Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Life had rarely gone to the way Anna would have liked it to go. First, she had been abandoned by her father to live with Bobby Singer, who had no idea how to be a father. Then, her father had gone missing and she had joined her brothers on the journey to find him. Well, a year later, John Winchester was dead and the siblings were left alone. After that they had been fighting all kinds of supernatural beings until Anna had gone to hell. Then she had been saved and they had met Castiel, the Angel who she had ended up sleeping with later on. From that point on, no one could call their life normal. At some point Anna had learned she wasn’t her brother’s biological sister and in reality was a natural witch. This had altered the relationship with the siblings forever and no matter how much she had tried to deny it, there hadn’t been going back. The challenges they faced got more and more serious until they were encountered the Devil himself and then Sam Winchester had locked himself in the cage with him order to save the world.

It had been two months since Sam had went to Hell. It had been two months since Anna was forced to mourn over her brother and had cut ties with another. The two months had been far from fun. She had gotten so used to being with her brothers all the time. Staying away for a month after she had learned she was a witch was nothing compared to this. Now one of her brothers was stuck in a cage with Lucifer and the other was assumably living a normal life with Lisa and her son. Anna felt like she was the only one who had no idea what she was doing.

She had gone back to her biological mother’s house in New Orleans in hopes of finding something new but hadn’t managed to find anything in the two months she had spent there. Everything felt displaced. The place didn’t feel like home even though Anna had never had a place to call home before. She could feel the magic linging in the air wherever she went in the house but she could get nothing out of it. It was as if the place was frozen but it could be melted any second.

Castiel had been a huge support ever since Anna had walked away from Dean. Whenever she had an urge to reach out to him and apologize, the angel was there to remind her that she didn’t owe him anything. It had been Dean who had behaved badly and if someone had to apologise, it was him. Anna knew that and while she didn’t regret cutting ties with him, she missed him terribly. She missed her family that she had lost. Right now, she had no family. Well, she did consider Castiel family but not in the same way.

Anna’s friendship (relationship?) with Castiel had taken a strange turn. The angel was with her most of the time except for the times he had to go and do some angel stuff she wasn’t really aware of. It was as if they were… dating but they weren’t. There had not been any talks of being in a serious relationship but both of them acted like there had been. Anna had not slept with anyone after she had slept with Castiel and she had no desire on dating anyone (else). She was scared of bringing up the topic not wanting to ruin anything. She couldn’t afford losing him too.

Her goal was to find her biological mother, Aurora. She felt like finding what happened to her would finally bring her some closure and understanding of where she had come from. She still had hard time processing that Mary Winchester wasn’t her actual mother and that John wasn’t her father. Who was her father anyway? Anna felt a stinge of guiltiness whenever she thought of him as she hadn’t really, well, thought of him. She wasn’t sure why she had been so concentrated on her biological mother instead of wondering about both of her parents. Castiel had suggested that perhaps it was because she had already had a father but she had never had a mother. It might make sense, Anna had spent most of her life hating on her so-called father, maybe deep inside, she didn’t want to have another man in her life she could possibly hate.

There were no signs of Aurora in the house. The grimoire must have been the last piece of her left behind. Anna was trying to find any information she could to find out what had happened to her. She had gone through the grimoire multiple times, practicing the spells in it and trying to figure out a way to learn new information. Anna had focused on healing wanting to follow her mother’s footsteps and had become quite good at it. She hadn’t been able to test her skills properly but had managed to learn more powerful skills. She was determined that one day she would be able to save someone’s life – that was something she owed to Jo.

“Anna?” She flinched when she heard Castiel calling out for her. She stood up from the floor where she had been sitting for the past half an hour going through the grimoire once again.

Anna found Castiel downstairs, standing with his trench coat like always but he was soaking wet. She frowned at the sight and wondered why he hadn’t dried himself. She knew he was capable of doing that. Whatever had happened, the angel did not look happy. He was frowning and had a grumpy expression. Anna covered her mouth so she wouldn’t laugh and make him feel even worse.

“Did you go for a swim?” She giggled and Castiel threw her an annoyed look.

“No,” he muttered. “Your neighbour was washing her car and thought it would be funny to see my clothes wet.”

Anna couldn’t hold her laughter any longer. The elder woman, who lived next door from Aurora’s house, had had her eyes on Castiel ever since she had seen him for the first time. She flirted with him ruthlessly even though Castiel didn’t understand it most of the time. Anna didn’t have hard time imagining the woman wanting to see the man with wet clothes. Unlucky for her, Castiel preferred to wear a lot of layers, so she probably wouldn’t be able to see his figure anyway.

