Crow nodded in agreement when Penelope said his companions wouldn’t work well with the knights anyway. While it was a minor concern compared with the issue of Jaxon’s thieves, he still believed she was right. The worlds of knights and criminals didn’t easily mix. The only reason he was able to work with them all was because he’d had experience in dealing with nobles from his last mission in Younis. If it wasn’t for that, he would have been much more reluctant to hunt down the other thieves with them. He probably would have refused to even offer his help unless he could work solely with Penelope.

At her following question, the thief cringed and averted his gaze again. He had been hoping she wouldn’t ask him about his history with the criminals they were after since she hadn’t pressed him for details when he had initially brought up the subject. Unfortunately, it seemed like that hope had been too good to be true. He casted her a sideways glance, toying with the idea of telling her that he didn’t want to talk to her about it, but he knew he couldn’t brush it off so easily. She would be persistent to find out why he was holding back from her, and he also believed she needed to know the rest of the story. If she was going to go after these dangerous people with him, he couldn’t let her go in blind.

“I’ll tell you,” he murmured reluctantly. “But I’d rather not discuss this out in the open.” Lowering his gaze again, he fell silent for the remainder of the trip until they came to their destination. He pulled open the door of the house for the knight to step through and then entered after her, walking across the room to sit in one of the chairs at the dusty old table in the corner. Once he had settled down, he gestured for her to sit across from him.

“I hope you’re ready, because this is a long story,” Crow offered Penelope a halfhearted smile. He wavered for a moment longer before starting into his tale, “After our mission together two years ago, I went back to stealing on my own as I had before. I raided knights in the outer villages and nobles in the inner kingdom. That’s how my reputation came back so quickly and also why the former king raised my bounty.

“For a while, life was good, and I was making enough money to support the villages as well as keep some leftover for myself. The only problem was that I just wasn’t happy with it anymore,” he frowned as the memories played through his head. “I honestly think traveling with you in Younis changed me. I found my old life to be lonely and unsatisfying, and I wanted something more.

“Unfortunately, this was when I crossed paths with Jaxon,” his expression darkened. “He knew of my reputation and wanted me to join his band of thieves. I think he just wanted the bragging right of having my name amongst his ranks, but at the time, I was too caught up in the prospect of having comrades again to realize what I was walking into. I lived and worked with them for two seasons without noticing how cruel and merciless they all were. I mean, there was always a part of me that felt like something was off, but it took something drastic for me to realize I was associating with true murderers.

Crow let out his breath in a sigh, going on quietly, “The day I left them was when a young noble boy from the inner kingdom happened to stumble into our camp. He had been playing a game with some other children in the woods, but their ball had rolled just close enough that he saw us.” He closed his eyes as the image flashed through his mind. “I told Jaxon not to do it. We almost came to blows… but in the end, he refused to let the kid go.

“You see, he had a rule that if anyone found our camp, they were to be killed on the spot. I just didn’t realize he truly meant [i]anyone[/i],” he shook his head. “Two of his other thieves held me back as he ran the boy through with his sword, and that was when I knew I didn’t want anything more to do with them. I just couldn’t keep working with murderers who would take an innocent life. So, the same night, I made my escape.”

Finally lifting his gaze from the table, Crow met Penelope’s eyes with a pained expression, “I swear, I never would have joined them if I had known what sort of people they were. I’m not like that—I never have been. I’ll always regret the two seasons I spent as part of their ranks.” He shook his head again, adding on in a low voice, “The only good that came out of it was the companions I have now. Alistair, Simon, and Rikki were all part of Jaxon’s group too, and they left with me when I fled because they didn’t want to follow him anymore either.”