Page 124 of Freed By the Witchbone Knife

My stomach answered for me.

The corner of his mouth twitched. Almost a smile. “Kitchen. Now.”

I settled onto one of the barstools at the island while he moved around the kitchen pulling out eggs, cheese, vegetables and the cast iron skillet.

“What happened?” I asked quietly, watching him work. “After…?”

His hands stilled for just a moment, then resumed their work. Cracking eggs into a bowl. “You mean after Blackthorn⁠—?”

“Died. Yes.” I waited, watching him dice vegetables with precise, controlled movements.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about his death. There was relief, which felt both shameful and real. But there was something quieter underneath it. A strange emptiness over the disappearance of a threat I no longer needed to hide from.

“You passed out,” he continued. “I caught you before you hit the ground. Got you out of there and brought you home. Tended to your hand.” He poured the eggs into the hot skillet. “You’ve been asleep for about fourteen hours.”

Fourteen hours?!

“The knife?” I asked.

“Still in the cave. I tried to go back for it but I can’t pick it up. My hand passes right through it.”

“I think it’s some kind of magical property of the knife,” I mused, trying to wrap my head around it. “It’s a knife made for breaking curses so…”

“Only the cursed can touch it?”

“I think so. It would make sense. But it also means neither of us will be able to move it. Maybe that’s the real reason it was left there.”

He hummed.

“I’ll have to let Elle know. She’ll be disappointed. She was hoping to add it to the university’s artifact collection when I finished with it.”

A more serious thought crept into my mind. One that could cause us problems.

“What about Ambrose?” I asked carefully. “What are we going to do about him? You…”

Axel’s shoulders tensed. “Killed him. Aye. I’m aware.”

He focused on the eggs, pushing them around the pan.

“So?”

“Already took care of it.”

“Axel.”

He took a long breath. “I burned his body in the cave. Hot enough to leave nothing but ash. No evidence. Nothing to trace back to you or me.”

My breath caught. He’d done that. For me. To protect me.

“The questions will start, eventually,” he continued, still not looking at me. “Blackthorn witch heir goes missing, they’ll investigate. But there’s nothing to find. As far as anyone knows, he was obsessed with you, followed you to Redding, and vanished.”

He plated the egg scramble, adding fresh berries and toast, then slid it across the island to me.

“Iris.” The name tasted bitter. “She drugged me. She helped him.”

“Called the sheriff right after I found you missing.” His eyes were hard when they met mine. “She was still at The Roost when I got there. Wanted to rip her fucking throat out when I found out about her involvement. Sheriff took her in. From what he told me this morning, she’s confessed to everything. Drugging you and ransacking your office.”

I sucked in a breath. “She… My office?! That… That was her?!”