She didn’t tell him about Brokk having survived a fae sword through the heart, but then Brokk hadn’t been this badly injured.
“Yes, he is,” she agreed. “I’ll hold him while you pull it out.”
“He doesn’t have much left, but there’s going to be a lot of blood.”
“I know. I gave him a healing potion and have the towels to help stop the flow.”
He didn’t ask where she’d gotten the potion from, and for that, she was grateful.Cole trusts him,she reminded herself.
She held Cole as Niall gripped the sword’s hilt. When he gave her a small nod, her hands tightened on Cole before he pulled the blade free. She tried not to wince as metal scraped bone and Cole grunted.
As soon as the blade was out, blood poured from the wounds. Lexi snatched up the towels and pressed them against his chest and back in an attempt to staunch the flow. Niall set the sword aside and knelt on the bed beside her. When he reached for one of the towels, she almost snatched it away, but the look on his face caused some of her tension to ease.
She let him lift the towel from the bed and reluctantly removed her hand from Cole’s chest. Niall held the cloth against Cole’s chest while she kept the other against his back. With her free hand, she lifted another towel and pressed it to the hole in his side.
The injuries to his bicep, shoulder, and forearm had already started to heal. Blood seeped from them, but his skin had knitted closed over both.
The wounds he sustained before the fae metal pierced his heart were healing faster than the ones he received during and after the sword went through his heart. The fae metal hadn’t killed him, but it was slowing his healing ability.
She released the towel and kept it lying there as she leaned over Cole to lift another potion from the bedside table. To remove the stopper, she had to let the towel go.
When she did, Niall picked it up and held it against the wound. Lexi tipped Cole’s head back and poured some more potion into his mouth. When he had no other choice, he swallowed the liquid.
She put the stopper back in the empty bottle and set it on the table before brushing back some of Cole’s hair. Some of the color had returned to his face, but he was still far too pale for her liking. Though his lips weren’t blue anymore, they were still the bloodless color of a corpse.
His skin was still cool to the touch but warmer than before. As she ran her fingers over his cheeks, she relished the roughness of the stubble lining his cheeks. It felt real and solid beneath her hands; that was something she needed right now.
“You’re a witch?” Niall asked.
Lexi hesitated before answering. If he believed she was a witch, he might be less likely to try something.Cole trusts him, she reminded herself yet again.
And so far, he’d done nothing other than try to save his king. No, not just his king; he considered Cole a friend too. That much was obvious.
She had no one else to trust in this realm. She might as well give at least a little faith to this man, who’d earned it.
“No, but I know one,” she said.
She took the towel away from Niall again and tossed the blood-soaked cloth onto the floor. Then she plucked a clean one from the bed and held it against Cole’s back while she used her other hand to press down on the towel against his side. The blood didn’t drench the towels as fast as before.
She wanted to take that as a good sign, but she was scared it was because Cole didn’t have much blood left in him. When the cloths soaked through, she and Niall changed them out again.
Over the next hour, Cole’s blood stopped flowing enough that they didn’t require the towels, and the wounds to his shoulder, bicep, and forearm completely healed. When Niall helped her maneuver Cole to clean his injuries and examine them more closely, she saw his flesh was closing over all three of the awful holes in him.
She retrieved the water pitcher from a table in the main room, filled it with warm water, and returned it to Cole. She and Niall used the water to clean Cole.
Once they finished cleaning the wounds and Cole, Niall helped her dress his injuries with one of Sahira’s salves before bandaging them. Then they removed the soiled bedding and, with tender care, remade the bed with sheets she found stored in a closet in the hallway.
She still wasn’t entirely sure about Niall, but by the time they’d remade the bed and settled Cole onto it, she trusted him more.
“I should return to the hall,” Niall said. “My presence there will deter anyone from trying to bother you.”
Lexi followed him to the outer door. He moved the chair out of the way and stepped into the hall. He turned back toward her as she started to shut the door.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “If you need me for anything else, I’ll be here. Anything at all.”
“Thank you,” she murmured before closing the door.
She put the chair against the door again and returned to Cole’s room. Walking over, she brushed the hair back from his forehead and bent to kiss him. She still had two bottles of healing potion left and three-quarters of a jar of salve, but she’d wait a little bit before giving him more.
