Nicholas turned his head to the sound of the rustling, and looked at Mattie as she sat up. His eyes lit up in relief to see that she was okay, but he could still see the fear and confusion in her own eyes. "Mattie," he said softly. Jacob had grabbed the bloodied shard from the dresser and was now in the bathroom, where sounds of running water could be heard. Which left Nicholas and Mattie partially alone for a moment. But there was nothing that Nicholas could say to her. He'd probably ruined all of her trust in him. So he swallowed past the growing lump in his throat and buried his head in the pillow in front of him without saying another word.

"Bad news and good news," Jacob said as he came out of the bathroom. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Mattie sitting up. He nodded at her, said, "Glad to see you're awake," then continued with his original proclamation. "Nick, this is a shard of obsidian, and it was poisoned. That's the bad news. Which means...either you happened to land on it by sheer miraculous coincidence, someone stabbed you with it while you were in the air and amazingly neither of you noticed, or someone knew exactly where you two were going to land and sabotaged you." His eyebrows raised and he shook his head in awe. "The fact that...this happened, is amazing. We've been hiding out for so long. The good news is that I got it out in time before much poison could transfer to you."

Jacob sat the newly-cleaned shard on the dresser again. He crossed his arms and faced his brother, who was now looking at him. "The fact that this happened is going to set off our plans for another few weeks while you heal. I can't have you out there fighting with a gaping hole in your back. It will compromise our position. Mattie's-" he paused and glanced at the woman in question, "-not looking like she's going to be willing to help us."

"As long as we keep her safe," Nicholas muttered.