When the Night Fades Away (Sam Winchester/Will Graham; R) 3/3
chapter 2
Will tossed and turned, trying to get his brain to unclench, but it was impossible, there was too much happening-too much at stake. He tried again to focus on Sam's breathing-Sam who had even more personally at stake than anyone else here. He'd told him once that sleeping was always a gamble, because he could have visions or dreams of what he'd done. He led an ugly life, and his dreams were even uglier. But they both needed to rest. No use trying to stop the apocalypse without fully rested minds.
He started on the trick Beverly had told him about a year ago when his insomnia had been at its worst. Tighten the toes, loosen the toes, tighten the calves, loosen the calves, and so on and so on, up the whole body until he reached the crown of his head. He made it all the way to his shoulders before sleep finally came, seeping into his brain and overriding his consciousness-spilled ink soaking into dry fibrous paper.
"Important day tomorrow," a voice said. Hannibal's voice and Lucifer's beneath it. Will whipped around but didn't see him anywhere, couldn't see anything, just empty blackness no matter where he looked. "It's likely to be your last."
"We're ready," Will said, defying both the voice in his dreams and his own self-doubt, beating like a heavy drum in time with his heartbeat.
"You're not," Hannibal said, and this time the voice sounded far less like him and more like the angel wearing him. "How can you be?"
A speck of light glowed in front of Will-a candle flame growing brighter and larger as he watched. A fireball, held in Hannibal's palm. It illuminated his face from below, giving his prominent bones a skull-like appearance. "Sam has a plan."
"Ah yes, Sam." Lucifer smiled thinly. "My true vessel." He tossed the fireball up, like one would throw a ball, and it melted into the air around them, illuminating everything with a soft yellow light. "Don't get me wrong, Hannibal is special too." He gestured down at his body. "He devoured his own soul, did you know that?"
Will shook his head.
"He was born with one, like all humans, but even as a child, he knew he had no use for one. So he expelled it, cut it into tiny pieces and consumed it. You'd think that would make him wholly compliant as a vessel, but there's a lot of fight in him. He doesn't like anyone else pulling the strings." Lucifer's smirk curved wider than Hannibal himself would ever allow. "But then, you know that better than anyone, don't you Will?"
As Lucifer took a step forward, Will took a reflexive step back.
"But tomorrow, when you and Sam come to stop me-the moment Sam says 'yes,' and lets me in, which he will, Hannibal will be free. And then we'll both have what we want."
"Sam will never say yes to you," Will said, and that much he believed wholeheartedly.
Lucifer smiled, and there was something pitying in it. He brought his hands over his face and said, "Destiny is greater than the both of you. Far, far greater." When he lowered his hands again, Sam's face was staring back at Will. "And so am I."
Will woke with a heaving gasp, heart thundering in his chest. Sam was trembling beside him. They turned to each other, and wordlessly understood that they’d both dreamed of Lucifer.
Sam slipped his arm beneath Will’s waist and pulled him in close, burying his face in Will’s hair. His tears burned hot as they trickled down his cheeks, and landed on Will’s head, mingling with his sweat.
With only a moment of hesitation, Will began to trace his fingertips lightly up and down the broad expanse of Sam’s back. He didn’t say a word-what could he say that would help? There were no words potent enough to chase away the pit of dread left behind by that dream, by that voice. But this he could do. He could draw Sam back to the here and now, and remind him with a touch that there was something worth fighting for.
Time passed in frozen seconds and sprints of minutes, as Will’s thoughts roiled, and Sam settled beside him. He could only imagine the horrors going through Sam’s mind.
Hours later, with Sam’s breathing even again, Will woke with a voice in his mind. Not Lucifer’s, though it had a similar cadence and an identical frequency.
Moving slowly, Will extracted himself gently from Sam’s hold, sat up and listened.
“Time to go,” the voice said. And there was something about it-compelling and true. A voice of command that he couldn’t have argued with, even if he’d wanted to.
So Will stood, and followed the voice down the long winding stairs, down the hallway and into Margot’s library.
Bella Crawford was there, wearing a tailored blue suit. She turned and greeted Will with a smile that wasn’t her own.
“Michael,” Will said.
“Hello, Will.”
“I want to talk to Bella.”
“She’s here, and she’s safe.”
“Then let me talk to her.”
“Later. We have more pressing things to attend to.” Michael walked to Will, and opened her hand. Inside were two rings. They gave off an energy-insidious and potent-that Will knew immediately what they were. He took a step back.
“War and Pestilence. Sam has one too, doesn’t he?”
Will nodded.
“Then we’re only missing one.” She brought her hand up to his cheek. “And you’re going to fetch it for us.”
The world tunneled around Will, and he felt himself fall, not down but through space, pulled inconceivably fast. When he could see again, he was slumped against the wall of a building, in a city he didn’t recognize.
##
Sam woke with a clouded, molasses-heavy mind-he recognized it immediately as the touch of an angel. But not Lucifer’s icy cold. This was someone else. Far too strong to be Castiel. He reached instinctively for Will, but found the other side of the bed empty. Sobering clarity hit him like a shock of cold water, and he pushed himself out of bed and headed downstairs, drawn to the library.
A woman was waiting there for him-she stood with the inhuman kind of stillness only angels had.
“Michael,” Sam said.
“The other Winchester,” Michael said, smiling-a show of teeth.
“Where’s Will?” Sam asked.
“Running an errand.”
Sam clenched and unclenched his fist. “That you sent him on?”
Michael looked down at Sam’s hand, at Famine’s ring. “Your plan will fail if you don’t have all four rings.”
“You sent Will to face a Horseman. By himself?” Sam’s heart started to pound, faster and faster.
“Death is more...reasonable than his brethren. He has no need for violence. Everyone comes to him eventually.” Michael walked closer to Sam, stopped less than two feet away. “And Will’s been courting him his entire life.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about your friend.” Michael gestured behind her at the long dark oak table. Jugs full of blood appeared on them-five of them. And though they were sealed, Sam could smell what was inside. His body ached with a bone-deep need and his veins went rigid, sticking out against his skin, like his whole circulatory system knew what was in reach. “Let’s talk about you,” she said. “And your role in all of this.”
Sam’s mouth went dry. “I can’t.”
Michael scoffed. “Spare me your protests. If you were alone in here, you’d be halfway through the first gallon by now.”
“No, I-I don’t want-“
“Of course you do. You were bred and cultivated to want it. A custom-built abomination. All so my brother could exploit the little loophole our Father left behind.”
“A loophole?”
“Angels must all take human vessels while here on Earth, but because of Lucifer’s great sin-the greatest treason committed against our Father-this ability has been denied him. But my brother is clever. He always was. He can’t take a human vessel. No ordinary human can hold him. But if the vessel is defiled, if it’s made inhuman enough, it can sustain him, for a time. And you’re the most inhuman of them all. Aren’t you, Sam?”
Sam nodded, swallowing down the bitterness at the back of his throat. “Maybe. But I’m not going to make myself even easier for him to take over.”
Michael laughed, a sharp, cutting sound. “This isn’t a contest of wills, Sam. You’ve already lost that battle. This is a question of how long you want to survive while he’s inside you.” She gestured at the gallon jugs again. “Drink up, or you’ll last a matter of seconds.”
##
Disoriented and with his heart thudding in his temples, Will walked to the corner and peered onto the street. Lots of pedestrians-but too few for New York. He scanned the skyline and the nearby street signs. “Chicago, I’m in Chicago,” he said out loud, too shocked to care if passersby thought he was out of his mind.
He walked down the block, found himself picking up his pace, like his feet knew where he was going, even though he himself hadn’t the faintest clue. It was disconcerting but inevitable, not unlike much of the rest of his life. He crossed a street, and another and that’s when he realized everyone else around him had stopped moving. They hadn’t stopped walking-they were all completely still, frozen in time, many in half-step, one foot lodged in the air. Even a pigeon had stopped, mid-flight, wings spread, only a few inches from Will’s head.
Now distinctly uneasy again, Will swallowed down his fear and looked to his right, at the door he’d stopped in front of. A pizza place, with one patron inside. An old man, who looked up and beckoned him to come in. Will opened the door and entered.
The old man was tall and thin with a curved nose and wispy black hair. There was nothing physically intimidating about him, but Will had never felt so small. The door jamb to the pizza store was like the edge of a canyon holding a black hole, that could just as easily swallow him up as scatter Will’s atoms without ever knowing he was there. He was an insect. A microbe.
“Come join me, Will,” Death said. “The pizza’s delicious.”
The chair leg squeaked against the linoleum as Will pulled it out, shockingly loud in the otherwise silent pizzeria. He sat and slid closer to the table, there was a plate and napkin set out for him.
Death gestured to the pan of pizza and waited for Will to help himself to a slice.
Will took a bite, since that seemed like the only polite thing to do. “This really is good,” Will admitted.
Death nodded. “From your perspective, this meeting is long overdue, isn’t it?”
“It is?”
“You’ve been following me your entire life.”
“So you kindly stopped for me?”
Death gave him a look that made Will’s heart sink to his toes, but then he smiled, ever so slightly. “That I did. You’re interested in stopping Lucifer, I’m inclined to give you this.” He raised his hand and slid off his ring, placing it in Will’s palm. “Don’t fail.”
“I intend not to.”
Death let out a humorless huff. “You’ll need more than intent. Make sure everyone plays their part. Including Sam.”
Will swallowed. “Is he going to survive this?”
“I’d say his chances are just as good as yours.”
“That’s not particularly encouraging.” The look Death leveled at him made it clear he was dancing on a line, so Will kept the rest of his more opinionated thoughts to himself. “Happen to know where I could get a cab-“
Death nodded his chin ever so slightly, and the world folded in on itself once again.
“--home?” Will finished, and he found himself, standing once again in Margot’s library, with Sam by his side, looking both deeply upset and relieved.
