Penelope’s reaction to his question was far from reassuring to Crow. He felt a twinge of worry when she avoided his gaze and admitted it was possible that her father might still force the marriage onto her. Part of him wished the subject had been brought up earlier. It felt like a slap in the face to suddenly find out that all their efforts to fight back against their kingdom’s rules and culture could still be thwarted by a man who would never want them to be together.

As Penelope met his gaze again, he nodded understandingly. Though he didn’t like it, he could see why she would have been hesitant to come back to him before. Her father seemed to have quite a bit of power over her life. It was going to be difficult for them to fight back against that without abandoning everything to run away together. He knew she didn’t want to leave the war early, and he was hesitant to do so as well. There were still people who needed their help on the battlefront. He was willing to do it if it was the only way for him to be with the knight, but they both had people they wanted to protect. They needed to stay for the sakes of those lives.

He frowned as Penelope brought Gavin up again, reminding him of yet another problem they had to face. His eyes wandered to the knight walking ahead of them. If Gavin wanted to, he could easily drag John into everything by telling him that his daughter was romantically involved with a criminal. He was certain that if her father found out about them, the man would do anything in his power to put a stop to their plans to be together after the war. It would be bad enough if John tried to force Penelope to marry Gavin, but there was also nothing stopping him from going after the thief as well. He shuddered at the thought.

Crow slowed his step with Penelope as she brought them both to a stop. Turning to hold her gaze, he listened as she told him that her father was in fact going to be joining them at the frontlines at some point. The news was less than encouraging to him, since he didn’t believe the war was going to be coming to an end anytime soon. They might have had a chance to win it at one point, but after the devastating damage that Jaxon and his thieves had done to their camp, everything was at a standstill yet again.

At her final words, an affectionate smile found its way onto his lips. He let go of her hand to wrap his arms around her in an embrace. “I know you won’t,” he said, leaning in to kiss her softly and then pulling back again to meet her gaze with equal determination. “And I’m not going to let you go either, even if it means we have to deal with your father. You’re stuck with me, love.” He winked at her teasingly and kissed her again.

“Hey.”

Crow looked up at the sound of Gavin’s annoyed voice to see that the knight had noticed them fall behind and was now eyeing them with contempt. “We don’t have time to waste,” Gavin said sharply, meeting the thief’s gaze to make it clear who he was speaking to. “Keep moving.”

“We’re already about halfway to Aramoor,” Crow muttered under his breath. He took a step away from Penelope and let his arms fall back to his sides, turning to her with a roll of his eyes. “It’s a good thing I came back and rescued you from a lifetime of [i]that[/i],” he tilted his head towards her ex suitor and snorted. “I almost feel like I should say you’re welcome.”