Over the next few days, Crow and the other thieves spent most of their time building their new camp. The caverns were turning out to be an even better location than they had hoped. After the first night, they had all lit torches and explored the three tunnels that led away from the main cave, finding that one was a dead end, while the other two spread out and branched off like a small labyrinth. Simon, who had taught himself a bit about mapmaking, took it upon himself to spend the next few days making a map of the caves for the others to use, tediously marking out areas that were still unexplored or had been found to be dangerous.

While he did that, the other three thieves went to the nearest marketplace to buy some of the supplies they were missing since their move. They purchased animal skins to use as insulation—the moist, stony tunnels were frigid at night—enough food to last them for a while, a few medical supplies to replace the ones they had lost to the knights, some spare clothing, as many oil lanterns and fuel as they could carry to light the tunnels, and a few other miscellaneous things that they would need to get through the coming days. In buying so many supplies, they exhausted most of their coin reserves. However, they still had just enough left over for an emergency, so they weren’t overly concerned about it yet.

Another challenge the thieves had to solve was how to light a fire at night without smoking themselves out. The second night they had been there, they had found out the hard way that they couldn’t simply burn tinder in a cavern without filling the whole room with smoke. So, for the next two days after that, Crow and Alistair worked on using clay they had found along the riverbanks to make a hearth near the entrance of the cave that would funnel the smoke out. Fortunately, it worked, and they were able to light fires again once it was finished.

During all of this, Hazel focused all of her time and energy into refining the medicine she was giving to Crow for his illness. She checked in with him every morning to see how he was feeling and mixed a poultice for him to take every night. Her unwavering diligence was reassuring to him, and he began to have hope that she would find a cure for him after all. With a rekindled spirit, he spent more of his time with the other thieves again, going out with them on simple errands, drinking with them in the Ivory Hatchet tavern, and playing games with them in the cavern when they didn’t feel like going out.

For the most part, it seemed like things were returning to normal. After the initial shock of learning about his illness had faded, the other thieves began to treat him as they had before. Simon still followed his orders and Alistair didn’t go out to do anything rash. The only one who continued to act differently around him was Rikki. The female thief spent much more of her time at his side, trying to help him with simple tasks and making sure he was never alone when he left the hideout. Hazel managed to separate them sometimes by giving her jobs to do—searching for herbs, mixing poultices, sketching records of different types of plants, etc.—but even she could only do so much to keep the thief away from him.

Even though he knew she was just trying to help, Crow found her constant presence to be something of a nuisance to him. Not only did he get annoyed by her unnecessary coddling, but he also had to put a lot more effort into keeping her at a distance during the day. She still believed his lie that he couldn’t sleep with her lying next to him at night, but when they were together at any other time, she became clingy and tried to get physical with him. He found that he had to dodge her attempts to kiss him more often than he would have liked.

After a while of this, the situation became even worse, because Rikki started to notice that he was avoiding physical interactions with her. On their fourth day in the tunnels, she pulled him aside from the rest of the group to confront him about it.

“Something’s different about you, Crow,” she said with a frown once they had distanced themselves enough from the others to speak privately. “I know you’re sick, but you’re acting a lot stranger than usual.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, feigning ignorance.

“I mean, I understand why you don’t want me to sleep beside you anymore, but it’s more than that now. You won’t even let me kiss you, and I know you’ve been avoiding sleeping with me.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s going on? Did I do something to offend you?”

Crow shifted his weight slightly. This was the conversation he had been trying to stay away from for so long. “It’s just…” he sighed, averting his gaze. “I know we’ve been having fun and all, but I’m sick now. Honestly, I just don’t have the energy to sleep with you anymore… That’s why I’ve been avoiding it.” He scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. “I don’t want to keep you on the hook when I don’t know if I’m going to get better or not. You shouldn’t keep waiting around for me. You should go be with someone else.”

Rikki didn’t say anything, so he went on, “It’s fine. Really. I had a good time with you while it lasted, but I won’t be offended if you move on. You know, I’m sure Alistair would be more than happy to sleep with you. He’s been saying—”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Rikki said softly, shaking her head. “It was never about that, Crow. Well, maybe it was in the beginning, but…” She bit her lip and lowered her gaze as she continued in a quiet voice, “I know we never defined our relationship, and we’ve both slept with other people, but that’s not what I wanted. Not at all. I-I really like you.” She looked up at him with rosy cheeks. “I know you’ve said you’re not looking for a serious relationship right now, but I was hoping that… when you do feel ready for a real commitment, you’d see that I’ve been by your side the whole time and that I care about you.” She hugged her arms around her torso. “So please, don’t ask me to give up on you. I’m not going to do it.”

Crow stared at her in surprise. He had occasionally suspected that Rikki harbored deeper feelings for him than just physical attraction, but this was the first time she had confessed to it out loud. He blinked, realizing she was waiting for a response. After a moment, he shook his head, “I don’t know what to say. I had no idea… How long have you felt this way?”

“Since the war started,” she answered sheepishly. “And look, I understand if you don’t feel the same way about me right now. I know you’re not looking for that sort of relationship. I just wanted you to know that I’m not going anywhere, even if you’re ill—even if it means we have to wait a while longer before we can be together again.” She smiled softly. “I’m going to stay by your side until you get through this.”

“Darling…” Crow faltered, still finding himself without words after everything she had just said. How was he supposed to tell her that he could never be with her; that he was in love with someone else; that he would never feel the same care for her that she did for him; that he was lying to her about everything? He didn’t want to break her heart like that. Even though he didn’t love her, she was still his closest friend. He didn’t want to lose that.

“It’s okay, Crow,” she said calmly. “You don’t have to say anything. I just wanted you to know how I feel.” Stepping forward, she leaned up to kiss him on the cheek and then walked back to join the others, leaving him behind to stare at the ghost of where she had just been.