“The errand boy returns,” Michael said, plucking the ring from Will’s hand.
“Are you okay?” Sam asked. “Michael said-“
“Death didn’t exactly welcome me like an old friend,” Will admitted, “but he was...agreeable.” He noticed Sam’s eyes drifting, focusing on something behind him, so he followed his gaze and saw what was on the table. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Yeah,” Sam said, breathless. “Michael insists I need that much to hold Lucifer.”
“For how long?” Will asked.
Sam swallowed. “Long enough for us to take him down.”
Will stepped between them, like he was shielding Sam from the angel. “No, we’ll find another way.”
“We could attempt another way, but I assure you they will fail.” Michael bowed her head. “I can see the infinite ways this plays out and there is only one where we succeed.”
That took Will’s breath away. He had thought the archangels were evenly matched.
“We would be evenly matched, Will, if we both had our true vessels,” Michael’s lips curved into a sneer. “And if Sam had not been enhanced. Lucifer has stacked the odds in his favor.”
“But then giving him Sam is the worst thing we can do!” Will shouted, doubly annoyed because the angel had read his mind. “You just said it yourself.”
Michael gave Will an overly patronizing smile. “He’ll think he’s already won. That’s what we need him to think. By taking him in, Sam gives us the opportunity we need.
A moment of weakness, which Lucifer is not prone to.”
“How does giving him his true vessel, amped up on gallons of blood, lead to a moment of weakness?” Will asked, feeling more suspicious by the minute. Something was wrong.
“Because inside a vessel, no matter how powerful, he can be killed,” Michael said, matter-of-factly.
Sam’s expression flickered from shock to resigned acceptance so quickly it made Will’s head spin.
“No, no-that means, Sam has to die so Lucifer can die?”
“We only become tangible in this world when we are joined with a vessel, at the moment we connect and start to merge.”
“So, we kill him while he’s still inside Hannibal!” Will shouted.
“If you get the chance, you can certainly try,” Michael said, voice full of false pity.
“We have to get him to come to us,” Sam said. “And I’m the bait.”
“No,” Will said firmly. “We both are. Lucifer will come for you, but Hannibal will come for me. If we distract them both, then we can take them both down.”
“Clever.” Michael walked closer. “It’s a good plan considering how limited your minds are. But don’t worry, I’ve got a better one.”
Sam scoffed, looking more annoyed now than resigned. “Of course you do.”
Michael leveled her cold gaze at him. “Yes. Of course I do.”
“Are you...going to tell us this plan?” Will asked, rapidly losing his patience.
“No. I’m going to make sure you forget everything except what you need to know to reach your destination.”
“What?” Will glared at her. “Why?”
“Because, you simple animal. If he senses I’m coming, he’ll act accordingly. If he knows you have the rings, he’ll be looking for them.”
Sam curled his hand in protectively, shielding Famine’s ring from Michael’s view.
“Don’t worry. I won’t take that from you yet,” Michael said. “You can’t do anything to Lucifer with just one. And you’ve been relying on its magic for too long. If I took it, even if I wiped your memory of it, you’d still know something was missing.” She brought her hands up and touched their foreheads. “You’re going to confront him because of your misplaced arrogance. You think you’re strong enough to defeat him all on your own. Or that you will be, once Sam downs all those gallons of filthy blood. You’re going to leave right now, take one of the cars in that garage and drive here.”
An image flickered in Will’s mind, along with a spot on a map. A national park nearly two hundred miles away. He turned to Sam, the two of them were alone in the library, as they had been for an hour now. They knew where to go and what to do.
“Let’s go,” Sam said, heading for the table. He picked up four of the gallons, two in each hand.
“I’ll get the last one,” Will said, and followed Sam out into the hall, towards the door that led to the garage.
##
“You change your mind?” Sam asked. He’d opened the locked car easily, overriding its alarm, and it was up and running. “Sorry, you know I’d drive if I could.”
“No, it’s not that-I know I’m the designated driver,” Will said. “It’s just-this feels wrong.”
“Of course it does. Stealing always feels wrong. I’d tell you we could bring this back after, but I don’t know how it’s gonna play out.” Sam sounded tired, and angry. And his eyes kept flicking to the back seats, where they’d lined the jugs up along the floor. He’d have to drink them along the way. “The car is kind of the least of our worries, you know?”
“Easier for you to say,” Margot said, from behind them.
Will turned around in shock. “Margot, we uh-“
“You’re about to steal my car.” Margot, Sam noted, was half-dressed, still buttoning up a nightshirt, and her bare feet were covered in dirt. She’d been out, likely in wolf form.
“We just need to borrow one,” Sam started. “We have to go, now, to-“
“To go do something stupid and get yourselves killed.”
“That’s an outcome we’re trying to avoid,” Will said.
“You’re going to face Lucifer, right? With what-that ring?”
“And something else,” Sam said.
Margot looked passed him, glancing at the jugs. “Is that blood? What’d you do, raid the abattoirs?”
It took Sam a second to figure out what she was referring to, his brain already too fixated on what he had to do. “It’s not pig’s blood.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “How’d you find that many demons?”
Sam couldn’t answer and shook his head.
“Sorry, Margot, we really have to get moving,” Will said, heading to the driver’s side.
“What? No way you’re taking my car. And no way you’re doing this alone!” Margot took Will by the arm. “I’m coming with you. You can’t talk me out of it. You know what I can do.”
“But-Alana, Beverly-“
“They can both handle themselves. I’ll tell them we had to deal with shapeshifter business.”
Will gave her a look.
“What? That’s not entirely inaccurate, is it?”
“Well, no, but-“
“Get in the back, both of you.”
#
If he’d had a choice, he would have preferred to do this in complete solitude, to not let any of them see. Will graciously turned away and looked out the window, hand still resting softly on Sam’s thigh. It was meant to be reassuring, but Sam couldn’t accept it as such, despite the intent. With three more gallons of poisonous power left to consume, he didn’t want to be touched at all, least of all by someone who cared for him. Will’s fingers prickled at him through the denim, reminders of what he could have if he wasn’t such a-
But they were only a few hours from their destination, and Sam’s chance at isolated shame and feigned dignity had come and gone. Everyone in this car knew what he was, and accepted him anyway, and he was so damn tired of hating himself. He brought the third gallon jug up to his lips and swallowed deep.
#
“We’re about an hour away,” Margot said, as she pulled into the gas station. “I need a coffee. Anybody else need a pit stop, now’s your last chance.”
Sam heard her voice, but couldn’t quite focus on it fast enough to comprehend the words. “Coffee,” he repeated.
“Want one?” Will asked, smiling at him.
Sam shook his head. He had another half gallon left to go. And he’d already gone way past intoxicated bliss into agony and back again, too many times to count. His skin felt numb, insulated from the outside like a coat of wax on a fingertip. But on the inside he was burning; his body was too small to hold the force inside of him. If he let his mind drift, he could feel and hear and see his own agitated atoms, see them expanding and colliding, trying to fill more space than they were allowed.
There was lightning in his veins, prickling up his arms and into his brain. He could hear himself breathing in gasps, saw how Will had tensed besides him. He tried to shrink further in on himself, give Will more room but moving made Sam even more aware of his subcomponents so he stayed still, eyes scanning the air until they found a dust mote, glimmering in the soft yellow of the rising sun. He tracked the speck, and saw its past -dust-skin-dog fur-Winston. “Winston’s been in this car,” he said.
Will’s mouth formed a surprised little o. “He has?” His brow furrowed and he struggled to hide his concern, but Sam could see his atoms too-could see the whole of him-the parts he kept hidden and the parts he showed, and all of them were beautiful-an iridescent swirling miasma of light and dark.
Sam reached his hand out towards Will, touched him on the cheek, watched Will’s eyelids flutter, watched the atoms bounce and shimmer with each tiny movement. He felt himself drawn inexorably towards Will and brought their lips together, gently, feeling the way they intermingled-he breathed Will in-the scent of him-felt his light infuse his own demon-tainted soul and imagined those atoms changing the shape of his own. If Will was there after all this was over, he’d find his way back. He could come up for air again. But for now, he had to hold his breath and go all the way under.
“I leave you two alone for five minutes…” Margot said as she got back in the driver’s seat.
Will blushed, the heat flickering in the air around his cheeks and the tips of his ears, and he looked even more beautiful, Sam thought. But the moment had passed, and as Margot started the car, the countdown clock in his mind started with it. An hour left. An hour until Lucifer. They had a chance to stop him and save the world.
Sam reached down for the last half gallon. He paused after unscrewing the lid, staring at the blood. He could see its subcomponents, too-the plasma, the red and white cells and the flickers of power that danced between them-the bits of corrupted soul. When he looked at himself he could see his own soul shining beneath his skin, but it had gotten dimmer.
Will put his hand on Sam’s thigh, and Will’s light was blindingly bright. But as he touched Sam, his own light grew stronger. “When we make it through this,” Will said. “I want to go back to the cabin. I want to take all the dogs back to our home. I want to go to sleep next to you, and wake up next to you in the morning.”
Sam tried to hold back his tears, because he wanted that too, more than anything. But it didn’t feel real. The jug in his hand felt real. The weight of what was inside, the building pressure in his veins, the double-vision of the physical world and the layers in-between. He was ready to sacrifice himself, if that meant saving the world. He’d been ready. But the selfish part of him still wanted a happy ending. Even if he didn’t deserve one. “Me too,” he said, voice quiet and shaky.
Then he brought the jug to his lips and drank.
#
The sky was a pale blue by the time they got to the nature reserve. The air was cold and crisp, and the leaves crunched beneath their feet as they left the car and started heading uphill.
When they got about halfway up, Sam felt Lucifer. He could feel him, the air itself colder and somehow more solid with every step. He stopped, closed his eyes for a beat, working his nerve up again. “He’s here. He knows we’re here.”
