As Penelope explained her reason for coming to the thieves’ camp, Crow wavered slightly. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but it definitely hadn’t been a warning about an ambush. He swallowed and glanced discreetly towards her, trying to keep a neutral expression despite his inner turmoil. He hated that he didn’t know how to act around her. Being cold felt cruel, but he couldn’t just pretend like nothing had changed between them when everything was different now.

When she finished speaking, he hesitated, not sure what to say to her. However, he didn’t need to say anything, because Simon piped up first, “Well, this is just great.”

“If they think they can make fools of us like that, they’ve got another thing coming!” Alistair growled, curling his hands into fists at his sides. “We should go and fight them tomorrow. We can take them easily, especially since they don’t know we’re in on their little scheme.”

“Yeah,” Rikki grinned in agreement, cracking her knuckles. “If they don’t give us our money, we’ll just take it off their cold, dead bodies.”

Crow shifted uneasily, his eyes flicking towards the knights. He didn’t like how openly Rikki and Alistair were threatening Penelope’s and Olivia’s comrades. Even though the two had come to warn the thieves about the ambush, their loyalties still laid with the other knights. It could be trouble if the hotheaded thieves provoked them to turn on them.

“We can discuss it later,” he shot Alistair and Rikki a warning look, gesturing subtly towards the knights in the hopes that they would catch on to his concern. Fortunately, the female thief seemed to pick up his signal. She elbowed Alistair harshly in the ribs when he opened his mouth to make another snide remark.

Relaxing slightly, Crow turned back to Olivia and Penelope, “Thanks for the warning.” His gaze fell to the cut on Olivia’s arm and he paused, thinking something over before going on, “Before you go, let us treat that wound. It’s the least we can do, since you came here to help us, and we attacked you.”