To Crow, the silence seemed to drag on forever as he waited to find out what Mia would do with his offer to aid the knights in the war. His heart pounded deafeningly in his ears, and he wondered if he would even be able to hear her answer at all in its loudness. This was, by every angle he could see, his last chance to save himself from a cruel and twisted punishment. If the baroness didn’t accept the proposal, he would end up mutilated and potentially crippled for the rest of his life. He just couldn’t let that happen. As long as he held even a sliver of power over his own fate, he was going to fight with all his strength to come out of this thing with his limbs intact.

So, when Mia finally responded in a positive tone, the thief felt utterly weak with relief. He was so caught up in his elation that he barely heard her as she explained why she would consider his offer. He couldn’t believe he had managed to talk his way from nearly losing his hands to forming an alliance with the very knights who were threatening to harm him in the first place. To make matters even more unbelievable, he had convinced a [i]baroness[/i], one of the highest-ranking nobles he had ever met. Perhaps Hazel had been right when she’d called him a silver-tongued snake. He hadn’t expected that he would have been able to pull off something like this, but he was overjoyed at the outcome nonetheless.

However, Crow was quickly brought back to reality when Mia reminded him that she would still have to convince the other two barons in order for their decision to change. He nodded soberly, realizing that just because one of the knights’ leaders had liked his offer, it didn’t mean the others would share her opinion. There was still a very real possibility that they would choose to ignore his plea and cripple him anyway. He shuddered at the thought.

Still, he was glad that Mia would be vouching for him when it came time for them to discuss what to do with him. One voice on his side was better than none at all. “Thank you,” he murmured, tucking his chin slightly to her in a respectful gesture. Though he despised nobles in general, he couldn’t deny that he owed this one at least some respect for everything she was doing for him. After all, he had enough honor to give gratitude where it was due. 

“For the sake of everyone involved in this war, I hope your comrades are willing look past their hatred,” he added with a halfhearted smile. “If they do, then I look forward to working with you. If not…” He swallowed nervously. “Well, I appreciate that you gave me a chance to defend myself.”