“We figured as much, didn’t we?” Margot asked. Her voice was rock-steady, but her steely expression wavered. She was nervous, too. They all were.
The world around them flickered, and they were at the top of the hill. A cliff overlooking the miles of forest below.
“You know they call this the Devil’s Needle,” Lucifer said, back towards them. “Because of its curved peak. Like I crochet or something.” He spun on his heel casually and smiled. “Sam. It’s good to see you again. And Will-my, my Hannibal has told me a lot about you.” He turned to Margot. “And who are you supposed to be?”
“I’m the muscle,” she said, smiling pleasantly.
Lucifer laughed. “Now that I’d like to see.”
“Wait.”
A branch snapped behind them, and Sam looked over his shoulder. There were demons walking towards them; six of them in total came to stand in a half circle behind them, blocking their escape.
Lucifer flicked his eyes back to Sam. “You didn’t come here to look at the foliage, did you?”
Keeping his eyes on Lucifer, Sam took hold of all six demons, latching his power onto their souls, and with an ease that should have scared him, but didn’t, extinguished them. He felt, rather than saw, their eyes and mouths light up gold, their souls burn, and their bodies drop as one, slumping boneless to the ground.
Next to him, Will’s breath hitched. Sam caught the way his eyes flicked to him, steeled himself for a look of horror or fear. But all he saw in Will was awe tinged with concern.
“Been drinking your Ovaltine, have you?” Lucifer said, lips curling.
Sam nodded. “I’m here to say yes.”
Lucifer scoffed. “Just like that. No ulterior motive.”
“Of course there’s an ulterior motive,” Will said. “Sam’s not a fool.”
“Yet you play me for one.” Lucifer arched an eyebrow. “Hannibal warned me that you were more dangerous than you seemed. The mongoose beneath the porch, isn’t that right?”
Will kept his mouth shut.
“Well, surely you have some kind of attack plan, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” Lucifer smiled at Margot. “You have no idea what’s going on, you’re just here for the meat, I respect that.” He turned back to Will. “And you-you keep hoping desperately that Sam has some plan he hasn’t told you about, because you know the one you have is going to fail. Oooh.” He pursed his lips. “How fatalistic of you.”
“I trust Sam,” Will said. “And we’re not going to let him take you on alone.”
“I’m curious, what do you two think you’re going to accomplish exactly?” Lucifer said. “Other than being fodder, I mean.”
“They’re not fodder,” Sam said, anxiety growing as the massive well of power in him swirled, aching to be freed. Something about the proximity to Lucifer made his whole body go into fight-or-flight mode. But his blood knew that fight was the only option left, and it was ready.
“Right, because of your gifts? The ones I gave you?” Lucifer’s smirk curved as he narrowed his eyes. “I’m no demon, Sam. Your power will never work on me.” He glanced down at Sam’s hand. “And you’ve got one of the keys to my cage. Well done.”
Something squirmed in the back of Sam’s mind-a fraction of a memory. He didn’t only have the one ring. Somebody else-but a sharp pain cut through his line of thought and he remembered what he’d come here to do. He had to give Will and Margot an opening. When Lucifer was distracted, when he was entered Sam, then they’d take him down and then-
"The ring is more than just a key," Will said. "It gives Sam more control."
Lucifer scoffed and turned his attention back to Sam. "You think that’s what this is about? Control? Your will? Sam, you're the moth, I’m the sun. You can’t help but fly towards me, and your will is entirely irrelevant."
“I’m saying yes, because it’s the only way to stop you.”
“Pardon?” Lucifer laughed. “You do remember the part about you being my true vessel, and why I want you.”
“I remember. You said you wouldn’t lie to me and you wouldn’t trick me. That you’d give me anything. And what I want is for you to stop slaughtering innocent people. You want to take on the other angels? Fine. But leave humanity out of it.”
“Humanity is collateral damage, Sam.”
“Not to me.”
Lucifer took in a deep breath, looking annoyed, and exhaled. “Fine. You say yes, and we’ll go after the angels.”
“Okay then,” Sam swallowed. He felt Will watching him, reached out for him mentally and felt his fear, his hope, his love. Sam's heart pounded in his chest and he steeled himself. They were going to make it through this. They had to take Lucifer down, and this was the only way. He looked Lucifer in the eyes and said, “Yes.”
Lucifer's smile changed then into something very different and far scarier. Satisfaction. He leaned back, and light streamed from Hannibal's body, shooting out of his eyes and mouth. The light rushed towards Sam, a river coursing from Hannibal into him. Sam felt Lucifer collide with him, felt his cells fill with frost. His eyes were blinded by Lucifer's brilliance, but his amplified senses kept sending him information on everything else around him-Margot and Will shed their human forms, and rushed forward on all fours, lunging at Hannibal.
Without fanfare, without light or sound, or little more than a soft rippling in the air, Michael appeared behind Hannibal, and grabbed him by the shoulders. Lucifer's light stopped flowing into Sam, stuck, mid-transition, pinned in place by Michael. He struggled, and screamed and without a human body, his voice was omnipresent and cacophonous-broken bells and shattering glass. Sam brought his hands up to cover his ears and stumbled backwards, coughing-expelling the part of Lucifer that had started to enter him. It left his insides feeling cold and shaken, but they were his alone again.
Michael nodded towards Sam and something metallic appeared in front of him, hovering in the air, less than a foot away from his face. For a moment Sam stared at them, confounded, but then a dam in the back of his mind broke and the memories came rushing back. The other three Horsemen's rings: War, Pestilence and Death. The rings were interconnected with an open gap for the fourth. Sam felt the ring on his hand respond and it was torn off of him, by an impossibly strong magnetic pull. Famine's ring snapped into place with the other three and the completed metal circle fell to the ground.
The four rings are a key. With the key, we can open the gate to Lucifer's cage. Sam's thoughts were still muddled, but the words he needed came to him clearly, "Beh voh tah mo en, tah beh geh sah." The ground in front of him began to rumble. "Bah bah loh en!" he finished. The rings glowed and the ground beneath them crumbled away.
Lucifer struggled more, a writhing serpent of light stuck midway leaving Hannibal, the front end of him hovering above the now-open gate. He reared away from it, out of the range of its pull. Something silver and sharp manifested in Hannibal's hand and he brought it up towards Michael, but she saw, shoved her shoulder against the broad part of the blade and sent it flying. Lucifer's light collapsed in on itself and he sunk back inside of Hannibal. Will and Margot grabbed him by the legs, Will pinning him with his antlers, Margot using her jaws. They began to drag him forward, towards the gate. But Lucifer fought back, and with a blast of power and sent them both flying. They landed on opposite sides of the gate, scrambling to get back to their feet.
Michael lost her grip on Lucifer, but only for a moment. She wrapped one arm around his waist, the other around his neck and unfolded her wings, spanning them out wide-they came ablaze with golden fire, arcing up until they blocked out the trees and everything around them.
Sam, momentarily blinded by her brilliance, came to his senses, grabbed the silver sword from the ground and leapt over the gate, landing right next to Lucifer. Sam could feel Lucifer straining to get free, could see that he was starting to break loose from Michael’s hold, so Sam grabbed onto Lucifer with his power-the same way he’d hold a demon, only a thousand times harder, then he swung the sword down, plunging its tapered tip deep into Hannibal’s chest. The archangel’s eyes widened in shock, his mouth dropped open and he gasped as pure light streamed out of him, exploding up into the sky, bright enough to make even Michael’s wings dim in comparison.
Shielding his eyes, Sam clung to the sword, kept pushing it in with all his might as though if he let go, all his effort would be undone. But then the light went out, like a switch had been flipped. Sam stepped aside and Hannibal fell forward, hanging over the edge of the gate. Will and Margot raced forward and kicked out with their forelegs, sending Hannibal hurtling down into the gaping pit.
The gate closed with an audible snap and the air went still. Will and Margot both began to shift back into their human forms. Michael's wings had vanished, and she stood looking at the patch of ground with an inscrutable expression.
"Thank you," Sam said, looking at all three of them.
Will gave him a smile. "I think we should be thanking you."
Michael's expression turned dour. "This is not how it was prophesied."
"But it's over," Sam said. The adrenaline was starting to leave his system and his limbs felt jittery and weak. But it was over. It was finally over.
With a huff, Michael nodded, begrudgingly. Then she opened her mouth, light poured from out and the sky became a supernova.
When the light finally faded, Bella was on the ground, looking up at the three of them. "Will?" She pushed herself to her feet. "Why are you naked?"
Will let out a surprised laugh, full of relief and Sam went to help her up, but with his first two steps, everything went off kilter. The world tumbled up towards him. His legs gave out, his heart stuttered to a halt and took everything else with it.
##
Will was so focused on Sam, he barely noticed when Margot draped a blanket over his shoulders. Sam was unconscious-alive and breathing after CPR, but his breaths were too shallow and his heartbeat erratic.
“What happened to him?” Alana asked, suddenly there, along with Beverly and Jack. Will tore his gaze away from Sam and saw Jack pulling Bella into a tight hug. Bella was smiling, ear to ear.
“I’m not sure,” Will said. “Maybe it’s because he lost the ring, or whatever Lucifer did.”
“We’ll get him to a hospital. Might not be able to help him completely, but it’s a start.”
Will nodded.
“We’ll get a helicopter,” she said. “With a stretcher.”
#
Alana got in the medical helicopter with Will and Sam. She answered the pilot’s questions and they took off, headed towards the nearest city hospital.
They sat in silence for a bit, before she said, “So, Hannibal’s dead.”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?” She raised an eyebrow, “Margot said-“
“I’m not exactly an expert in Hell portals,” Will said. “But he was still alive when we threw him in.”
“Can he get out?”
