Chapter 33

Grace

I stood in the middle of the museum and closed my eyes, listening hard for my sister. I wanted nothing else than to bounce ideas off her, but she was still in a location that was warded to me. I sighed heavily and opened my eyes, shaking my head at Cas.

"I still can't hear her," I muttered, mostly to myself.

Cas tilted his head and listened momentarily. "I don't believe that she is dead."

"She's alive. I wouldn't have missed that." We wandered back over to where Nasir and Maja were standing and I smiled gently at them. "This helped a lot," I ventured. "Thank you so much for helping us."

Maja returned my smile. "I wish we could do more for you," she replied. "You will be our savior."

Making a face, I shook my head. "I'm just another person," I responded automatically. "Who happens to be half-angel." I reached out to her shoulder and placed my hand on her bare skin. "You, on the other hand," I continued. "Are a sensitive. Practice a bit and I'll bet you could see."

Looking embarrassed, Maja broke eye contact and stared at the ground. "I am only me," she answered.

Turning to Castiel, I shrugged. "I want to check out one more place," I explained. "When we were at the base weeks ago, there was movement here in Jordan. Faith and I jumped here, but I want to see it again." I turned back to Nasir, shaking his hand. "Thank you. If you find out more, please reach out. I'll hear you."

Returning my grip, Nasir took my hand in both of his. "I will not hesitate."

With that, Cas and I disappeared on the spot.

…

Serra

I squinted into the bright sun for the first time in over two weeks. We were in the middle of a desert, but surprisingly, it wasn't all sand. There were craggy rocks all around, sticking out from the dust, and I was able to begin making a mental map of the landmarks that surrounded me. Turning to face Lucifer, I waited as patiently as I could as he decided where we were headed to next.

Periodically, I reached out for Grace, but there was still some sort of invisible wall. The whole 'you can track me' plan was backfiring in a hurry, but I knew if we could get away from the caves where Lucifer was holding Chuck, we might have a chance of connecting over the thousands of miles that separated us.

"You stick close enough to touch," Lucifer's growl brought me out of my thoughts. "And if I see that you're any further than you should be, I'll kill you on sight. I don't have time to be babysitting you, Serra."

I nodded, rolling my eyes for good measure. I wasn't going anywhere.

With that, we were both instantly transported to another spot in the desert, on the edge of a low-lying river. The water had a murky green hue and was filled with ancient looking structures made of the same craggy rock I had seen near our caves. If I hadn't been jumping through time and space with my sister for years, this leap would have really messed with my senses. As it was, I was a bit dizzy and had a hard time getting my bearings.

I watched as Lucifer approached the river, holding out his hands with his eyes closed, almost as if he was searching for something invisible. Realizing that he was further away than instructed, I fell into step directly behind him, watching carefully. Sammy's body was tensed; his veins popped out from his muscular arms and the tendons in his neck were tight. I wanted very much to soothe him, but knew better than to reach out to touch him.

We stopped abruptly and I almost walked smack into Sammy's back. Looking up, I watched Lucifer reach out with his hand and make a sweeping gesture over a set of rough, brown rocks. For a moment, nothing happened, but then, very slowly, a large yellow oval began to appear over the rocks. It looked just like Everett's Gate, but there was no way that Lucifer had the same control that Everett did. Or did he?

I turned to stare as the oval got bigger and bigger, but Lucifer seemed frustrated that he couldn't get it to perform the way he wanted. Slowly, he lowered his hand and took a shaky breath. I took the opportunity to turn, looking around slowly. There had been movement behind me; I could feel a difference in the still air. Something had appeared out of nowhere, and then disappeared once more.

Narrowing my eyes and remaining very still, I forced myself not to react when I caught a glimpse of too-familiar, bright blue eyes staring back at me from inside a large bush. Then, a second set blinked, staring at me in his very angelic, calculated way.

I barely breathed. Grace and Cas were staring at me from the bushes.

