Crow panted heavily as he ran through the citadel. He was out of breath from sprinting so fast all the way from the fifth floor of the castle, and his injured leg pained him from the exertion as well. Despite these things, he gritted his teeth and pushed forward, holding onto the stolen staff with a white-knuckled grip. He had to keep going until he reached the meeting point—He couldn’t stop until he knew if Penelope was still alive.

His vision blurred from the cold wind, and he felt water stream down his cheeks, though he couldn’t tell if it was from rain or tears. [i]I don’t know that she’s the one who died,[/i] he tried to reassure himself. [i]Aeklora never said her name. It could have been one of the others.[/i] Still, he remained unhopeful. After getting to know Penelope so well, he knew she would give anything to save her comrades. He doubted she would stand by and let one of the other knights die as long as there was something she could do about it. It had to have been her.

[i]We never should have split up![/i] he thought, squeezing his eyes shut as he ran blindly through the street. [i]This is all my fault. I should have insisted that she stayed with me. How could I have been so stupid![/i] His eyes snapped open again as he tripped on a loose stone in the pavement, stumbling to catch his balance. After a moment, he recovered and kept going until he finally reached the tree line. Heart pounding, he hastened his pace a little more until he could see the cluster of trees up ahead. He was almost there. Soon, he would find out for sure which of the knights had perished at the castle.

Crow burst into the small clearing, finally allowing his exhausted body to stop moving. He dropped to his hands and knees, doubled over as he fought to catch his breath. Between all the running and his panic that he had lost Penelope, he felt like he was going to pass out. He looked up, searching for the others, and felt his heart drop when there was no sign of anyone.[i] They could still be on their way,[/i] he thought, sitting up on his knees as he started to get his breathing to slow down. [i]I could have been the first to arrive.[/i]

Still weighed down with worry, he moved to sit back against a tree as he waited for the others to join him. However, when no one showed up after a while, he began to doubt they were coming at all. He stared up at the cloudy sky, absently noticing that the rain had subsided. He felt hollow inside. The only one who had known about the meeting location was Penelope. He knew they hadn’t all died at the castle, since Aeklora had told him he would have two companions with him on the journey back, and since no one had come to find him, he was certain now that she was the one who had been cut down.

[i]It’s not fair,[/i] he buried his head in his hands. [i]She was the first person to ever truly accept me, and now she’s gone. Why couldn’t it have been one of the others?[/i]

Crow stayed in the clearing for a while, until the pain faded into numbness. Taking a shaky breath, he stood up again and picked up the staff. Even though he had lost her, he still had to find William and Abraxas. Aeklora had told him he would need both of the knights in order to succeed, so he couldn’t keep sitting around while they moved on without him. He took off at a brisk jog through the woods, searching for signs that would show him where the others had passed through.

For a while, he found nothing aside from a few broken branches to tell him he was going in the right direction. But eventually, he caught sight of two figures up ahead. It was hard to tell who they were in the darkness, but he was sure it was William and Abraxas. After all, who else would be out in the forest at this hour?

He slowed to a walk as he approached them from behind. However, as he got close, his heart began to beat a little quicker. One of the knights was tall with short cropped hair—William—but the other was short with long hair that fell down her back. [i]She’s alive,[/i] he felt weak with relief.

“Penelope!” he called out, running to her in a new burst of energy. Without thinking, he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace, careful to hold the staff away from her so she wouldn’t accidentally touch it, and sighed. “I thought I lost you,” he murmured in her ear. Suddenly, he realized William was staring at them, so he pulled back and averted his gaze uncomfortably.

“Sorry, I guess I just got excited that we all made it out alive,” he lied, not wanting the older knight to suspect what had happened between him and Penelope during the time they had parted. He wanted to make sure she still had the opportunity to make a respectable name for herself in Brerra and, as hard as it was in that moment, that meant making sure her equals didn’t know she had fallen in love with a thief. He blinked and looked up again after a moment, exchanging glances with the two knights, “What happened to Abraxas?”