“My understanding is, not easily.” Will nodded to himself. He wanted to feel more relieved, the threat of Hannibal-if not eliminated at least severely reduced for the time being-but all he could think about was Sam’s sallow skin and the ugly truth the heart monitor showed him.
#
“Sir, I assure you, we’ve done all we can for now.”
Will heard the words, but couldn’t quite get himself to respond. His gaze was still glued to Sam in the hospital bed-the tubes running down his throat and into his hand. He’d never seen such a large man look so small.
“Let him rest, and get some rest yourself.”
Will turned to stare at the nurse, his brain recognizing that maybe if he looked at her, her words would make more sense. “We’ll run some more tests in the morning, but for now all we can do is keep him comfortable.”
Will blinked at her, sifting through the barrage of looping, jumbled memories from the last few hours. The battle, Sam collapsing, the admitting nurse grilling him on what illegal substance Sam had been taking, ”Nothing you’ve ever heard of,” the doctor’s face as she rattled off all of Sam’s failing organs one by one, ”Advanced renal failure, his heart has started to calcify, and his lungs are charred, some symptoms are almost like radiation poisoning, except there’s no trace of any. Where did you say he was attacked?”
“I’m sorry…” Will met her eyes. “Yes, I’d like to stay here. Do you have a blanket?”
“In the closet,” she said, with a pitying smile. Will hated pity, normally, but now he’d take all the pity in the world, if somehow it’d help Sam get better.
He walked to the closet in the far corner of the room, pulled out a fleece blanket and moved the guest chair closer to Sam’s head. He angled himself to face him, and tried to get comfortable in a position where he could rest his hand on Sam’s arm, just in case he woke up after Will fell asleep.
Will closed his eyes, tried to let himself drift to sleep, but it was impossible, his brain was churning, still spitting back everything that’d happened, and all the quiet was just making him angrier. He wanted to punch something, wanted to scream. This was after. They’d made it here, but he had no intention of being here alone.
He shoved the chair back with his legs, went down on his knees and clasped his hands together, tamping down his rage until he could speak without shouting.
“Please, help him,” Will prayed. He hadn’t prayed since he was a boy, and he felt even less confident now that someone would answer, even after everything he’d seen. “He gave everything to save this world, and you can’t-you can’t just let him die.” An angry tear slipped out on the last word, and he watched it drip off his chin and land on the back of his hand.
“You owe him. You ungrateful bastards,” Will growled. “Is this what you do? Is this your divinity? Use us to play out your wars and then let us rot when it’s all over?” Will sunk back on his heels, exhausted, and wrapped his fingers around Sam’s, which had gone stiffer and even colder. “He deserves better.”
“You’re right, he really does,” said a voice from behind him.
Will whipped his head towards the voice and found a man in doctor’s scrubs looking down at him. Not a man, considering he’d just appeared out of nowhere. And considering his smell. He had the same scent of incense, ozone and rain that Michael had. The angel had mid-length blond hair, a sad half-smile on a face clearly used to smirking, and he was looking right past Will, at Sam, with an earnest expression.
“You’re right to be worried. Man-made medicine isn’t gonna do squat for Sam,” the angel said, taking a step closer to the bed. “Not after everything he’s been through.”
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Will asked, blocking him.
The stranger’s smile looked even sadder. “Gabriel, you can call me Gabriel.”
Will scoffed. “Another angel?”
“Another archangel,” Gabriel corrected, moving past Will, and crouching down next to Sam. “We go back a ways. And I messed with Sam too, in my own way.” He pushed Sam’s limp hair away from his face. “We had our fun though, didn’t we kiddo? Or, well, I had fun.”
Will was about to interject, but Gabriel continued, and his expression went deadly serious. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. They were always going to use Sam as a pawn, just like they used me. And Lucifer, he-he was my brother, but-“ Gabriel coughed, like he was clearing his throat, an oddly human gesture for a being that could wipe out a city with a thought. “He would’ve destroyed it all. Everything. So, I guess what I’m saying is, I do owe you one.” He pushed back his sleeve and pulled a small knife out of thin air, slicing it into his palm. “We all do.” A gleaming light poured out of the wound, ran liquid into the palm of his hand, which he cupped until he was holding a small well of light. Then he brought his hand towards Sam’s mouth.
“Wait!” Will bolted forwards, grabbed hold of the angel’s wrist and tried futilely to move it away. But it was like pushing against an iron girder. There was no give, Gabriel didn’t move in the slightest. But he did look at Will, curiously. “Sam’s going to die, you get that right?”
Will nodded. “Yeah, but what are you giving him?” The light from Gabriel’s palm was blinding when he looked at it directly and it seemed to pulse from within, swirling like a tiny galaxy was trapped inside of it. As bright as Michael and Lucifer had been.
“A piece of myself,” Gabriel said. “My grace. Nothing can undo what all that demon blood’s done to Sam but this will help him...integrate it. No more withdrawal, no more deteriorating from the inside out.” His mouth curved back into a smirk. “This man shall be healed!”
“That’s great, but how do I know we can trust you?”
“You don’t. But honestly, what other choice have you got?”
“It’s not my choice, that’s the thing.” Will said, and he loosened his grip on Gabriel’s arm but didn’t let go. “It’s Sam’s choice. He’s had so much done to him, by demons, by your kind.” He looked down at Sam’s chest, watching his ventilator-powered breathing. “Can you wake him up long enough to ask him if he wants what you’re offering?”
Gabriel stared at Will for a beat and then blinked once, deliberately. “Yeah.” He closed his palm over the radiance it held, and turned toward Sam, adding, “But not for long.”
With a snap of his fingers, the tube in Sam’s throat disappeared and Sam was gulping in air, eyes open and wide with shock. “Will?” he asked, confused. “Trickster?” He sounded distinctly less than happy to see the angel.
Gabriel gave him a wave with his fingers.
“Did you want another shot at me too?” Sam asked. “Get in line.”
“Nah, this time I’m here to help. Consider it a thank-you.”
Sam looked highly dubious, and opened his mouth but then winced sharply, clearly in pain.
“Sam?” Will asked, alarmed.
“We don’t have a lot of time, my friend.”
“I’m not your friend,” Sam said.
“Fine. But I owe you a favor anyway, and I hate owing anyone anything. So, let me cut to the chase-you’re dying. Option one: I give you some of this,” he opened his hand, showing Sam a glimpse of the glowing liquid, “you get to stay alive, your body heals. Assuming you stay clean, you won’t have any other nasty withdrawal symptoms.”
“What’s option two?” Sam rasped.
“I do nothing, and your boyfriend gets to watch you die.”
Sam looked from Gabriel to Will and reached for his hand.
Will gently squeezed his fingers around Sam’s. “I wanted you to have a choice.”
With a shaking hand, Sam brought Will’s hand up to his lip and kissed his knuckles. He let go of Will, looked back up at Gabriel and asked, “No catch?”
“No catch,” Gabriel said, bringing his glowing hand towards Sam. “Well-I mean I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen to your powers. You might have none, you might have something entirely new. There’s never been anyone quite like you, Sam.” He sounded genuinely impressed. He lifted his hand further, brought it to Sam’s mouth.
Sam leaned back and the light flowed inside of him. For a moment, his veins glowed, spiderwebs of light dancing beneath his skin. Then he fell back against the pillow, eyes closed, breathing heavy and deep.
“What happened?” Will asked, his voice catching in his throat.
“There’s a cellular battle between Heaven and Hell going on in his bloodstream,” Gabriel said, gaze distant like he was watching just such a battle. Then he turned to Will, adding, “He’s sleeping, give him a minute.”
Will took Sam’s hand again, and his skin felt warm to the touch. Even the color in his cheeks had returned. He was still asleep, but he looked healthy, lungs moving up and down of their own volition, heartbeat strong and steady.
“Sam’s lucky to have you. Take good care of him, will ya?” Gabriel said, with a nod, and then he vanished.
Sam slept for another ten minutes, and then he woke, smiled at Will and brought him down into a kiss.
#
“Getting cold,” Will said, rubbing his hands together. Winston was curled up his feet, the other dogs were close by, some of them warier of the fire pit than others. Will felt sleepy after the dinner they’d had, or he would be if he wasn’t so cold. But it was too nice a night to not sit outside for a bit.
“Sun’s nearly down.” Sam grabbed the box of matches by his feet and shook it. “Not many left.” He handed the box to Will.
Will slid the box open. “Two left.” He took out one of the long matches and lit it, and brought it towards the kindling. But as he got closer, a gust of wind blew out the flame.
“One more,” Sam said, handing Will the last match. Will struck the match, shielded it again, cupping the small flame with his hand while he carefully brought it towards the kindling again. Another gust of wind came, a determined tendril of air that blew directly at Will’s hands, extinguishing the flame once more.
Will fell back on his heels, exasperated, but chuckling. He looked at Sam who was chuckling back at him. “Third time’s the charm?” Will asked, climbing back into his seat.
Sam cocked an eyebrow at him. “You sure?”
“Let’s find out,” Will said, nodding at Sam. They were having a wholly different conversation, one that was overdue. “It’s a nice night. Would be a shame to miss it.”
“Yeah, it would be,” Sam said. He leaned forward in his seat, reached out his hand and flicked two fingers towards the kindling. The twigs burst into flame, and the thicker logs above began to smolder and catch, sending the pleasing scent of burning wood into the air.
Will gave Sam a smile. “Like I said, third time’s the charm.” He waited for Sam to settle back in his chair, then reached out his hand, wrapping their fingers together. Sam gave him a smile too-one that lit up his whole face, free of the deeply etched worry lines that he’d shed one by one since felling Lucifer.
“What do you want to do tomorrow?” Sam asked, leaning back to look up at the stars.
“I don’t know,” Will said, and as he thought about it, a laugh escaped him. “Maybe work on the vegetable garden some more? But you gotta keep Winston away from the tomato plants." Sam nodded, eyes still looking up.
