Crow frowned when Penelope said she didn’t think she would be able to follow the “lead” with him. He would have thought she’d be excited to go on another trip with him, if not for the prospect of catching Jaxon, then at least to be able to spend more time with him. Her hesitation struck him as unusual. However, as she went on to tell him that her camp had been attacked while they were gone, his eyes widened in shock. It seemed like the Younisians weren’t wasting any time in taking advantage of the band of thieves’ efforts to give them a foothold in the war. He shuddered to think what would happen if the planned second raid was successful. If the Brerratic battalion was going to survive another attack, it sounded like they were in desperate need of that next shipment of supplies. Again, he found that he had to bite his tongue to keep from telling her about the thieves’ intentions.

“I’m so sorry,” he murmured honestly, holding her close to himself in an attempt to offer her some comfort. The war was taking a turn for the worse much more quickly than he had expected. At the current rate, it wouldn’t be much longer before the Younisians overwhelmed the northern battalion and conquered the outer villages as a whole. Even though the battles had been going on for about a year now, neither kingdom had managed to take over that much territory yet. If Younis did, it could be the leverage the enemy kingdom needed to finally crush his homeland. The thought made him swallow nervously.

Crow was drawn from his worried musings when Penelope spoke up again to ask him about his confrontation with Gavin. He took a calming breath, trying to stay focused on the matter at hand. Right now wasn’t the time to fret about the outcome of the war, when the more pressing matter at hand was convincing her that her former suitor was mistaken about his meeting with Jaxon. Fortunately, he had prepared for a question like this too.

Pulling back to meet her gaze, he laughed uncomfortably. “Right, well… that was sort of my fault,” he admitted, shifting his weight awkwardly. “When he jumped at me out of nowhere, he took me by surprise. I was upset, both with him for eavesdropping on what was supposed to be a private conversation and with myself for being careless enough not to notice him spying, and I didn’t handle it in the most mature way.” He offered her a bashful smile. “When he started questioning me, my gut response was to be as unreasonable as I could, so I refused to answer anything he asked about.

“As for the threats, he already had his sword out and, like I said, I was mad, so they just… came out, I guess.” He shrugged. “That was when he said he was going to tell you that I was meeting with an enemy, which of course I was going to deny. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?” He scoffed and shook his head. “In hindsight, I suppose I didn’t handle the situation very well, but what can I say? He startled me, and I didn’t have time to think anything through. I just can’t believe he actually went through with trying to convince you I was meeting with [i]Jaxon[/i] of all people.”