Destiny ~ Dean Winchester (love story), part two

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xAngie POVx

We descended slowly, our footsteps muffled by the weight of the unknown. I could feel my pulse hammering with every step, a mixture of fear and resolve brewing in my chest. I wasn't sure what state we'd find Cas in, I just knew that he'd 100% be down there, and part of me braced myself for the worst.

Maybe that would've been a reason not to bring Keza: Seeing Cas tortured or half dead would mark her forever.

At the bottom, a faint light seeped from the opening of a stone corridor. We rounded the corner, and my heart dropped. Castiel stood in the center of a circle, surrounded by a ring of fire. The flames were eerily low yet steady, licking the air just high enough to trap him. His face, usually so calm, looked haunted, as if he'd been battling his own inner demons on top of his actual confinement.

"Cas!" Keza's voice broke the silence, relief flooding her features as she rushed forward but stopped just shy of the flames.

Cas's head lifted, and a glimmer of hope sparked in his weary blue eyes as he saw them. "Keza... Angie..." His voice was barely more than a rasp, cracked and hoarse. "You shouldn't have come here. It's dangerous."

"Dangerous is our middle name, apparently," I muttered, edging closer to the fire. I could feel the heat prickling my skin. It pulsed faintly, some kind of binding spell keeping him trapped. It was crazy how that knowledge just came instinctively to me, without anyone ever having to teach me. If anything, Isabel had always tried to make me shut that part away. "What is this?"

"They bound me with the same oil that we used to trap Raphael, only that she somehow hexed it to never burn down" Cas explained, looking down at the markings with something between disdain and resignation. "Meg... she set this up. I can't break it alone."

Keza's eyes filled with a fierce determination, her fingers grazing the edge of the flames as if her touch alone could free him. "How do we get you out?"

"Water might extinguish it, but there are wards too," Cas replied, his voice low. "I would need to pour the water from inside the circle."

"Can't we just.. I don't know throw the water over the flames?"

"There are even wards above and underneath him.", I answered for Cas, feeling the spell completely surrounding him.

Fuck, Meg sure meant for this trap to hold on. 

I glanced up, catching Cas's gaze, and in that instant, I saw the sheer exhaustion in his eyes, the weight of the countless battles he'd fought. But there was also a softness there, a vulnerability he only showed around the people he trusted. I felt an ache in her chest, knowing how much he meant to Keza, knowing that she'd risked everything to come here.

"We'll get you out," I promised, my voice quiet but certain. 

Cas couldn't cross the fire, the water couldn't either to get inside of the ring. It was an impossible situation, a paradoxe. If only-

"Cas? What if someone could come inside with the water? Would that work?"

"Only Lucifer might cross."

The flames danced and hissed with an eerie permanence around Castiel, their heat oppressive even from the outer edge. The church's basement air felt heavy with old stone and damp rot, but all I could focus on was that unbroken ring of fire—and the hollow feeling settling deep in my chest. This was our only option.

Keza looked over at her, as if sensing the decision simmering in my mind. "What are you thinking?" she asked, her voice low, tense.

"When we trapped Raphael, I fell over the fire and nothing happened, remember?"