Will looked up too, at the myriad of stars in the sky, and started counting all the bright spots.
Will tossed and turned, trying to get his brain to unclench, but it was impossible, there was too much happening-too much at stake. He tried again to focus on Sam's breathing-Sam who had even more personally at stake than anyone else here. He'd told him once that sleeping was always a gamble, because he could have visions or dreams of what he'd done. He led an ugly life, and his dreams were even uglier. But they both needed to rest. No use trying to stop the apocalypse without fully rested minds.
He started on the trick Beverly had told him about a year ago when his insomnia had been at its worst. Tighten the toes, loosen the toes, tighten the calves, loosen the calves, and so on and so on, up the whole body until he reached the crown of his head. He made it all the way to his shoulders before sleep finally came, seeping into his brain and overriding his consciousness-spilled ink soaking into dry fibrous paper.
"Important day tomorrow," a voice said. Hannibal's voice and Lucifer's beneath it. Will whipped around but didn't see him anywhere, couldn't see anything, just empty blackness no matter where he looked. "It's likely to be your last."
"We're ready," Will said, defying both the voice in his dreams and his own self-doubt, beating like a heavy drum in time with his heartbeat.
"You're not," Hannibal said, and this time the voice sounded far less like him and more like the angel wearing him. "How can you be?"
A speck of light glowed in front of Will-a candle flame growing brighter and larger as he watched. A fireball, held in Hannibal's palm. It illuminated his face from below, giving his prominent bones a skull-like appearance. "Sam has a plan."
"Ah yes, Sam." Lucifer smiled thinly. "My true vessel." He tossed the fireball up, like one would throw a ball, and it melted into the air around them, illuminating everything with a soft yellow light. "Don't get me wrong, Hannibal is special too." He gestured down at his body. "He devoured his own soul, did you know that?"
Will shook his head.
"He was born with one, like all humans, but even as a child, he knew he had no use for one. So he expelled it, cut it into tiny pieces and consumed it. You'd think that would make him wholly compliant as a vessel, but there's a lot of fight in him. He doesn't like anyone else pulling the strings." Lucifer's smirk curved wider than Hannibal himself would ever allow. "But then, you know that better than anyone, don't you Will?"
As Lucifer took a step forward, Will took a reflexive step back.
"But tomorrow, when you and Sam come to stop me-the moment Sam says 'yes,' and lets me in, which he will, Hannibal will be free. And then we'll both have what we want."
"Sam will never say yes to you," Will said, and that much he believed wholeheartedly.
Lucifer smiled, and there was something pitying in it. He brought his hands over his face and said, "Destiny is greater than the both of you. Far, far greater." When he lowered his hands again, Sam's face was staring back at Will. "And so am I."
Will woke with a heaving gasp, heart thundering in his chest. Sam was trembling beside him. They turned to each other, and wordlessly understood that they’d both dreamed of Lucifer.
Sam slipped his arm beneath Will’s waist and pulled him in close, burying his face in Will’s hair. His tears burned hot as they trickled down his cheeks, and landed on Will’s head, mingling with his sweat.
With only a moment of hesitation, Will began to trace his fingertips lightly up and down the broad expanse of Sam’s back. He didn’t say a word-what could he say that would help? There were no words potent enough to chase away the pit of dread left behind by that dream, by that voice. But this he could do. He could draw Sam back to the here and now, and remind him with a touch that there was something worth fighting for.
Time passed in frozen seconds and sprints of minutes, as Will’s thoughts roiled, and Sam settled beside him. He could only imagine the horrors going through Sam’s mind.
Hours later, with Sam’s breathing even again, Will woke with a voice in his mind. Not Lucifer’s, though it had a similar cadence and an identical frequency.
Moving slowly, Will extracted himself gently from Sam’s hold, sat up and listened.
“Time to go,” the voice said. And there was something about it-compelling and true. A voice of command that he couldn’t have argued with, even if he’d wanted to.
So Will stood, and followed the voice down the long winding stairs, down the hallway and into Margot’s library.
Bella Crawford was there, wearing a tailored blue suit. She turned and greeted Will with a smile that wasn’t her own.
“Michael,” Will said.
“Hello, Will.”
“I want to talk to Bella.”
“She’s here, and she’s safe.”
“Then let me talk to her.”
“Later. We have more pressing things to attend to.” Michael walked to Will, and opened her hand. Inside were two rings. They gave off an energy-insidious and potent-that Will knew immediately what they were. He took a step back.
“War and Pestilence. Sam has one too, doesn’t he?”
Will nodded.
“Then we’re only missing one.” She brought her hand up to his cheek. “And you’re going to fetch it for us.”
The world tunneled around Will, and he felt himself fall, not down but through space, pulled inconceivably fast. When he could see again, he was slumped against the wall of a building, in a city he didn’t recognize.
##
Sam woke with a clouded, molasses-heavy mind-he recognized it immediately as the touch of an angel. But not Lucifer’s icy cold. This was someone else. Far too strong to be Castiel. He reached instinctively for Will, but found the other side of the bed empty. Sobering clarity hit him like a shock of cold water, and he pushed himself out of bed and headed downstairs, drawn to the library.
A woman was waiting there for him-she stood with the inhuman kind of stillness only angels had.
“Michael,” Sam said.
“The other Winchester,” Michael said, smiling-a show of teeth.
“Where’s Will?” Sam asked.
“Running an errand.”
Sam clenched and unclenched his fist. “That you sent him on?”
Michael looked down at Sam’s hand, at Famine’s ring. “Your plan will fail if you don’t have all four rings.”
“You sent Will to face a Horseman. By himself?” Sam’s heart started to pound, faster and faster.
“Death is more...reasonable than his brethren. He has no need for violence. Everyone comes to him eventually.” Michael walked closer to Sam, stopped less than two feet away. “And Will’s been courting him his entire life.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about your friend.” Michael gestured behind her at the long dark oak table. Jugs full of blood appeared on them-five of them. And though they were sealed, Sam could smell what was inside. His body ached with a bone-deep need and his veins went rigid, sticking out against his skin, like his whole circulatory system knew what was in reach. “Let’s talk about you,” she said. “And your role in all of this.”
Sam’s mouth went dry. “I can’t.”
Michael scoffed. “Spare me your protests. If you were alone in here, you’d be halfway through the first gallon by now.”
“No, I-I don’t want-“
“Of course you do. You were bred and cultivated to want it. A custom-built abomination. All so my brother could exploit the little loophole our Father left behind.”
“A loophole?”
“Angels must all take human vessels while here on Earth, but because of Lucifer’s great sin-the greatest treason committed against our Father-this ability has been denied him. But my brother is clever. He always was. He can’t take a human vessel. No ordinary human can hold him. But if the vessel is defiled, if it’s made inhuman enough, it can sustain him, for a time. And you’re the most inhuman of them all. Aren’t you, Sam?”
Sam nodded, swallowing down the bitterness at the back of his throat. “Maybe. But I’m not going to make myself even easier for him to take over.”
Michael laughed, a sharp, cutting sound. “This isn’t a contest of wills, Sam. You’ve already lost that battle. This is a question of how long you want to survive while he’s inside you.” She gestured at the gallon jugs again. “Drink up, or you’ll last a matter of seconds.”
##
Disoriented and with his heart thudding in his temples, Will walked to the corner and peered onto the street. Lots of pedestrians-but too few for New York. He scanned the skyline and the nearby street signs. “Chicago, I’m in Chicago,” he said out loud, too shocked to care if passersby thought he was out of his mind.
He walked down the block, found himself picking up his pace, like his feet knew where he was going, even though he himself hadn’t the faintest clue. It was disconcerting but inevitable, not unlike much of the rest of his life. He crossed a street, and another and that’s when he realized everyone else around him had stopped moving. They hadn’t stopped walking-they were all completely still, frozen in time, many in half-step, one foot lodged in the air. Even a pigeon had stopped, mid-flight, wings spread, only a few inches from Will’s head.
Now distinctly uneasy again, Will swallowed down his fear and looked to his right, at the door he’d stopped in front of. A pizza place, with one patron inside. An old man, who looked up and beckoned him to come in. Will opened the door and entered.
The old man was tall and thin with a curved nose and wispy black hair. There was nothing physically intimidating about him, but Will had never felt so small. The door jamb to the pizza store was like the edge of a canyon holding a black hole, that could just as easily swallow him up as scatter Will’s atoms without ever knowing he was there. He was an insect. A microbe.
“Come join me, Will,” Death said. “The pizza’s delicious.”
The chair leg squeaked against the linoleum as Will pulled it out, shockingly loud in the otherwise silent pizzeria. He sat and slid closer to the table, there was a plate and napkin set out for him.
Death gestured to the pan of pizza and waited for Will to help himself to a slice.
Will took a bite, since that seemed like the only polite thing to do. “This really is good,” Will admitted.
Death nodded. “From your perspective, this meeting is long overdue, isn’t it?”
“It is?”
“You’ve been following me your entire life.”
“So you kindly stopped for me?”
Death gave him a look that made Will’s heart sink to his toes, but then he smiled, ever so slightly. “That I did. You’re interested in stopping Lucifer, I’m inclined to give you this.” He raised his hand and slid off his ring, placing it in Will’s palm. “Don’t fail.”
“I intend not to.”
Death let out a humorless huff. “You’ll need more than intent. Make sure everyone plays their part. Including Sam.”
Will swallowed. “Is he going to survive this?”
“I’d say his chances are just as good as yours.”
“That’s not particularly encouraging.” The look Death leveled at him made it clear he was dancing on a line, so Will kept the rest of his more opinionated thoughts to himself. “Happen to know where I could get a cab-“
Death nodded his chin ever so slightly, and the world folded in on itself once again.
“--home?” Will finished, and he found himself, standing once again in Margot’s library, with Sam by his side, looking both deeply upset and relieved.