“Ms. Thompson? That sweet old lady who definitely has a thing for you? No way!” Anna joked and Castiel almost rolled his eyes at her.

He sighed. “I do not understand how she would have a thing for me. She hasn’t even given me anything! Is it a gift?”

“No!” Anna laughed at his stupidness. “I mean that she likes you.”

“Likes me?”

“Yes, likes you like a woman likes a man,” Anna explained.

Castiel tilted his head. “So, Ms. Thompson likes me in the same way as you like me?”

Anna choked and looked at the man with wide eyes. You’d think she was already used to his bluntness but she was far from it. She half regretted telling him about it. Why didn’t she just sleep with him without the whole confession about her feelings towards him? Now he teased her about it while pretending he was innocent.

“No… she likes you in ‘I want to undress you and brag to my friends about my hot young boyfriend’ -way,” Anna laughed.

“And you don’t want to do that?” Castiel sounded confused.

Anna groaned. “First of all, I have already undressed you if you can’t remember. Second of all, I have no friends to brag.”

Castiel fell silent. He always felt bad whenever they talked about Anna being quite lonely. She never admitted it out loud but she hated being without her brothers. She missed Sam’s dry humour and she even missed Dean’s grumpiness. Now, Anna was all alone with her thoughts. Castiel was good company but sometimes she longed for someone who wasn’t able to read her thoughts. She had never had any friends and didn’t have them now. There was nothing she could do if she didn’t want to text Dean.

And she did not want to do that.

“I think I found a lead on your mother,” Castiel changed the subject making Anna tilt her head curiously. They have been going at this for so long and hadn’t been able to find anything, so him finding even something was a huge thing.

The angel put an old journal on the table. It was black, worn and looked similar to Aurora’s grimoire but just much smaller. He opened it on a specific page and Anna could immediately see Aurora Corey’s name mentioned on it. Other than that, she couldn’t read it, it was in Enochian but it was enough to catch her interest. This book had something about her mother and Castiel knew what. She looked up to him with a question mark on her face.

“It’s not much, but I believe it confirms Caoimhe’s belief of Aurora being dead,” Castiel said and something inside Anna made her want to throw up.

She had known that there wasn’t a big chance of her biological mother being alive but all this time she had kept up a hope that Aurora wasn’t actually dead and that she would be able to find her. So many times, during the past two months, Anna had imagined a life where she had found her mother alive and would practice magic together. She didn’t realize how disappointed she would be once Aurora’s death was when she had always known that it was the most probable situation. She shouldn’t have gotten her own hopes up.

Anna nodded slowly trying not to show her disappointment. “What does it say?”

“It’s an old announcement of witches who died in the Blooming Days-war,” Castiel said.

“Blooming Days-war?”

“That is what they call the war that set between the natural and borrower witches,” Castiel explained. “It lasted for almost ten years but quieted down just after you were born.”

Anna nodded again. She remembered Caoimhe mentioning the battle between the naturals and borrowers but she had no idea it had lasted for so long. A ten-year war in the supernatural world and they hadn’t heard of it even once? Well, it wasn’t that big of a surprise that they hadn’t known, considering that the whole Winchester family detested witches. Why would they care about that the witches had been killing each other when they wanted them dead too?  

“So, according to this announcement, my mother is dead for certain?” Anna asked and when Castiel didn’t answer immediately, a spark of hope was born inside her again.

“Well, her name is mentioned in the list where their deaths are assumed,” he then said after a while. He was clearly trying to choose whether to let Anna have hope that Aurora would be alive or not. Anna understood why he would think that lying would be better.

Castiel had seen her hoping that she would be alive. He had seen her crying for her dead mother. It had been a rollercoaster and it was a wonder he had still stayed next to her. After witnessing what happened between Anna and Dean, Castiel had decided to stay with Anna. He still felt more connected to her than he had ever felt to Dean or Sam. Castiel had known she would need the support after Sam had gone to Hell and losing Dean but he had also said that it wasn’t the sole reason why he had come with her. He also wanted Anna to find out the truth about her roots. There had been and still were so many questions hanging in the air waiting to be answered.

If Aurora was dead, how had she died?

How had Anna ended up with the Winchesters?

Why had Aurora put the spell on her?

What was the voice in her head?

