“Somehow, I doubt he would have listened no matter what you tried,” Crow pointed out, breathing a little slower now that he was no longer fighting against the pain. As the medicine continued to work inside him, he was starting to feel lethargic. His eyelids drooped slightly, and he found it difficult to move his muscles. It was a strange feeling, but it was much more pleasant than what he had been going through just moments before, so he wasn’t about to complain. As long as the pain was gone, he was content.

When Penelope kissed him on the forehead, he looked up at her with a slight frown. “It doesn’t matter that he’s your brother,” he insisted. His tongue was starting to feel heavier in his mouth, so he spoke slower than usual, though his thoughts were still coherent. “You’re not responsible for the actions of your kin.” He smiled softly. “If we were, then that would mean I’m responsible for everything my father has done, and that’s just not true.” He tried to lift his arm to rest his hand against her cheek, but the effort was too strenuous, so he just stretched it out to touch her side where she was standing beside him instead.

The longer the painkiller stayed in his system, the more disoriented Crow was beginning to feel. His head lolled slightly as he gazed up at the canopy over his head. It almost looked like it was moving, though he was still just clearheaded enough to know it was just the medicine that was making him see things. As Penelope brushed his hair from his face, he blinked dazedly and turned to look at her instead. He didn’t register what she said, but it didn’t seem important. Right now, he was too transfixed on her face to care about anything else.

“You’re so pretty,” he said, grinning up at her a bit dumbly. By now, he had forgotten about what had just happened between himself and Layth, and he wasn’t quite sure what was going on at the moment either. “Did anyone ever tell you that?” Suddenly, he knitted his brow confusedly as he looked around the tent, which, to his hallucinating mind, now looked like trees. “When did we go outside?”