“The errand boy returns,” Michael said, plucking the ring from Will’s hand.
“Are you okay?” Sam asked. “Michael said-“
“Death didn’t exactly welcome me like an old friend,” Will admitted, “but he was...agreeable.” He noticed Sam’s eyes drifting, focusing on something behind him, so he followed his gaze and saw what was on the table. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Yeah,” Sam said, breathless. “Michael insists I need that much to hold Lucifer.”
“For how long?” Will asked.
Sam swallowed. “Long enough for us to take him down.”
Will stepped between them, like he was shielding Sam from the angel. “No, we’ll find another way.”
“We could attempt another way, but I assure you they will fail.” Michael bowed her head. “I can see the infinite ways this plays out and there is only one where we succeed.”
That took Will’s breath away. He had thought the archangels were evenly matched.
“We would be evenly matched, Will, if we both had our true vessels,” Michael’s lips curved into a sneer. “And if Sam had not been enhanced. Lucifer has stacked the odds in his favor.”
“But then giving him Sam is the worst thing we can do!” Will shouted, doubly annoyed because the angel had read his mind. “You just said it yourself.”
Michael gave Will an overly patronizing smile. “He’ll think he’s already won. That’s what we need him to think. By taking him in, Sam gives us the opportunity we need.
A moment of weakness, which Lucifer is not prone to.”
“How does giving him his true vessel, amped up on gallons of blood, lead to a moment of weakness?” Will asked, feeling more suspicious by the minute. Something was wrong.
“Because inside a vessel, no matter how powerful, he can be killed,” Michael said, matter-of-factly.
Sam’s expression flickered from shock to resigned acceptance so quickly it made Will’s head spin.
“No, no-that means, Sam has to die so Lucifer can die?”
“We only become tangible in this world when we are joined with a vessel, at the moment we connect and start to merge.”
“So, we kill him while he’s still inside Hannibal!” Will shouted.
“If you get the chance, you can certainly try,” Michael said, voice full of false pity.
“We have to get him to come to us,” Sam said. “And I’m the bait.”
“No,” Will said firmly. “We both are. Lucifer will come for you, but Hannibal will come for me. If we distract them both, then we can take them both down.”
“Clever.” Michael walked closer. “It’s a good plan considering how limited your minds are. But don’t worry, I’ve got a better one.”
Sam scoffed, looking more annoyed now than resigned. “Of course you do.”
Michael leveled her cold gaze at him. “Yes. Of course I do.”
“Are you...going to tell us this plan?” Will asked, rapidly losing his patience.
“No. I’m going to make sure you forget everything except what you need to know to reach your destination.”
“What?” Will glared at her. “Why?”
“Because, you simple animal. If he senses I’m coming, he’ll act accordingly. If he knows you have the rings, he’ll be looking for them.”
Sam curled his hand in protectively, shielding Famine’s ring from Michael’s view.
“Don’t worry. I won’t take that from you yet,” Michael said. “You can’t do anything to Lucifer with just one. And you’ve been relying on its magic for too long. If I took it, even if I wiped your memory of it, you’d still know something was missing.” She brought her hands up and touched their foreheads. “You’re going to confront him because of your misplaced arrogance. You think you’re strong enough to defeat him all on your own. Or that you will be, once Sam downs all those gallons of filthy blood. You’re going to leave right now, take one of the cars in that garage and drive here.”
An image flickered in Will’s mind, along with a spot on a map. A national park nearly two hundred miles away. He turned to Sam, the two of them were alone in the library, as they had been for an hour now. They knew where to go and what to do.
“Let’s go,” Sam said, heading for the table. He picked up four of the gallons, two in each hand.
“I’ll get the last one,” Will said, and followed Sam out into the hall, towards the door that led to the garage.
##
“You change your mind?” Sam asked. He’d opened the locked car easily, overriding its alarm, and it was up and running. “Sorry, you know I’d drive if I could.”
“No, it’s not that-I know I’m the designated driver,” Will said. “It’s just-this feels wrong.”
“Of course it does. Stealing always feels wrong. I’d tell you we could bring this back after, but I don’t know how it’s gonna play out.” Sam sounded tired, and angry. And his eyes kept flicking to the back seats, where they’d lined the jugs up along the floor. He’d have to drink them along the way. “The car is kind of the least of our worries, you know?”
“Easier for you to say,” Margot said, from behind them.
Will turned around in shock. “Margot, we uh-“
“You’re about to steal my car.” Margot, Sam noted, was half-dressed, still buttoning up a nightshirt, and her bare feet were covered in dirt. She’d been out, likely in wolf form.
“We just need to borrow one,” Sam started. “We have to go, now, to-“
“To go do something stupid and get yourselves killed.”
“That’s an outcome we’re trying to avoid,” Will said.
“You’re going to face Lucifer, right? With what-that ring?”
“And something else,” Sam said.
Margot looked passed him, glancing at the jugs. “Is that blood? What’d you do, raid the abattoirs?”
It took Sam a second to figure out what she was referring to, his brain already too fixated on what he had to do. “It’s not pig’s blood.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “How’d you find that many demons?”
Sam couldn’t answer and shook his head.
“Sorry, Margot, we really have to get moving,” Will said, heading to the driver’s side.
“What? No way you’re taking my car. And no way you’re doing this alone!” Margot took Will by the arm. “I’m coming with you. You can’t talk me out of it. You know what I can do.”
“But-Alana, Beverly-“
“They can both handle themselves. I’ll tell them we had to deal with shapeshifter business.”
Will gave her a look.
“What? That’s not entirely inaccurate, is it?”
“Well, no, but-“
“Get in the back, both of you.”
#
If he’d had a choice, he would have preferred to do this in complete solitude, to not let any of them see. Will graciously turned away and looked out the window, hand still resting softly on Sam’s thigh. It was meant to be reassuring, but Sam couldn’t accept it as such, despite the intent. With three more gallons of poisonous power left to consume, he didn’t want to be touched at all, least of all by someone who cared for him. Will’s fingers prickled at him through the denim, reminders of what he could have if he wasn’t such a-
But they were only a few hours from their destination, and Sam’s chance at isolated shame and feigned dignity had come and gone. Everyone in this car knew what he was, and accepted him anyway, and he was so damn tired of hating himself. He brought the third gallon jug up to his lips and swallowed deep.
#
“We’re about an hour away,” Margot said, as she pulled into the gas station. “I need a coffee. Anybody else need a pit stop, now’s your last chance.”
Sam heard her voice, but couldn’t quite focus on it fast enough to comprehend the words. “Coffee,” he repeated.
“Want one?” Will asked, smiling at him.
Sam shook his head. He had another half gallon left to go. And he’d already gone way past intoxicated bliss into agony and back again, too many times to count. His skin felt numb, insulated from the outside like a coat of wax on a fingertip. But on the inside he was burning; his body was too small to hold the force inside of him. If he let his mind drift, he could feel and hear and see his own agitated atoms, see them expanding and colliding, trying to fill more space than they were allowed.
There was lightning in his veins, prickling up his arms and into his brain. He could hear himself breathing in gasps, saw how Will had tensed besides him. He tried to shrink further in on himself, give Will more room but moving made Sam even more aware of his subcomponents so he stayed still, eyes scanning the air until they found a dust mote, glimmering in the soft yellow of the rising sun. He tracked the speck, and saw its past -dust-skin-dog fur-Winston. “Winston’s been in this car,” he said.
Will’s mouth formed a surprised little o. “He has?” His brow furrowed and he struggled to hide his concern, but Sam could see his atoms too-could see the whole of him-the parts he kept hidden and the parts he showed, and all of them were beautiful-an iridescent swirling miasma of light and dark.
Sam reached his hand out towards Will, touched him on the cheek, watched Will’s eyelids flutter, watched the atoms bounce and shimmer with each tiny movement. He felt himself drawn inexorably towards Will and brought their lips together, gently, feeling the way they intermingled-he breathed Will in-the scent of him-felt his light infuse his own demon-tainted soul and imagined those atoms changing the shape of his own. If Will was there after all this was over, he’d find his way back. He could come up for air again. But for now, he had to hold his breath and go all the way under.
“I leave you two alone for five minutes…” Margot said as she got back in the driver’s seat.
Will blushed, the heat flickering in the air around his cheeks and the tips of his ears, and he looked even more beautiful, Sam thought. But the moment had passed, and as Margot started the car, the countdown clock in his mind started with it. An hour left. An hour until Lucifer. They had a chance to stop him and save the world.
Sam reached down for the last half gallon. He paused after unscrewing the lid, staring at the blood. He could see its subcomponents, too-the plasma, the red and white cells and the flickers of power that danced between them-the bits of corrupted soul. When he looked at himself he could see his own soul shining beneath his skin, but it had gotten dimmer.
Will put his hand on Sam’s thigh, and Will’s light was blindingly bright. But as he touched Sam, his own light grew stronger. “When we make it through this,” Will said. “I want to go back to the cabin. I want to take all the dogs back to our home. I want to go to sleep next to you, and wake up next to you in the morning.”
Sam tried to hold back his tears, because he wanted that too, more than anything. But it didn’t feel real. The jug in his hand felt real. The weight of what was inside, the building pressure in his veins, the double-vision of the physical world and the layers in-between. He was ready to sacrifice himself, if that meant saving the world. He’d been ready. But the selfish part of him still wanted a happy ending. Even if he didn’t deserve one. “Me too,” he said, voice quiet and shaky.
Then he brought the jug to his lips and drank.
#
The sky was a pale blue by the time they got to the nature reserve. The air was cold and crisp, and the leaves crunched beneath their feet as they left the car and started heading uphill.
When they got about halfway up, Sam felt Lucifer. He could feel him, the air itself colder and somehow more solid with every step. He stopped, closed his eyes for a beat, working his nerve up again. “He’s here. He knows we’re here.”