Had the Winchesters known about Aurora being a witch?

[Who was Anna’s father?]

It felt impossible to find an answer to all the questions but if they begun from the assumption that Aurora really was dead, maybe they would have a starting point. Castiel clearly had knowledge of the Blooming Days-war and he could help her find more information about the war. If Anna learned more about the battle, maybe she would find answers to her questions. She had a feeling that the war had been the starting point.

“Castiel, can you help me research on the Blooming Days-war?” She asked the man who was patiently waiting for her to say something.

He nodded. “Of course.”

“But I think we need some extra back up,” Anna said. “And I know exactly who to call.”

Chapter Text

Anna smiled as she saw the familiar woman walking towards the door through the window. She jumped down from the windowsill and ran to open the door. She was feeling hopeful for the first time in months. Not finding anything had been exhausting but now Anna was positive that the answers would be found. She didn’t need Sam nor Dean to help her through this, she could do it on her own with other people helping her.

“Caoimhe! I’m so glad you could come!” Anna rushed out to hug the woman who hugged her back with a laughter.

“Well, I told ye I would always be there for ye,” Caoimhe said smiling and Anna let her inside the house.

Anna could feel the atmosphere change when another witch was around. The lights flickered a little bit as the magic filled the room. Caoimhe was stronger and more powerful witch than Anna was but together, they made the house feel like it was out of this world. It hadn’t felt like this when she visited Caoimhe in Ireland and she was sure it was because this was Aurora’s house. The house must have still something left of hers inside. Aurora had been a powerful witch; it would be a wonder if she hadn’t left anything behind.

Castiel had appeared into the house while Anna had been outside and she almost flinched when she saw him in the living room. This time he was dry but he didn’t look happy as if something had happened. He had no reaction seeing Caoimhe who greeted him happily. He just muttered something and turned away. Anna frowned at his behaviour. He knew Caoimhe and he knew she was coming, so why did he seem like he didn’t like seeing her?

“I wonder what’s up with him…,” Anna mumbled and looked sorry. The angel was sometimes blunt and he could come up as rude but this time his behaviour felt abnormal. It wasn’t like him to not even greet a person who just came, especially when it was someone who he already knew. Had something happened?

Caoimhe didn’t seem to be offended by Castiel’s rudeness but went around the first floor of the house without saying anything. She let her hand touch the walls and at some points, she stopped at her heels before continuing again. Anna could hear her muttering some words that she recognized as the protection spell. She had learned it too but hadn’t realized it could be used on houses too, she had just assumed it was for humans.

After doing that, the older woman sat down on one of the kitchen chairs and leaned on her hand. She was observing Anna who now felt nervous under her eyes. For some reason, she was suddenly filled with a wish to cover her whole body with a blanket. It didn’t make any sense, she was wearing normal day clothes, nothing revealing and even if she did, why would she want to cover up?

“Ye have been very few-worded with yer life,” Caoimhe said and tilted her head. “Update me.”

Anna sighed. She had been texting with Caoimhe few times after she had come back from Ireland. Caoimhe was aware of Sam going in the Cage but Anna hadn’t told her about her relationship with Dean. It had been a difficult topic for her and it had felt hard to tell Caoimhe the reason why she wasn’t talking to her older brother anymore. While she knew the woman wouldn’t judge her and while she knew it wasn’t her fault that Dean treated her badly, Anna still felt partially to be blamed.

It wasn’t like she had never broken Dean’s trust. She had run to Ireland without telling him and she had kept her being a witch from him for a month. She had kept her dark thoughts from him and she had kept her visions from him. Anna was far from innocent but she had still been his sister and no one should treat their sister like Dean had treated her. Only now Anna had realized that he had taken her for granted as if she should have been grateful that she was even with them – and she had been grateful. But who needed to be thankful for being able to spend time with their family? Dean hadn’t respected her as an adult and had always seen her as a kid who couldn’t possibly know anything about real life and that had been a difficult thing for Anna to realize and admit to herself.

“Well, as you know, Sam is in the cage with Lucifer,” Anna begun with the easier part of her life updates.

Caoimhe nodded. “Have ye tried to get him out?”

Anna shook her head. It was another thing Anna felt guilty about but Sam had made Dean promise to him that he wouldn’t try to get him out and had assumed it meant her too. He had never given her the same goodbye-talk as he had given to Dean, but Anna liked to think that it would have been what he’d have said to her too. She had been angry when thinking that they had done something stupid to get her out of Hell, so she could understand why Sam didn’t want them to even try.

