Chapter Nineteen
Ivy stumbled backwards against the dresser, steadying herself on it as the house began to shake. Her throat constricted and she couldn't respond to Dean's disembodied voice. She was more scared than she'd ever been in her life.
Hang in there, Ivy. Focus on my voice. Come on!
Dean's voice seemed to be fading, but Ivy couldn't tell if it was because the connection was growing weaker or because her blood pounded deafeningly in her ears.
"I'm trapped in my mother's old bedroom, the house is shaking, and there's a monster in the closet!" she yelled. "What the hell do you expect me to do, Dean? I'm defenceless here!"
"Her…her mother's bedroom?" Sam repeated, the confusion in his voice echoing that in the faces around the table.
"I'll explain later," Faolán said briskly. "Keep trying, Dean."
The candle flames were jumping wildly and the fire had grown to a roaring blaze; Ivy's distress manifested itself in a message that Dean didn't need Lucy to interpret. He gritted his teeth, raking his brain for something – anything – that might get her home.
"Wait!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Ivy! You're in your mother's bedroom?"
"Yes, she is, and she's asking why that matters," Lucy replied.
"Look for the jewellery box, Ivy," Dean instructed. "Find the gold earrings with the pearls."
"Jewellery box. Gold pearl earrings," Ivy whispered frantically to herself, turning around and scanning the top of the dresser. "Jewellery…" She saw it: the exact same jewellery box she had in the human world.
The house ceased to shake, but suddenly an awful banging noise shattered the air. Looking over her shoulder, Ivy saw that the closet door was bucking on its hinges. Thankfully, it was locked, but she had no idea how long it would hold.
She opened up the jewellery box and frantically searched through its velvet-lined interior.
"They're not here," she cried. "They're not here."
A horrible cracking, snapping noise came from the closet. Jewellery box still in hand, she whirled around to see a long, brawny, hairy arm busting through the closet door. She dropped the box, her mouth open in disbelief as the arm retreated and a face appeared in the hole in the door.
It was a Fir Bolg.
"She says the earrings aren't in the jewellery box and that there's a Fir Bolg in the closet," Lucy narrated.
"A Fir Bolg?" Faolán and Charlie exclaimed together.
"Come on, baby, think!" Dean yelled. "Where else could they be?"
"She says she doesn't know. If they're not in the box they're on her mother's ears, and how the…...fudge…is that going to help?"
"Ivy! You are in the Otherworld!" Dean said. "Your mother isn't there!"
So come on, baby, think! Where else could those damn earrings be?
Ivy's mind raced. The Fir Bolg nearly had the door torn down. How it hadn't already busted through was beyond her.
Something clicked in Ivy's memory, and she raced out the door and down the hall just as the Fir Bolg ploughed through the closet door. She barricaded herslef into the bathroom and faced the counter. She spotted it immediately: a small glass dish next to the sink. She grabbed it, and nearly cried in relief. The earrings lay there.
"Dean, I've found them," she cried out.
And just in time: the Fir Bolg was making quick work of the bathroom door now.
Good. Now hold onto them real tight, Ivy. We're going to get you. I promise.
Ivy clenched them in her fist and the pain in her gut returned, stronger than before. She gasped at the shock of it, and focused on her reflection the bathroom mirror.
It was only in the mirror that she was able to see what her excursion to the Otherworld had done to her – the toll it had taken on her. Innumerable lesions split her flesh open, the gaping wounds dark and some of them beginning to fester.
She screamed.
The fire in the fireplace blazed almost out of control; they leapt in a frenzied dance, the colour changing from red, orange, and yellow to yellow, blue, and white as its heat intensified. Even the tapers blazed with longer tongues of fire, and Ivy's once-motionless form on the couch began to seize and buck wildly.
"Ivy?" Charlie exclaimed.
"Don't break the circle, Charlie," Lucy said sharply. "Dean's guiding her home but she needs all of us here to keep the connection strong. She's in extreme emotional stress over there." Lucy opened her eyes. "Castiel, Faolán – get ready."
"Quick, Sam," Castiel said. "Close the circle." He got up and Sam reached across the empty space to grab Dean's hand. Faolán had been standing over Ivy the whole time; now, Castiel joined him.
"Her spirit is nearly tangible," Faolán said. "We just need to get her more…present before we can put her back inside her body."
"Hang in there, Ivy," Dean shouted. "Come on, hang in there! You're almost home!"
The house began to crack and crumble around her as the Fir Bolg busted down not only the door but the entire bathroom wall. Ivy couldn't stop screaming. It was too overwhelming. Dean's voice shattered the air around her and pierced her brain; her heart hammered in her chest and the painful tugging in her belly grew more agonising.
"Dean!" she screamed, her fist still clenched around the earrings. "Dean!"
