Page 116 of Freed By the Witchbone Knife

Ambrose laughed. Actually laughed. “You think having your magic back will make you my equal? Rebecca, I’ve been practicing blood magic for decades. I’ll still be more powerful than you could ever hope to be. And if you refuse to heel...” He paused, letting the threat hang in the air between us. “Well, there are ways to ensure compliance. To break a witch who won’t submit willingly.”

The words sent ice through my veins. He meant it. Every word.

The UTV’s engine growled as Ambrose navigated around a fallen tree. His enhanced eyes swept the terrain, guiding us with unsettling precision through paths that I couldn’t hope to make out.

Something wasn’t adding up.

“How did you know?” I heard myself ask. “About the cave? The knife?”

“I’ve been monitoring your communications. Keeping tabs on your texts for weeks now.” He said it so casually, like invasion of privacy was nothing. “Those messages between you and Elle Kennedy were quite illuminating. The witchbone knife. A cave on your boyfriend’s property.” He steered us up a steep incline, the UTV’s tires finding purchase on loose soil. “It wasn’t hard to piece together once I knew what you were searching for. I couldn’t let you break the curse. Couldn’t lose my leverage like that. But mostly,”—he shot me a malicious grin—“I couldn’t let you win.”

The UTV broke through the tree line, and there it was. The cave entrance. That dark, yawning mouth in the hillside.

Ambrose came to a stop and cut the engine. The sudden silence was deafening.

“Looks like we’re here.” He unbuckled himself, then reached over. I flinched, but he was just releasing my harness. His glowing eyes met mine. “Now, you’re going to behave. Because if you don’t...” He pulled something from his jacket. A gun. Small. Black. Unmistakably real. “I’d rather not hurt you, Rebecca. But I will if I have to. Do you understand?”

I couldn’t speak. Could only nod.

“Good girl.” The words felt dirty and degrading. Nothing like when Axel said them.

He reached for the zip ties on my wrists, cutting them with a knife he produced from his pocket. Blood rushed back into my hands, painful and tingling. “Out. Slowly.”

Did he know that I’d already used up what remained of my magic?

I’d never felt weaker and more helpless in all my life.

When I managed to step out of the vehicle, my knees nearly buckled.

Ambrose was there in an instant, one hand gripping my arm. Steadying me. His touch made me recoil.

So did the gun pressed against my side.

“Easy now.” His voice was almost gentle. “I need you walking, not crawling.”

The cool night air bit at my skin. My cardigan was still back at The Roost. I was in just my blouse and slacks, completely unprepared for a nighttime hike through the mountains. Especially in my flimsy flats. I shivered, though whether from cold or fear, I couldn’t tell.

“Move.” The gun pressed harder.

I stumbled forward, one foot in front of the other. The cave’s entrance loomed ahead, darkness beyond darkness. Without a flashlight. Without Axel. Without my magic.

Ambrose pulled out his phone, activating its flashlight. The beam cut through the blackness, illuminating rough stone walls. “After you.”

I had no choice. I stepped into the cave.

The air inside was cool and damp, carrying that mineral scent I’d become familiar with from my trips with Axel. But this time, there was no warmth beside me.

“Keep moving,” Ambrose ordered.

My legs shook with each step. Partly from the drug. Partly from fear. The phone’s light bounced off crystalline lunarium formations as we descended. It glittered in the beam, beautiful and cold.

We reached the narrow part of the passage. The one where Axel had struggled so much. “Keep going,” Ambrose pushed me forward.

I moved through the tight space, trying to control my trembling. On the other side, the chamber opened up. The lunarium formations were massive here, jutting from the walls and ceiling in spectacular arrays. They caught the phone’s light and scattered it, filling the space with an eerie silver glow.

“We never got a chance to figure out which path to take,” I explained.

“Then I suppose we’ll be wandering around in here until you do.” He prodded me. “Take the middle one there.”