“Good, I don’t think ye are powerful enough,” Caoimhe said and Anna nodded. She definitely agreed with that. She was far from being powerful enough to raise someone from Hell. “What about yer older brother? Dean was it?”

“I haven’t talked to him since Sam went to Hell,” Anna admitted and sat down herself. “We had an altercation as he hasn’t really approved… me being a witch. He also thinks of me as a kid and didn’t want to hear my opinions.”

Caoimhe frowned. “I thought he had accepted ye?”

“Well, he said so but his behaviour told me otherwise.” Anna shrugged. “We argued a lot and when Sam accepted Lucifer, I think Dean thought I didn’t care about him as much as he did. He just yelled at me and told me to shut up. Finally, I was done with his behaviour and haven’t talked to him ever since.”

The room fell silent. It sounded childish when Anna said it like that. What did she mean she hadn’t talked to her brother in months just because he had shut her down? But she knew her reasons and she stood behind them. It wasn’t a healthy life if she argued with Dean all the time. It was time for her to be independent in a way she had never been. Whole her life she had been with either Bobby or with her brothers. Anna was 27 years old. For five years she had travelled around the country to hunt monsters with her brothers. She had hunted for things that other people couldn’t even imagine to be real. She had hunted them until she had learned that she was one of them.

Anna didn’t think of herself as a monster but she knew Dean had hard time separating her from them. No matter what he had said, he had despised her secretly in his mind. She had known it would be hard for him as they had all been hardwired into thinking that witches were all bad. But Anna hadn’t known about it. How could she suddenly be bad when she didn’t even know anything? It had been hard for her when she had learned she wasn’t actually related by blood to Sam and Dean. Being a witch gave sense to a lot of things but it had been confusing time for her. For the first time ever, it had felt like she had a purpose but at the same time it felt like the end of her world – at least the world she knew.

“I told ye it would be good for ye to spend some time apart for a while,” Caoimhe said after a while.

“I don’t think this is just for a while,” Anna said quietly. “It was bad. I was so angry. I told him that I didn’t want to pretend to like him anymore because I felt like he didn’t think of me as his sister.”

Caoimhe smiled emphatically. “Did ye really mean it?”

“Not really. I don’t regret cutting ties with him but I do regret being so harsh,” Anna admitted. “I still love him and think of him as my brother. As an asshole brother, of course.”

Anna had regretted saying she didn’t want to pretend to even like Dean anymore immediately after she had walked away from them. She had seen how his face had dropped when she had said that and had known that she could never stop ‘liking’ him. He was still her brother and would always be, no matter how idiotically he would behave. Anna just couldn’t see her walking back to him and reconnect. She still felt like that was his responsibility do that.

“Like ordinary people like to say, time will tell,” Caoimhe said. “Ye need to concentrate on ye self. Ye want to learn what happened to ye mother, rite?”

“Yes, that is why I asked you to come. I know it’s a lot to ask but I’d appreciate the help,” Anna said.

Caoimhe nodded and her smile was assuring. “I will help ye the best I can but I cannot promise that ye will be happy about what we find.”

Anna was prepared for bad news. She had learned to accept that her mother was probably dead and there would be no chance of finding her. Honestly, it didn’t really matter to her anymore, she just wanted to know what happened to her. Anna had believed all her life that Mary Winchester was her mother who had died in the hands of Azazel. They had hunted for Azazel for so long but at least they had known what had happened to her. Now, Anna was in the position where she had learned that her biological mother was Aurora Corey who had possibly died during an altercation between witches.

Before Anna could answer to Caoimhe, Castiel suddenly appeared back in the room. He wasn’t wearing the same gloomy expression anymore and felt lighter. He sat down next to Anna who was confused as why his demeanour seemed way different from earlier. It was like he had even forgotten that he had been mad for some reason before. Anna was going to ask him about it but didn’t want to do it in front of Caoimhe.

“Hello, Caoimhe,” he said. “I’m sorry for not greeting you but I had just done something that took most of my grace.”

Anna frowned at this. He hadn’t told her what he would be doing today. She knew he went around to do angel stuff but he had never told her that his grace would have been affected by whatever he was doing. This time it had to be something huge and something dangerous and Anna wondered what it was.

“It’s nice to see ye again, Castiel,” Caoimhe said and something flashed on her face that Anna couldn’t read. It was as if… she knew what the angel had been up to. Was she able to read minds just like Castiel?

