Crow leaned back against a shelf in the closet as he slowly caught his breath. Now that he had stopped moving, he was starting to feel the arrowhead in his leg much more prominently. He reached down with one hand and felt warm blood seeping into his pants from the injury. He grimaced. It was definitely worse now than before he had made the climb up to the third floor. [i]I must have put too much pressure on it,[/i] he thought, forcing himself to stay calm. [i]It’s fine. It’ll hurt a little more for a while, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.[/i]

Inhaling slowly, he focused on watching the hallway through the crack in the door to distract himself from the blood on his leg. Soon, he heard footsteps in the corridor, signaling someone’s approach. Unsure about who was there, he leaned away from the opening so the hanging lanterns wouldn’t cast light on his face. He couldn’t see the person from the angle the crack in the door showed him, so he stayed hidden in case a knight had come to investigate the broken window.

After a moment, relief flooded him as he heard Penelope’s voice outside. He pushed the door open and stepped into the hallway, wrapping his arms around her in an embrace. “Gods, I missed you,” he sighed, pulling back to look at her. However, when he did, he faltered, noticing the blood on her lip. He gingerly touched the cut and frowned, meeting her gaze, “How did that happen?”