Page 117 of Freed By the Witchbone Knife

We did, walking longer. Minutes passed at an achingly slow pace. I continued to shiver, keeping my teeth clenched so they wouldn’t chatter. My feet ached from both cold and the hard ground.

I slowed my pace some, mostly to try and think up a plan. Maybe if I stalled, I could come up with something. Pretending to trip, I used one of the lunarium clusters to brace my fall. “I need… I need to rest for a moment.”

“Nice try,” Ambrose sneered.

“My feet. These shoes.”

“You’ll live. Let’s go.” He lifted me by the elbow and pushed me forward none too gently, brandishing his gun, as if to remind me of what was at stake.

“You won’t really shoot me,” I scoffed.

“There are plenty of places I can shoot that won’t kill you. And if I accidentally miss, hit something vital, I’m sure my magic can keep you alive long enough to get what we need and get out. Can’t say it’ll feel pleasant though.”

I whirled. “You’re such a piece of shit, Blackthorn.”

The sound of the gun going off made me flinch. He’d pulled the trigger. The lunarium cluster beside me exploded. “Don’t fucking test me.” His voice was a snarl, his eyes wild, still reflecting silver like animal eyes.

Trembling, I nodded and turned forward, setting off again.

I needed Axel.

Had he heard the gunshot?

Would he be brave enough to venture down here?

Did I want him to?

No.

Because I believed Ambrose. Axel might have had strength and speed that came with being a wolf. But he didn’t have magic. Ambrose had raw power and I didn’t want to take any risks. Because what he’d said earlier, about blood magic. I had no idea the extent of his magic when it came to that.

Axel would do everything he could to protect me. I was his mate. He’d sacrifice himself, if he had to.

I couldn’t let that happen.

The thought of it—giving up the knife, giving up the only chance to break the curse, watching Ambrose walk out of here with the one thing I’d sacrificed everything for—made my chest cave in. The extensive research and planning. The hiking and searching. Axel facing his worst nightmare again and again. All of it, handed over to a bloodline that had stolen my family’s magic in the first place.

It was unbearable.

But the alternative was worse.

Which meant there wasn’t time to stall. Even if that meant finding the knife. Leading Ambrose to it. Letting him take it so that he could get us out of here before Axel came to find me.

If it kept Axel safe…

I was willing to do it. Because that’s what love was. It was selfless.

Almost as if reading my mind, the tunnel opened and we emerged into a large chamber. One that glowed with massive lunarium deposits.

And there, in the center of the chamber, embedded in a pillar of pale crystal⁠—

The witchbone knife.

My breath caught. It was real. After all this searching. All this hoping. It was right there.

I’d seen sketches from Elle’s records. But this. Seeing it in person…

The hilt was made of bone, pale and ivory-colored, worn smooth but still showing texture. It was embedded in the lunarium, the crystal seeming to grow around it. Holding it. Protecting it.