A Human Worth Falling For (Book Three)

In Which Cas Worries

{Sam's POV}

"Sam?" I looked up to see Cas standing in the doorway to the library. "Do you have a minute?"

"Yeah," I told him with a nod. "Come on in." I moved some of the books and files so he could sit in the chair beside me. "Is something wrong?"

After I asked, I knew that there was. Cas never had that look on his face; something happened.

He pursed his lips before exhaling quickly. "Do you remember when Dean and I went shopping last week?"

"Yeah. It was the first time you two had been out of the bunker in weeks. I finally got the den to myself." He seemed a million miles away. "What about it?"

"Something happened." He paused, maybe wanting me to ask what happened. Instead, I just waited for him to continue. "It was the Mark."

"The Mark?" I rubbed my face with my hand. "What about the Mark?"

"Well, we were talking and he got mad." Cas stared at the shelves of books and swallowed. "He started yelling at me, and that's when I noticed that the Mark looked like it was burning."

I sat up straighter. "It... was burning? Like, a bright red?" He nodded. "That's... that's not good."

Cas's eyes widened. "Not good? Why? Is Dean in trouble? What can we do about it?"

"I don't know. I just know that this hasn't happened before. The Mark shouldn't be doing this. And I think it's bad." I started to panic. "I... I need to figure out what's going on."

Cas watched me carefully before nodding. "Of course. I'll leave you alone so you can do that." He stood. "If you need some help, just come get me."

By the time I tried to respond, he was already gone. I threw my face into my hands, hoping to clear my head.

I picked up the first book in front of me and flipped it open.

~~~

Two hours later, I groaned and shoved the book I finished reading across the table.

"There's nothing," I mumbled to myself. "Absolutely nothing."

I sat for a moment to stare at the stack of books in front of me. I read every one, cover to cover; yet, I hadn't found any information on the Mark. One row of bookshelves down, I thought with a sigh. Many, many more rows to go. I scanned the lines of books, trying to fathom how long it would take to search this entire room. And after that, I have ten more rooms full of information the Men of Letters have gathered over the years, each holding decades apon decades of files.

Dean told me months ago, back when he first got the Mark, that we needed to stop looking for a way to get rid of it. I couldn't do that, though. Before Cas fell, I searched through all of the books and files. Dean and I both did, but we didn't find anything. My brother gave up, but I didn't. Not really. But when Cas's incident occurred, my focus shifted to him.

Now, I was going back to the Mark. I was rereading everything in this bunker. We had to have missed something. There must have been something that we didn't know yet that would be the key to fixing everything.

There had to be.

I stood to retrieve more books. I wouldn't find an answer by sitting here all night.