His words were too encouraging to be a command. Jade nodded, pushing her feet to take one step, then another, then another. The tunnel came to an end, and Jade rejoiced as Nicolas pushed open the door to the cabinet that concealed the tunnel and then the cellar doors themselves.
She gulped the fresh, albeit humid, air as if it were a healing balm. She couldn’t get enough.
Nicolas helped her up out of the cellar and into the staff yard, but three steps later, Jade’s knees buckled underneath her. Why weren’t her legs working? Then she was looking up at the stars, white pinpricks of light dotting the night sky. Except the night was foggy and overcast. Confusion muddled her mind, and she couldn’t make sense of up and down. Somewhere in the distance, she heard her name, but her tongue couldn’t form a response.
The next thing she knew, she was hoisted into the air off her feet. Arms cradled her, one behind her back and the other behind her knees. The smellof leather and salt overwhelmed her senses, and she realized her face was pressed into Nicolas’s broad, strong chest.
“Don’t go to sleep,” he whispered into her ear. “Stay with me.”
Since she didn’t have to walk anymore, Jade focused all her energy on doing just that. Her head lolled against Nicolas as he carried her across the grounds of Lesseine. But where were the guards? How had they not come acrossany?
“Look at me, Jade.”
Her name came off his tongue like moonlight glistening off a lake. She obeyed, finding the hard line of his jaw.
“Keep your eyes on me. I’ll take care of you.”
His words stirred her heart, and even in the heavy haze that threatened to drag her down into sleep, she knew he spoke the truth.
Jade remembered being lifted onto a horse, riding through the night with Nicolas behind her, and arriving at the farmhouse. A few times, she had come close to nodding off, but Nicolas had made sure to prod her back to consciousness. When they reached the farmhouse, he’d carried her inside and down into the tunnel to the bunker, not bothering to cover her eyes this time. It didn’t matter, because she wasn’t aware of her surroundings enough to notice where they went.
He laid her on the sofa, propping her head up with a pillow and offering her some water. She drank, and he disappeared through one of the doors off the main room. The sounds of drawers opening and Nicolas rummaging through them reached her before he reappeared and came to her side.
“You need to rest, but before you can, your injuries have to be seen to.” He pulled one of the armchairs closer to the sofa and sat, placing an assortment of items on the table beside him. Jade looked over the items—asmall box with a needle, thread, and antiseptic, a small jug of water, and a stack of cloths and bandages—and then up at him.
Nicolas gave her a weak smile. “I apologize in advance.”
A chuckle escaped Jade’s lips as she shook her head. “No, I’d rather you do it. Then I don’t have to worry about anyone on base asking questions.”
He tilted his head with a quick raise of his eyebrows, as if to sayThat’s true, then his eyes flashed back to Jade. His throat bobbed with a swallow before he said, “You’ll need to take off your jacket.”
“Oh.” Jade sat up, a rush of heat creeping up her neck and into her face, but her head didn’t swirl as badly as it had before. “Right.”
Her fingers worked the buttons, and she attempted to shrug off the jacket, but the torn fabric was sticky with blood and had adhered to the tender skin around the wound. Jade gritted her teeth and tugged at the messy sleeve, pulling it free and but reopening the wound. She dropped the jacket beside her on the sofa, now in her white undershirt, then turned to plant her feet on the floor, her injured arm facing Nicolas.
“I don’t think I have to warn you that this is going to hurt,” he murmured as he rubbed antiseptic over his bare hands.
“Believe it or not, I’ve suffered worse. And it’s not like I’ve never been stitched up before.”
Nicolas picked up a cloth and dipped it in the water. “I have some leather you can bite down on, if you want.”
Jade scoffed, but then she caught the glimmer in Nicolas’s eyes and she became suddenly aware of her heart beating in her chest. Still, she managed to roll her eyes at him. “I’m not a farm animal.”
Nicolas forced down a smile, though the corners of his mouth still tipped up. “Never said you were.”
He ran the soaked cloth over her bloody wound with care, cleaning the surrounding skin before wiping the gash itself. Jade inhaled sharply throughher nose at the contact of cloth against open flesh. And this was the easy part.
Nicolas rinsed the cloth and returned it to her arm a few times before retrieving the antiseptic and a new cloth. He doused the cloth and looked up at her with creased brows.
“Try not to anticipate the pain. Put your mind elsewhere.”
Jade closed her eyes and thought back to her night in the Fellsrin home. She hadn’t found what she’d been searching for, and after being caught by Reynauld, she couldn’t return any time soon. He’d likely have guards stationed at each set of doors that led to his bedchamber.
The guards...He’d called for them, but they hadn’t come. After they left the tunnel, her memory was foggy at best, but she didn’t recall coming across any outside either. Where had—
“Blazing hell!” Jade cried out through clenched teeth. She lifted her face to the ceiling and puffed out a breath. The sting of the antiseptic ripped through Jade’s skin and muscle all the way down to her bones. Her toes curled in her boots, and her hands balled into fists. She tapped a foot against the floor, waiting for the pain to subside. Nicolas hadn’t gone light on the antiseptic, that was certain.
“At least it should help prevent an infection,” he said matter-of-factly.
