Chapter Twenty-One
"You mean to say that her spirit is being infected by Faerie magic?" Dean asked incredulously. He and Charlie had moved out into the hallway to talk, where they were shortly joined by Sam.
"That's the basic gist of it, yeah," replied Sam. "First her spirit-self went into shock from being exposed to so much magic in such a short time, right? Titania's magic was so powerful that Ivy's…Faerie bits couldn't stand the shock, and that caused her spirit to tear open."
"And the magic continued to seep into the wounds," Charlie finished.
"I get that part," Dean said. "Castiel sort of explained it when he put you under, Charlie. But why wouldn't the same thing work on Ivy?"
"Because she actually crossed over into the Otherworld," Faolán said from the landing as he came up. "Charlie remained conscious and fully this world after Titania's magic lost its hold on her, but Ivy's spirit separated from her body and fell into the Otherworld. Plus, Charlie got a hold on her powers over here and developed them since childhood. Ivy's are new. She can hardly control them, and the shock of such deep and sudden exposure…" Faolán paused. "Well, let's just say that her spirit can't fight back against the magic."
"What the hell does that mean?" Charlie asked.
"It means that the magic is taking hold, and fast," Faolán explained.
"Wait," Dean interrupted. "I saw her in a dream on the other side. What does that mean?"
Faolán looked at Dean in horror. "You saw her?"
Ivy opened her eyes slowly, wincing against the light. She felt a bit stiff, but otherwise she seemed fine. After Dean had left the Otherworld, she'd spent the rest of her time there wandering aimlessly through the Fey wilderness, carefully avoiding contact with anything that could potentially leech more of her humanity. The more she lost, the longer she'd stay – and so the cycle would go until she was completely a part of the Fey. Luckily, with the knowledge she'd gained on the mortal side of the veil as a specialised hunter, she was able to avoid the trickier traps – that, and the fact that her newly-activated Faerie mode seemed be to kicking into gear pretty quickly.
That bothered her the most, even after just one normal night in the Fey. Over there, nearly three days passed. She didn't quite get that about the Otherworld, how sometimes it was slower and others, faster. But regardless of the time differences, Ivy knew that her Fearie blood was working overtime to manifest itself. And that meant Titania was right.
Ivy pushed that thought quickly out of her mind as she slowly eased herself out of bed. She did a few quick, easy stretches to loosen her lumbs. It was early afternoon, and she could hear the faint murmurs of conversation from the floor below. She couldn't make out anything significant, though, and began to busy herself with getting dressed.
They had moved the huddle into Sam's room, where they discovered that he had set up a nice little research station for himself. A fair number of books from the Griffin collection, as well as some of the Winchesters' own mobile library, were stacked on a night table that Sam had pushed up against the desk. The desk itself was littered with sheets of paper, some of them journal articles on Faerie folklore and others, Sam's own notes.
"So Dean's going across the veil, too," Sam reiterated as he opened up his laptop. "There's only a few ways that can happen, right?"
Faolán nodded. "Dean, how did you get there the first time?"
"I was abducted," Dean replied. "And the other way to get there is to come across an opening in the veil by accident, right?"
"Isn't there another way?" Charlie interjected.
"There is a third way, but it's far less common," Sam said, flipping quickly through the book. He scanned a page quickly and jabbed a finger in the middle of it. "There, see?" He handed the book to Dean.
"'If a member of the Gentry wishes to, they may invite a human across the veil to serve any purpose the Gentry sees fit. Some are powerful enough to pull favoured mortals across the veil by merely willing it to happen, but very few possess this ability.'" Dean snapped the book shut. "So, what? Ivy wishes upon a star in the Fey, and I snap out of my body to join her?"
They looked at Faolán, whose slight frown as he nodded thoughtfully only partially confirmed the theory. "It could be somebody else, though," he said. "Even if Ivy's powers are accellerating in their growth, I highly doubt she'd be powerful enough to pull you across with a simple desire."
"But Dean has a phyiscal connection to the Otherworld already," Charlie said, "and he and Ivy have made an…unusually strong bond in such a short time."
Dean raised his eyebrow at her.
"What?" Charlie wheedled. "It's true."
"You have gotten quite attached to her, Dean," Sam agreed.
"Such strong emotions might bolster an existing ability," Faolán mused, "but I still don't think it's enough to get Dean across. No, it must be a Faerie."
"Like Titania?" Dean asked.
"Perhaps." Faolán pursed his lips. "Though, why?"
Charlie gasped as she realised a potential reason. "She wants Ivy to come to her, right? So that she can use Ivy to win whatever war she's waging. What if…what if Titania is using Dean as bait?"
"Excuse me?" Dean exclaimed.
"It makes sense," Sam said. "If you're over there, Titania can send some minions to grab you. Ivy would never leave you stranded in the Fey – she'd go after you."
Dean peeked into Ivy's room and was happy to see her awake and out of bed. She was seated in front of her mirror, leaning on one elbow with her chin in her palm; in her free hand she held a pendant on a chain. Dean noted with mild surprise that she had covered the large, ornate mirror with an enormous shawl.
