Heart of a Hunter

26. Into The Dark

                                              Dean's POV:

As we sped down the empty road, the Impala's engine rumbling beneath us, I could feel the tension hanging heavy in the car. Sam had one hand on the wheel, his jaw clenched, while Blair sat next to him, staring out the window, her face pale and tight. I kept glancing between them, watching the way Sam's hand would drift over to rest on hers every few minutes, like he was trying to reassure her without words.

It made me uneasy. Not that Sam was in love with Blair—I'd come to terms with that, even if the whole thing made me a little queasy—but because of everything that came with it. Love in our world? It didn't end well. I'd seen it too many times, and it always felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. With the Arcani breathing down our necks, the stakes were higher than ever.

Still, there was something about the way Sam looked at her, and the way she looked back at him, that made me keep my mouth shut. If Sam could find some light in all this darkness, I wasn't about to stand in the way. But that didn't mean I wasn't keeping an eye on things.

I leaned back in my seat, crossing my arms as I watched the landscape blur by outside. We were heading to some hidden library Lucas had told us about, buried beneath an old, abandoned church a few hours out of town. It sounded like the kind of place where bad things happened, the kind of place where we'd find more than dusty old books.

That was just how our luck worked.

"So," I said, breaking the silence that had been hanging over us for the past hour. "This church we're headed to. How much you wanna bet it's crawling with nasties?"

Sam glanced at me in the rearview mirror, his face still serious. "Doesn't matter. If the records on Blair's family and the Arcani are there, we're going in."

Blair shifted slightly in her seat, her fingers tightening around Sam's. "Do you really think we'll find answers in that library?"

Her voice was soft, and I could hear the fear under the surface, even though she was doing a damn good job of keeping it together. I didn't blame her. She'd just found out her whole family was tied to some ancient prophecy, and now she was being hunted by a group that had probably been manipulating things behind the scenes since before we were even born.

Sam glanced at her, his expression softening. "If there's any chance those records can tell us where the seal is, we have to try."

I watched them for a second, feeling that uneasy twist in my gut again. Sam was in deep with Blair, and that worried me. He'd always been the one to wear his heart on his sleeve, and in this life, that could get you killed—or worse.

But I wasn't about to be the one to rain on his parade. Not yet.

Instead, I shrugged, my voice casual. "Hey, worst case scenario, we find a few dusty old books, maybe run into some ghosts. It wouldn't be the first time."

Blair gave me a small smile, but I could see the tension in her eyes. She wasn't just scared of what we'd find in that library—she was scared of what it would mean for her. What it would mean for her past, for her future. Hell, for everything she thought she knew about herself.

The Arcani were dangerous enough on their own, but the fact that they'd targeted Blair's family because of some prophecy? That was a whole new level of messed up. And the more we dug into it, the worse it was going to get. I knew that. Sam knew that. Blair... well, she was about to find out.

We rode in silence for a while longer, the road stretching out in front of us like a long, dark tunnel with no end in sight. Eventually, we pulled off the main road onto a narrow, overgrown path that led into the woods. The church Lucas had mentioned was supposedly hidden deep in the forest, long abandoned and forgotten by everyone—except for the Arcani, apparently.

As the Impala crept down the bumpy road, the trees closed in around us, their branches reaching out like skeletal fingers. The light filtering through the canopy was dim, casting long shadows across the path, and the deeper we went, the more I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"This place gives me the creeps," I muttered, glancing out the window. "Perfect spot for a secret stash of ancient prophecy records."

Sam shot me a look, his lips pressed into a thin line. "You can say that again."

We finally came to a stop in front of the church—or what was left of it. The building was old, the stone walls crumbling and covered in moss, the roof sagging in places where it hadn't already caved in. The front doors hung crooked on their hinges, like they'd been left to rot years ago. There was something about the place that felt wrong, like the air was thicker, heavier, the silence oppressive.

Blair stared up at the church, her face pale, her eyes wide. "This is it?"

"Looks like it," Sam said, turning off the engine and glancing at me. "You ready?"

I cracked my neck and stepped out of the car, feeling the cool air hit me like a slap to the face. "Ready as I'll ever be."

We grabbed our gear—salt, iron, holy water, the usual—and headed toward the church. Blair stuck close to Sam's side, her eyes darting around like she expected something to jump out at us any second. I couldn't blame her. The whole place had the kind of vibe that screamed, get out while you still can.

But we didn't have that luxury. We had to find those records.

"Stay close," I said, leading the way up the broken stone steps to the front doors. "No telling what's waiting for us in there."

Sam nodded, his hand hovering near the gun tucked into his waistband. "Let's hope it's nothing we haven't seen before."

We pushed the doors open, and they groaned on their rusted hinges, the sound echoing through the empty halls like a warning. Inside, the church was just as run-down as the outside—pews covered in dust, the floor littered with debris from the collapsing ceiling. But what drew my attention was the dark, narrow staircase at the back of the room, leading down into what had to be the catacombs.

"Looks like that's where we're headed," I said, nodding toward the stairs.

Blair took a deep breath, her face pale but determined. "Let's get this over with."

We made our way across the room, the floorboards creaking under our feet as we approached the stairs. The air grew colder the closer we got, and I could feel that familiar chill in my bones—the kind that told me we were about to walk into something bad.

As we descended into the darkness, the temperature dropped even further, and the smell of damp stone and decay hit me like a punch to the gut. The catacombs were exactly what you'd expect—narrow, winding tunnels lined with old stone crypts, the air thick with centuries of dust and forgotten secrets.

"Stick together," Sam said, his voice low but firm.

We moved slowly through the tunnels, the beam of our flashlights cutting through the thick darkness. My heart pounded in my chest, every sound amplified in the silence—our footsteps, the faint drip of water somewhere in the distance, the creak of old wood.

And then, we found it.

At the end of one of the narrow tunnels, we stumbled upon a door—an ancient, heavy wooden door with strange markings carved into the surface. It looked like it hadn't been opened in centuries, but there was no mistaking the symbols. They matched the ones from the letter.

The Arcani.

Sam glanced at me, his face serious. "This is it."

I nodded, stepping forward and reaching for the handle. The door creaked open, and as we stepped inside, my flashlight illuminated row upon row of old, crumbling books and scrolls. The air was thick with the smell of mildew and age, and I could see Blair's eyes widen in awe and fear.

"This is what we came for," I said, scanning the shelves. "Now, let's find out what the Arcani didn't want us to know."

As we started searching through the records, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching us. Something old. Something dangerous.

And I had a sinking feeling we were about to find out exactly what that was.