Her upper arms suddenly exploded in a searing wave of heat. She screamed wordlessly. Then the world went dark.
The candle flames exploded and, save for the fire in the fireplace, the room was plunged into darkness. Then, suddenly, a bright light flooded the pitch-black room and the heavy, incense-laden air was split by Ivy's scream as her body and spirit were reunited.
As soon as Lucy nodded, Dean broke the circle and leaped right over the coffeetable to kneel by the couch as Cas and Faolán finished pushing Ivy's spirit back inside her body. Her body flung itself bolt upright, every inch shaking. Her scream broke, and her entire body collapsed into a sobbing, trembling heap into Dean's arms.
"Dean." Castiel's voice, soft and low, cut through Ivy's heart-wrenching sobs. "Dean, I have to put her to sleep. She'll go insane if I don't."
Holding her tight, Dean nodded silently. Castiel placed his hand on Ivy's head, and she fainted.
Charlie, too, had fallen into uncontrollable tears. "Oh, Ivy," she whispered, making her way over to the couch. She wrapped her arms around her unconscious cousin from behind, sandwiching Ivy between her and Dean. "Oh, dear lord."
Dean laid Ivy down in her bed, the tightness in his throat and chest making it difficult for him to breathe easily. The strange prickling in his eyes made him dash his hand across them, literally pushing back the tears. He didn't understand why he wanted to cry. Was it because if he'd been able to defend her better she wouldn't have passed out back on the path and crossed over to the Otherworld?
As he sat in a chair next to her bed, he wondered how long she'd been over there. How many hours or days had passed for her in the Otherworld? In the day and a half that she'd been out, Dean had quickly come to realise how much he missed her presence.
Castiel had briefly described to him the effect Titania's magic – and all Faerie magic, for that matter – had on first Charlie, and now Ivy. The fact that Titania had put her blood into them made them part Faerie – Ivy much more so than Charlie, and so, Ivy's wounds were much worse than Charlie's had been.
"Lucy said she was in the bathroom when we pulled her out of the Otherworld, right?" Castiel had said. "Well, she must have caught sight of herself in the mirror. The shock of her reflection…that must've been why she was screaming so much."
Sitting by her bedside now, Dean clasped her hand tightly and prayed that Castiel's mojo would work on her fast.
Charlie was curled up on the couch, a quilt wrapped tightly around her as she tried – for the millionth time since Ivy had come back – to stop crying.
"This entire thing is so fucked up," she snapped bitterly as Castiel sat down next to her. "What the fuck did our family ever do for things to get this messy?"
"I don't know."
"That was rhetorical."
They sat in silence for a while. Suddenly, Cas put his arm around Charlie.
"Um…what are you doing?" Charlie asked.
"Comforting you," Cas said. "Or would you prefer a hot beverage? Dean prefers whiskey, but I've noticed you don't really drink, so would you li–"
He was silenced by Charlie's kiss.
"Wha…what's going on?" he stammered when she pulled away.
"You kissed me once," Charlie teased. "Too chicken to do it again?"
Cas shook his head. "No, it's not that," he said. "It's just…I mean, I just…well, it's kind of like…"
Charlie looked at him, puzzled. "Cas?"
"I'm an Angel, Charlie," Castiel sputtered. "I haven't exactly…had much time to…well, I mean, there was that one time when I went to that den of iniquity with Dean, but we had to run because I said something very wrong to that girl…"
Charlie stared at him, amused by his nervousness but also a bit taken aback. "So you've never…?"
"No." He looked at her. "Is that a bad thing?"
She giggled. "You're a unicorn?"
"I'm a…no, no, I'm not. I'm an Angel."
Charlie smiled and kissed him again, pushing her quilt aside and climbing into his lap. "Angels have needs too, don't they?" she asked slyly.
"Well, I suppose so but we don't really act on them..." Castiel was taken aback by her forwardness, and cleared his throat loudly as she pulled off his trench coat and began to undo his tie.
"News flash, Cas," Charlie whispered in his ear. "It's a whole new world out there, and I think Angels can do whatever the hell they want."
The last thing Sam expected to hear coming from the living room was an X-rated film, but he couldn't imagine what else it could be judging the noises being made. He set his mug down on the kitchen counter and made his way to the living room, ready to tell Dean off for watching a skin flick while Ivy lay upstairs in an Angel-coma. He was so not prepared for the sight that greeted him.
Thankfully, neither Charlie nor Castiel noticed him standing in the doorway in stunned silence. Sam quickly snapped back to his senses and scurried back out into the hallway and up the stairs.
Screw putting on the kettle and waiting for it to boil, he decided as he shut the door to his room. He'd gotten used to it pretty quickly, but he could get through one night without a cup of herbal before bed. Right?