Turning back towards the river and what Lucifer was doing, I did everything I could to remain calm and nonchalant. Mentally, I reached out very slowly to my sister, but found that she had created a wall to keep prying eyes and voices out. I knew she had done it to stay invisible from Lucifer. I glanced over my shoulder and lifted my eyebrows, trying to communicate in any way I could.

Why are you here? How did you know we were here? What is happening? I'm unarmed…I hope you brought something for me to use if we're about to go down. The mental monologue continued whether Grace could hear me or not, and for the first time, I was worried about what Grace would do to Lucifer. No. I was worried about what she could do to Sammy.

I'm not going to hurt Sam, Grace finally answered. I'm not planning on interacting with him at all if I can help it. We didn't know you'd be here.

Oh my god, Grace, my heart was racing. He has Chuck. That's what he's doing out here. He's doing spell work to take Chuck's abilities, I think. We're here looking for something and I don't have any idea what it is, but—

Serra, stop, slow down, Grace answered. I knew immediately that she never meant to find us out here and didn't have a plan. Tell me more about Chuck. He's here?

At the caves where Lucifer has been keeping me.

Do you know where that is?

I couldn't help but shake my head. Talking like this was like having a normal conversation with my sister and there were some things that you just couldn't stop your body from doing. That incremental movement was enough to alert the devil.

"What are you doing?" he growled, turning towards me and narrowing his eyes.

"What?" I was distracted and it was hard to come up with something on the fly with my sister and our best friend hiding in the bushes.

Immediately, Lucifer was on the defensive. He grabbed me roughly by the arm and threw me to the ground as he surveyed the surrounding area. "Who were you talking to? Was she here?" he demanded, not looking at me. I knew exactly who he was talking about.

I willed Grace to move, to disappear on the spot, but I knew, especially now that she had eyes on me, that it would never go down that easy. She would never jump without me again without knowing more. I stared at Sammy's face and the mix of emotions was just too much. The panic flooded through my chest as I searched for something, anything to say to distract Lucifer from killing my sister.

"Why are you holding Chuck?" I suddenly spat. "Why are we out here? What's your endgame?"

Lucifer looked to the ground, staring at me menacingly. I refused to look away. If this was how I died, at least Grace would be there to avenge my death.

"So you did find him," Lucifer muttered. "I knew you had. Why didn't you free him?"

I knew Grace was listening to everything, so I did what I did best. Stalled.

"I tried, asshole," I spat, picking myself up from the ground. "You've got him all sigil-fied and warded. There was no way I could have gotten him out without a key and some heavy duty spell work." I stood up to my full height and poked Sam's chest, hard enough to hurt my finger. "You haven't killed him yet because you can't do whatever you want to do with him." Lucifer stared out into the desert, searching for signs of my sister. "That means to me," I smiled and lifted an eyebrow, "That we have time to stop it."

"We," Lucifer breathed, looking down at me. Without warning, he put his hand on my forehead and suddenly, blinding, excruciating pain radiated out through my skull. Lucifer held me in place, too, my knees refusing to buckle under the weight of the pain. I couldn't even scream out, but my hands hung limp at my sides as the pain continued remorselessly.

"Grace!" Sam's voice echoed through the desert, louder than I had ever heard him. "I know you're out there. Show yourself before I fry your sister's brains."

The pain was unrelenting. I couldn't think. I couldn't hear or see. There was nothing except the feeling that my skull was being ripped in two.

"You've got about four seconds before she passes out," Lucifer continued, turning in place, staring out into the sand.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I forced tears to stream down my face, but I still wanted Grace to run. This was my job. It was my job to take the pain; it was my job to distract Lucifer so she and Cas could escape. I was the Warrior. This was my responsibility.

The edges of my vision were clouding black and the pain was only growing. My spine was on fire, but still I refused to make a sound. I could feel the rest of my body going numb and for the first time, I considered how in death, at least it wouldn't hurt any more.