Crow spent the rest of the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep after Jaxon had left. He wanted to just forget about their conversation or pretend it had never happened, but the bite of the cut in his arm refused to let him do that so easily. He still couldn’t believe it had happened. Somehow, Jaxon had found him a year after he had escaped and managed to put him under his thumb once again. It felt suffocating to have the other thief ruling over him when he had tried so hard to make a clean break from him.

What was worse was that he couldn’t figure out how Jaxon had gotten so much information about him. The man had known exactly where to find him, even though it was the first time he had slept in this house in over a decade, and he had known about Penelope. By the sound of his threat, it seemed like he knew the nature of their relationship as well. He shuddered. Of all the people who could have discovered that he was in love with a knight, Jaxon was the most dangerous. He may have decided not to kill her in order to blackmail him, but there was no telling what else he might do with that knowledge. The little sleep he managed to get was filled with nightmares of different scenarios of what the man could do to them.

When the next morning came, Crow was just as tired as if he hadn’t slept at all. He got up as soon as the earliest sunlight filtered in through the window, since there was no point in trying to get anymore sleep at that point. Shouldering his bag, he winced slightly as his injured arm smarted at the motion. He hadn’t expected to wind up in any fights, so he hadn’t thought to pack any bandages for the trip. Thus, he had been forced to just wash out the gash with water and pray to the gods that it didn’t get worse before he returned to his camp.

Once he was ready to go, he stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him with a sigh. His mother had been right. He should have stayed far away from that place after she had died. [i]It’s too late now,[/i] he thought despondently, looking down at his right hand, which was faintly stained with blood that had dripped down from the mark Jaxon had left him with. He had already made the mistake, and now he was going to have to suffer the consequences.

--

The walk back to the camp felt longer than usual, but Crow guessed that was probably due to how eager he was to get to the waterfall. Even though he was mostly concerned about Penelope, Jaxon’s comment about the other thieves lingered in the back of his mind, and he had a bad feeling that something had happened while he was gone. He hoped he was just being paranoid, but he wasn’t going to relax until he was certain that they were alright.

When he finally reached the camp, his heartbeat quickened with a mixture of nervousness and excitement. He skimmed the edge of the waterfall and slipped inside the main cavern… only to be met by a sword pointed at his chest. Immediately, he froze threw his hands in the air. “It’s me; it’s Crow,” he said hurriedly as he looked to his left and saw Alistair’s stern face. He frowned, wondering why his companion was acting so hostilely. Alistair was never this quick to draw a blade. His stomach churned. Something must have happened, after all.

“Oh,” Alistair lowered his sword, although his cold expression didn’t fade. He turned towards one of the tunnels and called out, “Rikki! Crow’s back.” After a moment, the female thief stepped out of the shadows, looking just as grim as her friend.

“What’s going on?” Crow asked tentatively, his eyes flicking between their faces. “Did something happen while I was gone?”

“You could say that,” Alistair shifted uncomfortably, exchanging a look with Rikki.

“First,” Rikki growled, storming towards Crow and shoving him roughly. “I have a bone to pick with you. Why did you lie to us? You said you were in Wheldrake! Why can’t you just [i]trust[/i] us for once in your damn life and stop keeping secrets?”

Crow blinked, caught off guard by the accusation. “How did you know I wasn’t in Wheldrake?”

“Jaxon told us,” Alistair lowered his gaze shamefully. “He showed up four days after you left.”

“Jaxon was here?” Crow’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes,” Rikki confirmed in a soft voice, all anger fleeing from her words as a pained expression took over her face. “That was the ‘something’ you were asking about.” She hugged her arms across her middle as she explained, “He came here wanting to know where you were. He wouldn’t tell us why he was looking for you, but he threatened to kill us if we didn’t tell him where to find you.”

“And you told him I was in Wheldrake,” Crow murmured, making the connection before she could say so, herself.

Rikki nodded solemnly. “We didn’t have any other choice. He went to look for you in Wheldrake, but when he didn’t find you there…” she choked up, biting her lip as she averted her gaze.

“Crow, he killed Simon,” Alistair finished, wrapping an arm comfortingly around Rikki’s shoulders.

Crow stared at him in shock. “He killed…” he breathed, unable to bring himself to say the sentence out loud. Simon was dead? He couldn’t believe it was true. It [i]couldn’t[/i] be true. This had to be some sort of twisted joke. For gods’ sakes, the man had just gotten married! He had so much to look forward to, and it had all been cut short by a power-hungry murderer. [i]What about Hazel?[/i] He brought a hand to his mouth, suddenly feeling sick. Widowed less than a month after her marriage, she couldn’t be taking this well.

Alistair nodded silently, giving him some time to process before he went on, “When Jaxon showed up the second time, he was angry. He told us that he didn’t tolerate being lied to. At first, he just had a few of his men hold Simon hostage. He said he would kill him if we didn’t tell him where you really were.” He shook his head. “Hazel told him to look in Myrefall at an old house. She said that was where you went to meet with Penelope…” He trailed off, swallowing awkwardly. “She… she told him that you were seeing that knight romantically and could have lied about Wheldrake to keep your meetup with her a secret from me and Simon.”

[i]So that’s how Jaxon found out so much,[/i] Crow thought. It all made sense to him now. Jaxon had been threatening to kill her husband, so she had spilled everything to save him. “If she gave him an answer, then why did he kill Simon?” he asked with a frown.

“Because he’s a heartless bastard!” Rikki snapped suddenly, curling her hands into fists at her sides. “That snake said he would only kill Simon if we didn’t tell him where to find you, but once he got everything he wanted, he ordered his men to slit his throat anyway! Right in front of Hazel, too!” She lifted a hand to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “It was awful. He said it was a warning so we wouldn’t lie to him again, but I know he just did it to hear her scream.”

“I-I don’t know what to say,” Crow said numbly, meeting her gaze. “Where is Hazel now?”

“She hasn’t left the deeper tunnels since it happened,” Alistair sighed. “She’s hurting bad.”

Crow nodded faintly. He still couldn’t believe how much damage Jaxon had managed to do in just a few days. Simon was dead, his remaining companions were distraught, and he had been practically enslaved to follow the thief leader’s every command. It was the worst situation that could have happened.

“Take me to her,” Crow said quietly, looking up to hold Alistair’s gaze once more. “I want to speak with Hazel.”