"Hey," he said, rapping his knuckles on the doorframe as he entered.
She turned around in her chair partway, her still-weary face lighting up somewhat at the sight of him. "Hey yourself," she replied, her voice somewhat ragged.
Dean sat on the trunk at the end of Ivy's bed and rested his elbows on his knees. Fingers tented, he considered his words for a moment before speaking them. "So we found out that there are only a few ways to get into the Otherworld," he began, "and since I don't have any Faerie blood in me and I wasn't trampling down a Faerie ring or whatever, we're going with the theory that I got Ozzed."
Ivy looked at him, her eyebrow raised. "'Ozzed'?" she repeated.
"Yeah. A 'We're not in Kansas anymore' type of thing, which is pretty much what happens, right," Dean replied with a wry smile. "Anyway, what it means is that, according to the lore, the only other way I could have gotten there was if…was if somebody wanted me there badly enough."
"What are you trying to say?" Ivy asked. "Just give it to me straight, Dean."
"Well, Faolán is pretty damn sure it's not you pulling me over," Dean said. "In fact, we're all in agreement over that. But…well, there's a running theory that perhaps Titania's the one bringing me over."
"To use you as bait."
"You catch on quick."
Ivy got up from her chair and began to pace, the necklace tangled loosely around her fingers and swinging lazily as she moved. "I know how she works, I guess," she said ruefully, her free hand raking through her hair in an agitated manner. "Dean, I'm so sorry to have dragged you into this."
Dean stood up as well and caught her gently by the wrist. "I offered to stay," he reminded her. "Sam, too. We're here for you and Charlie, and we're going to figure this out together."
Castiel found Charlie in the garage later that evening, but he noticed immediately that she wasn't working with her usual level of industriousness. In fact, by the time Cas came round, she was hardly working anymore – just cleaning up some tools that had gotten particularly grimy. Cas immediately knew that the stress of their entire situation was starting to break down even Charlie's indomitable spirit.
"What have we gotten ourselves into?" Charlie asked without turning around, sensing he was there. "Scratch that – what have we gotten the boys into? This entire thing is way too messed up, Cas."
"I know it's difficult," Cas said sympathetically, "but don't let the situation defeat you. There's still a way to get through this…we just haven't found it yet."
Charlie laid the last wrench a towel to dry next to the others, and turned to face him. "Cas, Titania really won't stop until she's got what she wants. And if she's going through Dean to get to Ivy, there's not much we can do to stop her from spiriting him away. Out of all of us, they're the only two who can cross over right now. If Dean gets kidnapped on the other side, Ivy will be all alone."
"Don't despair, Charlie. It will be alright."
Charlie laughed humourlessly. "Right. Because we can keep Dean and Ivy awake for days on end until we kill her, right?" she scoffed. "Because we can lure her out into the open on this side of the veil and get her while she's here? Cas, be real."
Cas put his hands on her shoulders. "Charlie, I am being real," the Angel insisted. "This game is not over. There are still pieces on the board. And that means there are still moves you can make."
She looked up at him, her blue eyes bright with tears she could barely keep at bay. "I'm so sick of this…this burden my family put on me," she said in a wavering voice. "I know they probably never expected it to escalate like this, but it has and I hate them for it."
"Don't hate, Charlie," Cas said, pulling her into a hug. "Just hope, and persevere."
Ivy was exhausted but the last thing she wanted to do was sleep. Falling asleep meant crossing over, and Ivy knew that there were countless ways Titania would be able to tell that she was there. And that meant the Faerie Queen would bring Dean over and try to whisk him away. Ivy wasn't going to let that happen. She knew Dean wanted to help and she admired him for it, but there was just too much at stake.
Looking at Dean across the reading room, Ivy couldn't help but admire the stoic way he was powering through this case. It seemed hopeless at every turn – every time they figured something out, a new problem got thrown in their way – but Dean wouldn't give up.
That was exactly why Ivy couldn't let him stick his neck out for her any more than he'd already done.
She shut her book and got up from her armchair, clasping it tightly in her hand as she crossed the room to leave. On her way out, she paused behind Dean, carressing the curve of his neck and shoulder. He grasped her hand in his without turning around, but he spoke.
"You going to bed?" he asked softly.
"In a while. Just need to do one more thing before I turn in," she replied, dropping a kiss on the top of his head.
Once she was out of the room, she walked quickly towards the front door and put on her boots and a light jacket. After making sure her knives were secure and her favourite pistol as loaded, she exited the house quickly and made her way to the barn that stood a short distance away from the house. It was a laboratory of sorts for the Griffins – the place where she and Charlie cooked up different kinds of ammunition. Most of it was standard – silver bullets, rocksalt shells, iron rounds, and the like – but there were some rounds that were particularly special to the kind of nightmares running around Pine Valley, like the iron rounds laced with rock salt and baby tears that she'd been packing the day of the dire cougar hunt.
And even hunters needed some magical herbs to swing some mojo.