“We figured as much, didn’t we?” Margot asked. Her voice was rock-steady, but her steely expression wavered. She was nervous, too. They all were.
The world around them flickered, and they were at the top of the hill. A cliff overlooking the miles of forest below.
“You know they call this the Devil’s Needle,” Lucifer said, back towards them. “Because of its curved peak. Like I crochet or something.” He spun on his heel casually and smiled. “Sam. It’s good to see you again. And Will-my, my Hannibal has told me a lot about you.” He turned to Margot. “And who are you supposed to be?”
“I’m the muscle,” she said, smiling pleasantly.
Lucifer laughed. “Now that I’d like to see.”
“Wait.”
A branch snapped behind them, and Sam looked over his shoulder. There were demons walking towards them; six of them in total came to stand in a half circle behind them, blocking their escape.
Lucifer flicked his eyes back to Sam. “You didn’t come here to look at the foliage, did you?”
Keeping his eyes on Lucifer, Sam took hold of all six demons, latching his power onto their souls, and with an ease that should have scared him, but didn’t, extinguished them. He felt, rather than saw, their eyes and mouths light up gold, their souls burn, and their bodies drop as one, slumping boneless to the ground.
Next to him, Will’s breath hitched. Sam caught the way his eyes flicked to him, steeled himself for a look of horror or fear. But all he saw in Will was awe tinged with concern.
“Been drinking your Ovaltine, have you?” Lucifer said, lips curling.
Sam nodded. “I’m here to say yes.”
Lucifer scoffed. “Just like that. No ulterior motive.”
“Of course there’s an ulterior motive,” Will said. “Sam’s not a fool.”
“Yet you play me for one.” Lucifer arched an eyebrow. “Hannibal warned me that you were more dangerous than you seemed. The mongoose beneath the porch, isn’t that right?”
Will kept his mouth shut.
“Well, surely you have some kind of attack plan, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” Lucifer smiled at Margot. “You have no idea what’s going on, you’re just here for the meat, I respect that.” He turned back to Will. “And you-you keep hoping desperately that Sam has some plan he hasn’t told you about, because you know the one you have is going to fail. Oooh.” He pursed his lips. “How fatalistic of you.”
“I trust Sam,” Will said. “And we’re not going to let him take you on alone.”
“I’m curious, what do you two think you’re going to accomplish exactly?” Lucifer said. “Other than being fodder, I mean.”
“They’re not fodder,” Sam said, anxiety growing as the massive well of power in him swirled, aching to be freed. Something about the proximity to Lucifer made his whole body go into fight-or-flight mode. But his blood knew that fight was the only option left, and it was ready.
“Right, because of your gifts? The ones I gave you?” Lucifer’s smirk curved as he narrowed his eyes. “I’m no demon, Sam. Your power will never work on me.” He glanced down at Sam’s hand. “And you’ve got one of the keys to my cage. Well done.”
Something squirmed in the back of Sam’s mind-a fraction of a memory. He didn’t only have the one ring. Somebody else-but a sharp pain cut through his line of thought and he remembered what he’d come here to do. He had to give Will and Margot an opening. When Lucifer was distracted, when he was entered Sam, then they’d take him down and then-
"The ring is more than just a key," Will said. "It gives Sam more control."
Lucifer scoffed and turned his attention back to Sam. "You think that’s what this is about? Control? Your will? Sam, you're the moth, I’m the sun. You can’t help but fly towards me, and your will is entirely irrelevant."
“I’m saying yes, because it’s the only way to stop you.”
“Pardon?” Lucifer laughed. “You do remember the part about you being my true vessel, and why I want you.”
“I remember. You said you wouldn’t lie to me and you wouldn’t trick me. That you’d give me anything. And what I want is for you to stop slaughtering innocent people. You want to take on the other angels? Fine. But leave humanity out of it.”
“Humanity is collateral damage, Sam.”
“Not to me.”
Lucifer took in a deep breath, looking annoyed, and exhaled. “Fine. You say yes, and we’ll go after the angels.”
“Okay then,” Sam swallowed. He felt Will watching him, reached out for him mentally and felt his fear, his hope, his love. Sam's heart pounded in his chest and he steeled himself. They were going to make it through this. They had to take Lucifer down, and this was the only way. He looked Lucifer in the eyes and said, “Yes.”
Lucifer's smile changed then into something very different and far scarier. Satisfaction. He leaned back, and light streamed from Hannibal's body, shooting out of his eyes and mouth. The light rushed towards Sam, a river coursing from Hannibal into him. Sam felt Lucifer collide with him, felt his cells fill with frost. His eyes were blinded by Lucifer's brilliance, but his amplified senses kept sending him information on everything else around him-Margot and Will shed their human forms, and rushed forward on all fours, lunging at Hannibal.
Without fanfare, without light or sound, or little more than a soft rippling in the air, Michael appeared behind Hannibal, and grabbed him by the shoulders. Lucifer's light stopped flowing into Sam, stuck, mid-transition, pinned in place by Michael. He struggled, and screamed and without a human body, his voice was omnipresent and cacophonous-broken bells and shattering glass. Sam brought his hands up to cover his ears and stumbled backwards, coughing-expelling the part of Lucifer that had started to enter him. It left his insides feeling cold and shaken, but they were his alone again.
Michael nodded towards Sam and something metallic appeared in front of him, hovering in the air, less than a foot away from his face. For a moment Sam stared at them, confounded, but then a dam in the back of his mind broke and the memories came rushing back. The other three Horsemen's rings: War, Pestilence and Death. The rings were interconnected with an open gap for the fourth. Sam felt the ring on his hand respond and it was torn off of him, by an impossibly strong magnetic pull. Famine's ring snapped into place with the other three and the completed metal circle fell to the ground.
The four rings are a key. With the key, we can open the gate to Lucifer's cage. Sam's thoughts were still muddled, but the words he needed came to him clearly, "Beh voh tah mo en, tah beh geh sah." The ground in front of him began to rumble. "Bah bah loh en!" he finished. The rings glowed and the ground beneath them crumbled away.
Lucifer struggled more, a writhing serpent of light stuck midway leaving Hannibal, the front end of him hovering above the now-open gate. He reared away from it, out of the range of its pull. Something silver and sharp manifested in Hannibal's hand and he brought it up towards Michael, but she saw, shoved her shoulder against the broad part of the blade and sent it flying. Lucifer's light collapsed in on itself and he sunk back inside of Hannibal. Will and Margot grabbed him by the legs, Will pinning him with his antlers, Margot using her jaws. They began to drag him forward, towards the gate. But Lucifer fought back, and with a blast of power and sent them both flying. They landed on opposite sides of the gate, scrambling to get back to their feet.
Michael lost her grip on Lucifer, but only for a moment. She wrapped one arm around his waist, the other around his neck and unfolded her wings, spanning them out wide-they came ablaze with golden fire, arcing up until they blocked out the trees and everything around them.
Sam, momentarily blinded by her brilliance, came to his senses, grabbed the silver sword from the ground and leapt over the gate, landing right next to Lucifer. Sam could feel Lucifer straining to get free, could see that he was starting to break loose from Michael’s hold, so Sam grabbed onto Lucifer with his power-the same way he’d hold a demon, only a thousand times harder, then he swung the sword down, plunging its tapered tip deep into Hannibal’s chest. The archangel’s eyes widened in shock, his mouth dropped open and he gasped as pure light streamed out of him, exploding up into the sky, bright enough to make even Michael’s wings dim in comparison.
Shielding his eyes, Sam clung to the sword, kept pushing it in with all his might as though if he let go, all his effort would be undone. But then the light went out, like a switch had been flipped. Sam stepped aside and Hannibal fell forward, hanging over the edge of the gate. Will and Margot raced forward and kicked out with their forelegs, sending Hannibal hurtling down into the gaping pit.
The gate closed with an audible snap and the air went still. Will and Margot both began to shift back into their human forms. Michael's wings had vanished, and she stood looking at the patch of ground with an inscrutable expression.
"Thank you," Sam said, looking at all three of them.
Will gave him a smile. "I think we should be thanking you."
Michael's expression turned dour. "This is not how it was prophesied."
"But it's over," Sam said. The adrenaline was starting to leave his system and his limbs felt jittery and weak. But it was over. It was finally over.
With a huff, Michael nodded, begrudgingly. Then she opened her mouth, light poured from out and the sky became a supernova.
When the light finally faded, Bella was on the ground, looking up at the three of them. "Will?" She pushed herself to her feet. "Why are you naked?"
Will let out a surprised laugh, full of relief and Sam went to help her up, but with his first two steps, everything went off kilter. The world tumbled up towards him. His legs gave out, his heart stuttered to a halt and took everything else with it.
##
Will was so focused on Sam, he barely noticed when Margot draped a blanket over his shoulders. Sam was unconscious-alive and breathing after CPR, but his breaths were too shallow and his heartbeat erratic.
“What happened to him?” Alana asked, suddenly there, along with Beverly and Jack. Will tore his gaze away from Sam and saw Jack pulling Bella into a tight hug. Bella was smiling, ear to ear.
“I’m not sure,” Will said. “Maybe it’s because he lost the ring, or whatever Lucifer did.”
“We’ll get him to a hospital. Might not be able to help him completely, but it’s a start.”
Will nodded.
“We’ll get a helicopter,” she said. “With a stretcher.”
#
Alana got in the medical helicopter with Will and Sam. She answered the pilot’s questions and they took off, headed towards the nearest city hospital.
They sat in silence for a bit, before she said, “So, Hannibal’s dead.”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?” She raised an eyebrow, “Margot said-“
“I’m not exactly an expert in Hell portals,” Will said. “But he was still alive when we threw him in.”
“Can he get out?”
“My understanding is, not easily.” Will nodded to himself. He wanted to feel more relieved, the threat of Hannibal-if not eliminated at least severely reduced for the time being-but all he could think about was Sam’s sallow skin and the ugly truth the heart monitor showed him.
