Crow glanced up at Gavin as the knight interrupted his moment with Penelope. Usually, he would have felt a pang of annoyance at the other man’s intent to separate them, but since he had just been kissing her to keep her distracted from his plan, he didn’t mind it this time. The valerian root had made it into the boiling water, and it wouldn’t be much longer before the plant did its job. He had only added about half of the root, so the potent sedative wouldn’t knock them unconscious right when it was consumed, but it should have still been enough to make them sleep deeply during the night. It was only a matter of time now before he found out if it worked.

As Penelope told him that it would be a while before supper was ready and that he could rest if he wanted to, Crow nodded. “That sounds good to me,” he said, stretching lethargically and rising to his feet. He reached down to ruffle her hair in a playful manner and casted her a grin, “Let me know when it’s ready, okay, love?” With that, he ambled over to his bag and dug out his bedroll, locating a comfortably flat spot on the ground where he could lay it out for the night.

Almost as soon as he sat down to rest, he heard the sound of laughter coming from just beyond the tree line. In the next moment, Alistair and Olivia stepped into view, having finally returned to the camp. Both were grinning from ear to ear and had flushed faces, still just as oblivious of the other members of the group as they had been before. Crow rolled his eyes as he watched them settle down a bit farther away from the group, engrossed in whatever conversation they were having at the moment.

“I haven’t seen him this obsessed with a woman in a long time,” Rikki spoke up suddenly, eyeing the couple with distaste. “It’s almost too much, don’t you think?”

Crow casted her a sideways glance. “I think he’s just smitten,” he said with a shrug. “It’s a little excessive, but can you really blame him?”

“Maybe not if he was with a peasant girl,” Rikki shook her head. “But she’s a knight. He’s just setting himself up to get hurt again.” She turned towards Crow with a frown. “You can’t seriously expect that to work out, can you?”

“It doesn’t matter what they are,” Crow rolled his eyes. “If they want to make it work, they will. I’m certainly not going to judge him for it.”

“That’s because you’re doing the same thing,” Rikki pointed out blandly. “You’re both so blinded by your infatuation for beautiful women that you can’t see what a terrible decision you’re making. It’s heartbreaking, really.”

“I would tell you you’re wrong, but I already know you’re not going to listen to me,” Crow scoffed, leaning back on the palms of his hands.

“You’ll see,” Rikki shrugged carelessly. “This is all going to come back to bite you eventually. It’s only a matter of time before something goes wrong and those two realize that your worlds just don’t mix.”

Crow snorted, “You’re just full of encouraging words today, aren’t you?” She just shrugged again in response, and he laid down on his side, facing away from her to indicate that he was done with their conversation as he closed his eyes to rest until dinner.