I entered the suite where Crowley was laying injured on a couch.
"Hello, Eleanor," the demon greeted me. "Love the crazy bloodlust in your eyes. Let's not waste time. I'll take you to Abaddon. It's not far."
Crowley looked to the side where another demon came at me from. I quickly killed him only to be pinned to the wall.
"A girl and her Blade," Abaddon smirked. "And still no match for the new queen. So, first... you'll die... painfully. And then Crowley will watch his son die- ditto- and then the king himself. And Blade destroyed."
She gave a huff.
"That's such a to-do list."
With the Mark burning brightly on my arm, I fought against Abaddon's hold, slowly pushing myself free of the wall. As I made my way toward her, it felt like I was pushing back against a strong wind, my hair whipping away from my face. Abaddon held up a hand, trying to hold me back, and eventually pinning me to the wall once more. She laughed as the First Blade dropped from my hand. Concentrating hard, I focused on the Blade until it flew into my hand and I dropped down from the wall.
Abaddon looked scared as I advanced toward her, barely registering the fact that Sam and Dean had entered the suite. The Knight continued to try and use her powers on me, but they didn't work. Reaching her, I stabbed the Blade into her stomach and lifted her off the ground. Abaddon screamed as red energy left her body, killing her. As the power of Mark continued to course through my veins, I removed the Blade and stabbed it into Abaddon's lifeless body several more times.
"Ellie. Ellie! Eleanor! Stop! You can stop."
I dropped the bloody Blade, staring at it and my hands in shock. Dean stayed close to me as Sam went over to where Crowley sat on a couch, shoulder bloody.
"You could at least- aah!- help me with this," the demon king grumbled as he used a large knife to dig the Devil's Trap bullet from his shoulder.
"We didn't kill you, Crowley, even though it would've been very easy. Isn't that enough?"
Dean pulled me close to him, rubbing a hand comfortingly up and down my left arm as I continued staring at my hands.
"You owe me," Crowley grumbled. "Do I get no credit for warning you this was a trap?"
I tensed in Dean's arms as he and Sam acted confused.
"'Poughkeepsie' ring a bell?" the demon pressed. "I sense drama."
"I just still can't get over the fact that Crowley has a son," I muttered. "How's he doing, by the way?"
"Ow!" he cried as the bullet finally came out. "How do you think?"
"You get that he's got to go back, right?" Dean asked. "To his own time?"
"If the lad goes back, his destiny is to board a ship bound for America. That ship went down in a storm. All hands were lost. He had one chance in this world to change his life. You want that to all end in tragedy?"
"Well, I don't know what to tell you. Them's the rules. He goes back."
"The lore all says the same thing," Sam added, "you change any one thing about the past, the ripple effect impacts everything that follows."
"Please. No one bends the rules, like you three bend the rules. He's one misfit kid. He impacts no one."
"You don't bend that rule, okay? You don't. We'll take him back to the Bunker, figure out the spell. That's the way it's got to be."
"Can I at least say goodbye? I'll cheer the day when the last trace of humanity leaves me. Feelings."
I rolled my eyes as Crowley entered the bedroom where his son was waiting. After a moment, he magically closed the doors. When we rushed over, opening them again, it was to reveal an empty room.
"Damn it, Crowley!"
⁘
The tension in the air inside the Impala was palpable as we drove that night. I knew both brothers were expecting me to speak first.
"I didn't tell you about the warning because I knew exactly what you would do. You would make sure that you were right alongside me going in that room."
"You mean like we always do?" Dean snapped back. "Because we're actually partners in this and we watch each other's backs?"
"I don't expect you to understand."
"Try us."
"First time I touched that Blade...I knew. I knew that I wouldn't be stopped. I knew I would take down Abaddon and anything else if I had to. And it wasn't a hero thing. You know, it wasn't... It was just calm. I knew. And I had to go it alone, Dean."
"Oh. Of course," Sam scoffed, cutting in. "So it was just another time where you had to protect us."
"Either one of you could have gotten nabbed by Abaddon, and she could've bargained her way out. We couldn't afford to screw this up."
"Look...I'm glad it worked out, okay? I am," Dean said. "And I'm glad the Blade gives you strength or calm or whatever, but, Ellie, I got to say... I'm starting to think the Blade is doing something else, too."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"I don't know. Like, something to you. Look... I'm thinking until we know for sure that we're gonna kill off Crowley, why don't we store the Blade somewhere distant? Lock it up somewhere safe? Okay?"
"No."
I held his gaze in the rearview mirror until he forced himself to look away back at the road. Magnus had been right. The more I was in contact with the Blade, the more I welcomed the feelings it gave me. While the power was intense, it felt right to have it in my grasp- like an extension of my arm.
I looked down, tilting my head as I studied the Mark. It was so unassuming, easily passed off as a birthmark with its slightly raised surface and dark red tone against my pale skin. But when paired with Blade, the way it glowed; the way it calmed my very being... it was the best type of adrenaline rush I'd felt in my entire life.