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With the register safely tucked away and her mask and cloak still in place, all she had to do was shake off her chasers and make it to the meeting place.

Similarly to the way her previous conviction that nabbing the register would be easy had turned into a curse, she soon found herself screeching to a halt in front of a stone wall.

She had cornered herself at a dead-end.

"Curse this empire and its nonsensical street layout!" she exclaimed, kicking a nearby crate.

Wait, a crate!

Kel took a quick look and found, in total, four crates lining the alley. Of those, three of them looked sturdy enough to climb on.

Immediately, she got to work dragging and stacking the boxes against the far wall. She was struggling to heave the last heavy crate on top when she realized the voices chasing her were much closer now.

Too close.

"Come on!!" Kel grunted, lifting with all her might. Perhaps, she'd gone too long without proper physical training after all; though, this wasn't the ideal situation to reach that conclusion.

As if in answer to her inner plea, the box finally moved. It practically leapt out of her fingers into place.

Without so much as pausing to admire her handiwork, Kel reached up to push herself onto the stack. She had to get over that wal-

FWOOSH!

Her body hurled itself out of the way as a knife struck the crate she had just been reaching for. Jumping back to her feet, she suddenly realized the reason why both the box and her body had moved so easily.

A masked man who looked like he also came from the party was standing directly between her and the attackers.

Using nothing but his hands, the man easily fought off the first wave of armed men. Kel stood in awe watching, until her ears picked up the man's grunts.

I know that voice, she thought immediately. I know those movements.

As the masked man knocked the final attacker to the ground, Kel reached around from behind and ripped his mask off.

Light brown hair fluttered down to his shoulders, swishing across an unmistakable jawline. Even without seeing the rest of his face, Kel's suspicions were confirmed.

"What are you doing, Dash?" she yelled, gripping the man's shoulders and pulling his face toward her.

"We don't have time for this," he called back, shrugging her hands off and instead, pulling her close to his body. "I'm here to save you!"

Kel jerked away. "I don't need you to save me!"

Dash rolled his eyes and wrapped his large hands around Kel's waist. In a series of fast movements, he had thrown her over his shoulder and climbed over the wall.

Instead of letting her down once they landed safely on the other side, he gripped her legs tightly and began to run.

"Put me down!" Kel yelled, smashing her fists against his back.

"Ouch! Will you quit that?!" He shouted aggravatedly.

"Only if you put me back down!"

"This literally isn't the place to argue about this right now!"

"Then what is the place?!" Kel countered, landing one of her knees solidly against Dash's chin.

She managed to dismount feet first as Dash let go of her, bringing his hand up to his mouth. He clicked his tongue, swiping at the blood pooling just below his lip.

"You-"

He stopped as the sound of their pursuers echoed from both in front and behind them.

Letting out a sigh, he wound his arm around Kel's shoulders, holding his hand tightly over her mouth. Overpowering her struggles to break free, he dragged her through a door she hadn't realized they were standing in front of.

Once inside, Dash slammed the door and leaned back against it, holding rigidly to Kel. As the sounds of confused shouts and stomping feet passed by the door, he hugged her tightly against his body, until she could no longer breathe.

It took several minutes for the noise outside to die down, but even after everything had gone quiet, Dash still refused to let go.

You can stop now!! Kel screamed internally, trying to wriggle free.

The places their skin made contact had already grown moist from sweat--Kel couldn't tell whose--but the liquid pooling between Dash's palm and her lips was definitely her own saliva.

Please make it stop, she prayed to some unknown deity, wincing as her body became hyper aware of each muscle on Dash's abdomen.

When she'd finally come to terms with her fate of suffocating and/or dying from embarrassment, Dash suddenly released her.

"I think we're safe now," he whispered, stepping away from the door.

Kel vigorously scrubbed her sticky-feeling skin with the hem of her cloak as she watched him walk to a table in the room and light a lamp.

For the first time, she wondered where they were.

Based on what she could make out in the candle light, she was sure this was someone's living quarters. The furnishings were simple, but everything was clean and well-organized.

The biggest point of interest, however, was that Dash seemed to be making himself rather at home for someone who'd broken into a random stranger's house to hide.

"Come sit," he instructed, pulling one of the wooden chairs out from underneath the table.

"Uh…" Kel continued watching Dash, completely bewildered.

He grabbed a pot full of water and was in the middle of lighting the stove when he stopped and turned back to Kel.

"I guess you could just heat this up for us," he smiled, placing the pot on the table along with two cups.

"Um.. no?" Kel shook her head and turned, placing a hand on the doorknob.

What on earth was Dash thinking? Just because he'd butted in to her perfectly fine escape and hugged her from behind for a needlessly long amount of time, now he wanted to pretend everything was normal between them?

Dash's hand slammed against the door before she could pull it open.

"Has spending time with these Serin imbeciles dulled your brain as well as your body?" he growled.

Kel's heart thumped at his sudden change in temperament.

"You have no right to say anything to me," she muttered, shoving his arm out of the way.

"Do you honestly think you have a chance of avoiding their notice now that they've had time to organize themselves?" Dash retorted, his stone-like arm refusing to budge.

Kel whirled around, her nails digging into her palms. "I wouldn't have to worry about that if you had just minded your own business!"

Dash opened his mouth, upper lip drawn into a sneer. Without saying a word, he slowly closed his mouth again, letting out a heavy breath.

"What's done is done," he replied in a low voice. "You'd only be putting yourself in danger now."

Kel paused to consider the situation carefully. She'd rather die at the hands of men outside than admit Dash was right, but the logical part of her mind kept poking at her.

Finally, she gave in.

"Fine. I'll wait it out here.. Wherever this is," she mumbled, somehow feeling like she was letting Dash win.

Dash looked at her with a smile. Although it was clearly a look of relief rather than triumph, Kel still wanted to punch it.

Once again, Dash motioned for her to sit at the table.

"This is my house."