmering Men's past meetings, either, until they had long since ended.

Killure pulled her up the staircase into the much thicker smoke. Remi quickly shut her eyes and mouth to block out the smoke, plugging her nose with her free hand.

And yet, none of those things blocked out the terrified screams that penetrated her ears.

The fire hadn't quite reached the ground level floor yet, so nothing here was on fire.

But there were clearly some people trapped on the upper floors, separated from the ground by the quickly spreading fire.

Surely someone was already trying to rescue them.

Remi had no idea how Killure was able to guide them out of the building, because they smoke made it impossible to see.

And yet, somehow he did.

Remi breathed in the fresh, humid air when they emerged outside. She let it spread throughout her lungs, refreshing her body.

Remi flung open her eyes, expecting to see the frantic crowd of people desperately crying out.

Instead she saw a small crowd of the lords and ladies who'd gotten out of the building, standing solemnly as they watched the fire slowly envelop the building.

A huge crowd hovered behind them, watching on with sick, twisted smiles on their faces in dead silence. Only the crackling of the licking flames filled Remi's ears.

Every time a particularly loud scream would sound, the crowd's faces would light up in glee.

It repulsed Remi.

She spotted Lord Cynfael in the small group of nobility, approaching him with an incredulous look. "Why are you all just standing here?" she raised her voice at him, exasperated.

He raised an uncaring eyebrow at her. "Are you truly that unintelligent? No one in their right minds would risk the own lives to save the life of any of the people trapped inside of there. I sure wouldn't—not even if it was my own daughter."

Remi's expression twisted in disgust. Her button nose scrunched, and her eyebrows furrowed together in horror. She took a step back to address the lords and ladies. "There are people dying in there!"

They only gave her disinterested looks.

Lord Juke looked at her as if she was crazy. "And how is that our problem? Better yet, how is it yours?"

Shaking her head in disbelief, Remi spun on her heels and stormed toward the building, with every eye on her.

A hand grabbed her shoulder hard, stopping her in place.

"What are you doing?" Killure hissed, anger burning in his eyes.

Oh, right. She was being selfish again. She couldn't risk her life without risking his, too.

Any slave whose master died would immediately suffer the same death. If Remi were to burn to death, Killure—although completely safe from the fire—would feel all the pain she felt before she died. He would feel like he was on fire, his skin would melt, and he would die a terrible, painful death.

Fortunately, Remi had a solution to that, thanks to the efforts of Soren, her Uncle Shaam's son. He'd gotten the chips to her only a couple days before, without asking what she intended on doing with them.

Remi smiled up at Killure through tears eyes. "I got something for you. A parting gift, if you will."

His dark blue eyes were clouded with confusion.

Remi clenched the single slave-master chip in her hand. The other was already on her forehead, hidden by her hair.

There was no known way to sever the bonding without killing the slave. No one had ever tried before, because no one had cared to save the life of a slave.

And yet, Remi had an idea.

Perhaps if she could disrupt the bonding through frying the connection between them, Killure would be free. He wouldn't have to die if the fire devoured her.

Since the original binding most affected Killure's mind, doing it a second time would fry his brain.

Unless she could insert her tiny hands of energy into his mind and make it strong enough to handle the electric surge.

It would take every bit of knowledge she had about the inner workings of the brain to attempt this, and even then it was a huge risk.

Remi stood on her tip toes and kissed the bottom corner of his mouth. "Thank you for all you've done."

His body was frozen in place, eyes were wide and frantic, unsure as to what she was talking about.

She pulled back, tilting down his chin so he'd look her in the eyes. A tick was forming in his jaw. He didn't understand what was going on, and it made him angry.

"Be free," Remi whispered contentedly, the hair covering her forehead pulling back to reveal the chip on her head at the same time that she stuck the one in her free hand onto his forehead.

He tried to pull away, probably thinking she was trying to kill him, but her firm grip on his chin only tightened.

She closed her eyes and sent out her energy into his mind, strengthening it until it had a shield of armour protecting it from the electric shock trying to kill him.

Remi smiled at the slight buzzing she felt in her mind as the bonding between her and Killure severed.

He stumbled backwards, falling to his knees in pain as his body wracked with painful shakes.

She met his eyes one last time. They were full of feelings of betrayal.

He thought he was about to die, and she'd orchestrated it.

And yet, he didn't try to grab at her through his seizing. He let her walk away.

He would be free now—no longer would he be anyone's slave.

Now he could live even if she died.

Every person's eyes were on her, quite obviously thinking she was crazy, but there was no more time to waste.

Without allowing herself any time to think about it further, Remk dashed inside the burning building towards the terrified screams above her.

If she could save just one life, it would be worth it.