Chapter 28 #2
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.”
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.
“Keep walking.” Ambrose prodded my back with the tip of the gun. I shuddered. When we approached the knife, he said, “Stop here.”
Another prod.
My stomach sank as he kept the gun on me while he stepped around me and went for the knife. This was it. The moment I had planned for over a year after discovering its existence. Breaking my curse. A dream that had only ever been wishful thinking until I knew of the knife’s existence.
And now I was watching Ambrose take that dream.
My pulse roared in my ears as he reached out. His hand closed around the hilt. For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then his hand passed right through it. Like the knife wasn’t solid. Like it was some kind of illusion.
I blinked, not quite sure what I was seeing.
Ambrose jerked back, staring at his hand. At the knife. “What—?”
He tried again. Only to have the same result. His fingers passed through the bone hilt without finding purchase. Like trying to grasp a mirage.
“No.” His voice went hard. Angry. “No, that’s not—”
And I couldn’t help my victorious smile as I witnessed his failure. As hope bloomed, raw and visceral in my chest.
He tried a third time, more forcefully. Nothing. The knife remained exactly where it was, untouched and untouchable. “What the fuck?!” he roared, clearly losing patience.
He whirled toward me, pointing the gun at me. “Did you do this? Did you trick me?”
“I…” I gaped at him. What the hell did he think I could have done? “I didn’t do anything.”
And then a new voice filled the space. One that left me equal parts terrified and relieved. “Get the fuck away from my mate.”