Crow spent most of the following day outside watching his companions spar in the clearing north of their camp. He had woken up in the midafternoon, a bit earlier than usual, which Hazel took as a sign that he was healing well inside. Between the success of the new medicine and her courtship with Simon, the herbalist was in a much better mood lately, and Crow found her more enjoyable to be around. She had stopped calling him insulting nicknames and prodding him about the ways he had hurt her in the past. Now, she treated him no differently than anyone else.

There was never a verbal communication between them about her change in attitude nor an apology for the way she had held a grudge against him for so long, but he didn’t care. As long as they were on good terms now, he could live without hearing her say she was sorry or that she had finally forgiven him for the past. As far as he was concerned, it was all water under the bridge.

The improvement in Hazel’s attitude wasn’t the only good change he noticed that day. For the first time in a while, Rikki had saved him a portion of lunch as well, which gave him hope that they would be able to restore their friendship too. He missed having her around to banter with during the day and looked forward to a time when they would be able to talk so casually again.

The thief leaned back against a tree with his arms folded over his chest as he watched Rikki and Alistair come at each other with swords. He stood next to Simon and Hazel, who sat across from each other in the grass having their own conversation. They held hands and stared into each other’s eyes as they chatted and exchanged ‘I love you’s, occasionally leaning in to kiss during breaks in their discussion.

After a while of enduring their affectionate behavior, Crow rolled his eyes. “You two are disgusting, you know that?” he wrinkled his nose as they kissed again.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Hazel turned to him with a sarcastic smirk. She leaned in closer to Simon and went on in an intentionally loud whisper, “Sounds like someone’s jealous.”

“I am not jealous,” Crow snorted, averting his gaze. “I just wanted to make sure you’re aware of how nauseating you both are.” In truth, their mushy, lovestruck behavior reminded him of how much he longed to see Penelope again. It had been almost two weeks since the last time they had been together, and he missed her quite a bit. But, of course, he would never admit such a thing to Hazel.

“This is nothing,” Hazel grinned at him wryly and then turned back to her suitor. “Come on, Simon. Let’s show him just how ‘disgusting’ we can be.” She moved from where she was sitting to kiss the thief passionately, leaning into him until he fell backwards, and they were laying on top of each other in the grass.

“Real classy, guys,” Crow scoffed. Hazel raised a hand to shoot him a rude gesture, and he shook his head, turning back to watch the rest of Rikki and Alistair’s fight. He managed to catch the tail end of it just before Alistair pinned Rikki against a tree with his blade pointed at her ribcage, and she was forced to admit defeat.

Now finished with their sparring match, the two made their way over to the others to take a break. “We’re out,” Alistair panted, flopping down against the trunk of a tree. “Who wants to go next?”

“I’d offer,” Crow shrugged. “But apparently I’m still not allowed to fight.” He shot Hazel an accusative look.

“That’s right,” she said, meeting his gaze evenly as she smoothed down her dress. “No sparring for you until we know you’re healed.”

“I feel fine,” he muttered under his breath. However, he didn’t bother to argue with her since he knew she was too stubborn to cave.

“So, are we done here?” Alistair looked between them.

“Well,” Simon spoke up, glancing at Hazel. “You and I could go a round. I wanted to teach you a few tricks, remember?”

“Right,” she grinned at him challengingly. “Because you don’t think I can hold my own in a fight.”

“That’s not it,” Simon said in hasty defense. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just think I could teach you some things, that’s all.”

“Oh, so you don’t think I could hold my own in a fight against [i]you[/i]?”

“Well…” Simon shifted his weight awkwardly.

“That’s it,” Hazel rose to her feet and turned to Rikki. “Give me that sword. I’m going to teach my lover boy here a thing or two about how a real woman fights.”

Rikki whistled and handed her blade off to the herbalist. She leaned over to Crow and Alistair and murmured with a smirk, “I have never been more excited to see Simon get his ass kicked in my life.”

“Wanna put some money on this?” Alistair grinned at her. “Five gold coins says Simon wins.”