#
“Sir, I assure you, we’ve done all we can for now.”
Will heard the words, but couldn’t quite get himself to respond. His gaze was still glued to Sam in the hospital bed-the tubes running down his throat and into his hand. He’d never seen such a large man look so small.
“Let him rest, and get some rest yourself.”
Will turned to stare at the nurse, his brain recognizing that maybe if he looked at her, her words would make more sense. “We’ll run some more tests in the morning, but for now all we can do is keep him comfortable.”
Will blinked at her, sifting through the barrage of looping, jumbled memories from the last few hours. The battle, Sam collapsing, the admitting nurse grilling him on what illegal substance Sam had been taking, ”Nothing you’ve ever heard of,” the doctor’s face as she rattled off all of Sam’s failing organs one by one, ”Advanced renal failure, his heart has started to calcify, and his lungs are charred, some symptoms are almost like radiation poisoning, except there’s no trace of any. Where did you say he was attacked?”
“I’m sorry…” Will met her eyes. “Yes, I’d like to stay here. Do you have a blanket?”
“In the closet,” she said, with a pitying smile. Will hated pity, normally, but now he’d take all the pity in the world, if somehow it’d help Sam get better.
He walked to the closet in the far corner of the room, pulled out a fleece blanket and moved the guest chair closer to Sam’s head. He angled himself to face him, and tried to get comfortable in a position where he could rest his hand on Sam’s arm, just in case he woke up after Will fell asleep.
Will closed his eyes, tried to let himself drift to sleep, but it was impossible, his brain was churning, still spitting back everything that’d happened, and all the quiet was just making him angrier. He wanted to punch something, wanted to scream. This was after. They’d made it here, but he had no intention of being here alone.
He shoved the chair back with his legs, went down on his knees and clasped his hands together, tamping down his rage until he could speak without shouting.
“Please, help him,” Will prayed. He hadn’t prayed since he was a boy, and he felt even less confident now that someone would answer, even after everything he’d seen. “He gave everything to save this world, and you can’t-you can’t just let him die.” An angry tear slipped out on the last word, and he watched it drip off his chin and land on the back of his hand.
“You owe him. You ungrateful bastards,” Will growled. “Is this what you do? Is this your divinity? Use us to play out your wars and then let us rot when it’s all over?” Will sunk back on his heels, exhausted, and wrapped his fingers around Sam’s, which had gone stiffer and even colder. “He deserves better.”
“You’re right, he really does,” said a voice from behind him.
Will whipped his head towards the voice and found a man in doctor’s scrubs looking down at him. Not a man, considering he’d just appeared out of nowhere. And considering his smell. He had the same scent of incense, ozone and rain that Michael had. The angel had mid-length blond hair, a sad half-smile on a face clearly used to smirking, and he was looking right past Will, at Sam, with an earnest expression.
“You’re right to be worried. Man-made medicine isn’t gonna do squat for Sam,” the angel said, taking a step closer to the bed. “Not after everything he’s been through.”
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Will asked, blocking him.
The stranger’s smile looked even sadder. “Gabriel, you can call me Gabriel.”
Will scoffed. “Another angel?”
“Another archangel,” Gabriel corrected, moving past Will, and crouching down next to Sam. “We go back a ways. And I messed with Sam too, in my own way.” He pushed Sam’s limp hair away from his face. “We had our fun though, didn’t we kiddo? Or, well, I had fun.”
Will was about to interject, but Gabriel continued, and his expression went deadly serious. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. They were always going to use Sam as a pawn, just like they used me. And Lucifer, he-he was my brother, but-“ Gabriel coughed, like he was clearing his throat, an oddly human gesture for a being that could wipe out a city with a thought. “He would’ve destroyed it all. Everything. So, I guess what I’m saying is, I do owe you one.” He pushed back his sleeve and pulled a small knife out of thin air, slicing it into his palm. “We all do.” A gleaming light poured out of the wound, ran liquid into the palm of his hand, which he cupped until he was holding a small well of light. Then he brought his hand towards Sam’s mouth.
“Wait!” Will bolted forwards, grabbed hold of the angel’s wrist and tried futilely to move it away. But it was like pushing against an iron girder. There was no give, Gabriel didn’t move in the slightest. But he did look at Will, curiously. “Sam’s going to die, you get that right?”
Will nodded. “Yeah, but what are you giving him?” The light from Gabriel’s palm was blinding when he looked at it directly and it seemed to pulse from within, swirling like a tiny galaxy was trapped inside of it. As bright as Michael and Lucifer had been.
“A piece of myself,” Gabriel said. “My grace. Nothing can undo what all that demon blood’s done to Sam but this will help him...integrate it. No more withdrawal, no more deteriorating from the inside out.” His mouth curved back into a smirk. “This man shall be healed!”
“That’s great, but how do I know we can trust you?”
“You don’t. But honestly, what other choice have you got?”
“It’s not my choice, that’s the thing.” Will said, and he loosened his grip on Gabriel’s arm but didn’t let go. “It’s Sam’s choice. He’s had so much done to him, by demons, by your kind.” He looked down at Sam’s chest, watching his ventilator-powered breathing. “Can you wake him up long enough to ask him if he wants what you’re offering?”
Gabriel stared at Will for a beat and then blinked once, deliberately. “Yeah.” He closed his palm over the radiance it held, and turned toward Sam, adding, “But not for long.”
With a snap of his fingers, the tube in Sam’s throat disappeared and Sam was gulping in air, eyes open and wide with shock. “Will?” he asked, confused. “Trickster?” He sounded distinctly less than happy to see the angel.
Gabriel gave him a wave with his fingers.
“Did you want another shot at me too?” Sam asked. “Get in line.”
“Nah, this time I’m here to help. Consider it a thank-you.”
Sam looked highly dubious, and opened his mouth but then winced sharply, clearly in pain.
“Sam?” Will asked, alarmed.
“We don’t have a lot of time, my friend.”
“I’m not your friend,” Sam said.
“Fine. But I owe you a favor anyway, and I hate owing anyone anything. So, let me cut to the chase-you’re dying. Option one: I give you some of this,” he opened his hand, showing Sam a glimpse of the glowing liquid, “you get to stay alive, your body heals. Assuming you stay clean, you won’t have any other nasty withdrawal symptoms.”
“What’s option two?” Sam rasped.
“I do nothing, and your boyfriend gets to watch you die.”
Sam looked from Gabriel to Will and reached for his hand.
Will gently squeezed his fingers around Sam’s. “I wanted you to have a choice.”
With a shaking hand, Sam brought Will’s hand up to his lip and kissed his knuckles. He let go of Will, looked back up at Gabriel and asked, “No catch?”
“No catch,” Gabriel said, bringing his glowing hand towards Sam. “Well-I mean I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen to your powers. You might have none, you might have something entirely new. There’s never been anyone quite like you, Sam.” He sounded genuinely impressed. He lifted his hand further, brought it to Sam’s mouth.
Sam leaned back and the light flowed inside of him. For a moment, his veins glowed, spiderwebs of light dancing beneath his skin. Then he fell back against the pillow, eyes closed, breathing heavy and deep.
“What happened?” Will asked, his voice catching in his throat.
“There’s a cellular battle between Heaven and Hell going on in his bloodstream,” Gabriel said, gaze distant like he was watching just such a battle. Then he turned to Will, adding, “He’s sleeping, give him a minute.”
Will took Sam’s hand again, and his skin felt warm to the touch. Even the color in his cheeks had returned. He was still asleep, but he looked healthy, lungs moving up and down of their own volition, heartbeat strong and steady.
“Sam’s lucky to have you. Take good care of him, will ya?” Gabriel said, with a nod, and then he vanished.
Sam slept for another ten minutes, and then he woke, smiled at Will and brought him down into a kiss.
#
“Getting cold,” Will said, rubbing his hands together. Winston was curled up his feet, the other dogs were close by, some of them warier of the fire pit than others. Will felt sleepy after the dinner they’d had, or he would be if he wasn’t so cold. But it was too nice a night to not sit outside for a bit.
“Sun’s nearly down.” Sam grabbed the box of matches by his feet and shook it. “Not many left.” He handed the box to Will.
Will slid the box open. “Two left.” He took out one of the long matches and lit it, and brought it towards the kindling. But as he got closer, a gust of wind blew out the flame.
“One more,” Sam said, handing Will the last match. Will struck the match, shielded it again, cupping the small flame with his hand while he carefully brought it towards the kindling again. Another gust of wind came, a determined tendril of air that blew directly at Will’s hands, extinguishing the flame once more.
Will fell back on his heels, exasperated, but chuckling. He looked at Sam who was chuckling back at him. “Third time’s the charm?” Will asked, climbing back into his seat.
Sam cocked an eyebrow at him. “You sure?”
“Let’s find out,” Will said, nodding at Sam. They were having a wholly different conversation, one that was overdue. “It’s a nice night. Would be a shame to miss it.”
“Yeah, it would be,” Sam said. He leaned forward in his seat, reached out his hand and flicked two fingers towards the kindling. The twigs burst into flame, and the thicker logs above began to smolder and catch, sending the pleasing scent of burning wood into the air.
Will gave Sam a smile. “Like I said, third time’s the charm.” He waited for Sam to settle back in his chair, then reached out his hand, wrapping their fingers together. Sam gave him a smile too-one that lit up his whole face, free of the deeply etched worry lines that he’d shed one by one since felling Lucifer.
“What do you want to do tomorrow?” Sam asked, leaning back to look up at the stars.
“I don’t know,” Will said, and as he thought about it, a laugh escaped him. “Maybe work on the vegetable garden some more? But you gotta keep Winston away from the tomato plants." Sam nodded, eyes still looking up.
Will looked up too, at the myriad of stars in the sky, and started counting all the bright spots.