Crow stepped back slightly as Gavin walked over to join them. At the knight’s comment, he narrowed his eyes slightly but didn’t say anything more on the subject. There wasn’t anything he could say to make Gavin accept that his companions would be joining them for the rest of the mission, so the next best thing would be to drop it and let him come to terms with the situation on his own. He just hoped that nothing would come up to cause any more contention between them all.

He trailed after Penelope as the group began the journey to Wheldrake, falling quiet as his mind wandered once again to the problem of how he was going to meet all of Jaxon’s demands on the trip. However, he didn’t have time to think about it for long before Penelope’s voice caught his attention. He turned to look at her and nodded. “I filled them in on our walk here,” he said in answer to her question. “They know that Jaxon was the one behind the raid on your camp and that we’ve already searched Whitebridge and Aramoor.”

He glanced back over his shoulder at the other thieves. Alistair was still chatting idly with Olivia—he had slid his hand flirtatiously around the knight’s waist—while Rikki was keeping watch of their surroundings. With their attention off of him, Crow shifted to walk closer to Penelope, reaching to take her hand in his. “Also, they both know about us now,” he said under his breath, offering her a soft smile. “We don’t have to hide anything anymore. I just don’t want to flaunt it too much, because I don’t know how they’ll react, you know?”

Almost as if on cue, another voice sounded from his other side. “So,” Rikki grinned up at him as she fell in step on his other side. “We’re going to Wheldrake, huh? It’s kind of ironic, don’t you think? Considering you were supposed to go there last week, I mean.”

“I guess I was fated to go one way or another,” Crow shrugged.

“Mhm,” Rikki eyed him for a moment before she leaned forward to look around him at Penelope. “Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while,” she shot the knight a friendly smile, far from the cold look she had given Gavin earlier. “I bet you’re happy about how all of this turned out, huh? You got Crow all to yourself for a whole week.” Despite the lightheartedness of her words, there was a subtle edge to her voice as she spoke to the other woman.