“I’ll take some of that action,” Crow jumped in. “Ten on Hazel.”

The three thieves finished placing their bets on who would win the match and then turned back to watch as Simon and Hazel began sparring in the middle of the clearing. Alistair sat back against the tree trunk while Crow and Rikki stood nearby. The female thief turned to him with a curious smile, “I wasn’t expecting you to put your money on Hazel. What makes you think she’s going to win?”

“I’ve known her for a long time,” he said, glancing at her slyly. “She’s a terrible fighter, but Simon is too love-struck not to let her win.”

“Sneaky,” she laughed. “Well, I hope your right about that, because otherwise, Alistair is going to get all of our gold.”

“I know I’m right,” he shrugged cockily. “Alistair isn’t going to get so much as a copper coin out of us.”

Rikki looked up at him and then sighed softly, “I missed this.”

“Me too,” he agreed, glancing down to meet her gaze.

Rikki looked over her shoulder at Alistair for a moment and then shifted to stand closer to Crow. “I’ve been wondering,” she whispered, keeping her voice down so the other thief wouldn’t overhear her. “When you said you had plans to be with Penelope after the war… do those plans have us in the picture too?” She frowned as she held his gaze searchingly.

Crow averted his eyes uncomfortably. “Not exactly,” he answered her in a low voice. “I’m worried that she won’t be accepted here. Simon and Hazel are openly hostile to nobles, I have no idea what Alistair would do, and…” he glanced at her again. “Wouldn’t you be uncomfortable having her around after everything that’s happened between us?”

“Maybe,” she frowned. “But I’d rather have her around if it means I won’t have to lose you.”

“I don’t want to lose you either—any of you,” he exhaled. “But it’s not that easy. We want to settle down together, and we can’t do that if we’re living with a band of thieves.”

“Oh,” Rikki lowered her gaze. She fell quiet for a moment in contemplative silence before looking up again with a halfhearted smile. “Well, I guess I just need to make the most of our time while I still have you, huh?”

“I guess so,” he mirrored her expression.

In the next moment, Crow blinked in surprise as he felt a familiar tingling sensation in his chest. Before he had a chance to react, he doubled over as another coughing fit wracked his body. He leaned against a nearby tree and covered his mouth with one hand as the metallic taste of blood wetted his tongue.

“Crow?” Rikki’s eyes widened and moved quickly to his side, resting a hand on his back. She inhaled sharply as she caught sight of the crimson droplets seeping between his fingers. “Hazel!” she called frantically. “Something’s wrong with Crow!”

The herbalist froze mid swing at the sound of Rikki’s panicked voice and turned to see what was going on. When she saw that the thief was having another episode, she cursed under her breath and dropped her sword, hurrying over to his other side.

“What’s going on?” Alistair knitted his brow worriedly and climbed to his feet.

“It looks like he’s not as healed as we thought,” Hazel grumbled, muttering another short string of curses as she looked him over.

“Will he be alright?” Rikki asked.

“Should be,” Hazel nodded. “This isn’t the first time this has happened. He just has to ride it out until it passes.”

Surrounded by all of his companions, Crow felt a wave of self-consciousness as the coughing fit dragged on. He silently pleaded for it to stop, hating how weak he looked whenever it happened. Fortunately, the tightness in his chest faded again not long after it began, and he was left panting as he caught his breath against the tree.

“Are you okay?” Rikki said as she rubbed his back.

“I’m fine,” he said breathily. Pulling his hand away from his mouth, he felt a pang of worry as he saw how much blood he had coughed up this time. He glanced at Hazel, who had a concerned look on her face as she took note of the amount on his hand as well.

“It looks like this new medicine has stopped your fatigue, but it isn’t stopping whatever keeps causing that to happen,” the herbalist mused, gesturing to his stained palm. “I’ll have to figure out why that is, but for now, let’s get back to the camp so you can rest.”

Crow nodded, feeling a bit tired from the toll the coughing fit had taken on him. He bent down to drag his hand across the grass and wipe off the blood. Straightening his posture again, he joined the others as they all headed back to the tunnels, finished sparring for the day.