“I found an old announcement where it is stated that Aurora was assumed to have died during the Blooming Days-war.” Castiel went straight to the subject and handed the paper to Caoimhe who took it and read it.

Anna was impressed. She hadn’t known that the woman could read Enochian. She had once asked Castiel to teach her how to read it at least but he had refused saying that it wouldn’t be a good thing. She hadn’t understood why it would be a bad thing for her to learn it but hadn’t pressed it. It wasn’t that important for her to know it but seeing Caoimhe reading the paper, she felt a stinge of jealousy and wished she was as good as her.

It annoyed Anna that she was new to witchcraft. She wished she had known about if her whole life, maybe then she wouldn’t be so bad at it! While Anna had learned a lot and she had gone into healing, she was still a rookie and it made her feel like a child. She had no mentor; she had to learn on her own. What kind of a natural witch was she when she had to teach everything to herself? Shouldn’t it come naturally for her? Caoimhe would definitely help her with learning but Anna felt that it was still something she had to do on her own. She didn’t want to ask Caoimhe to spend her time teaching her like she was her student, it wouldn’t be fair for the woman.

“This doesn’t say anythin’ about ‘er bein’ actually dead,” Caoimhe suddenly said making Anna raise her eyebrows in surprise. She leaned forwards as if it was going to help her hear better.

Even Castiel seemed surprised. “What do you mean?”

“Look.” Caoimhe pointed at the text. “It says that she went missin’, not that she’s assumed to be dead.”

Anna didn’t understand why Castiel hadn’t noticed that, if it really said that. He was an angel, wasn’t he supposed to be able to read Enochian? Or had he only said that Aurora was assumed to be dead so Anna wouldn’t get her hopes up? Why would he do that? To save her from the disappointment if they found out for sure that Aurora was dead?

“Her name is in the assumed to be dead list too,” Castiel insisted and pointed at a different point at the text.

Caoimhe frowned. “So, it seems. Why would they do that?”

“Maybe it was added later?” Anna suggested, although she had no idea how these heavenly announcements worked. She had never even heard of them before Castiel brought one to the house.

“No, it’s not possible,” Castiel said. “These announcements are formal way of informing angels of casualties whenever some serious altercation comes to end. We have these in a form or another of every war. From Three Kingdom Wars to World War II.”

Anna’s eyes were wide. There had been multiple wars on Earth and there were still wars going and there would be hundreds of more. The lists of casualties from each had to be long. All those people were dead and Anna was supposed to believe that the angels had a list of every single name who had died? It sounded terrifying.

“Could it be a mistake?” She suggested but Castiel once again denied it. Apparently, the heaven made no mistakes in the announcements which made Anna wonder whether they made mistakes in something else.

“Maybe they had to assume she was dead because no one has ever found her?” Caoimhe said but it didn’t make sense why the other people in the missing list wasn’t also on the assumed to be dead list.

Castiel was quiet for a while. “To be on the assumed to be dead list, the soul hasn’t gone to neither Heaven nor Hell, but it cannot be detected on Earth either. To be on the missing list, their souls are detected to be on Earth but it or its owner cannot be located.”

“So, heaven cannot see Aurora’s soul or body anywhere, not in Heaven, not in Hell and not on Earth,” Anna said. “But somehow it can still detect her soul on Earth? How does that make any sense?”

It really didn’t make any sense. If Aurora’s body nor soul could be found anywhere, how could her soul be still detected on Earth? No matter what Castiel said, there had to be a mistake in the announcement system. Aurora couldn’t possibly be on both lists according to Castiel. If it wasn’t some glitch in the matrix in which Anna didn’t believe in, it wasn’t possible. There had to be something else to this, and she would find out what.

Was Aurora dead? Or was she still alive?  

Chapter Text

“Cas?” Anna whispered as she stepped into the living room. It was three in the morning and Caoimhe was sleeping in the guest room on the same level, so Anna didn’t want to wake her up. The angel, who didn’t sleep at all, was sitting at the table in front of a laptop. He was clueless at how to use it.

The man turned around and a small smile grew on his face. Anna smiled back at him and sat next to him. She looked at him for a second before leaning onto his arm. That was a small gesture she had done multiple times since she moved into this house. She actually felt pretty domesticated as Castiel spent most of his free time at there too. Too many times Anna had found herself wondering what it would be like if they were an actual couple living together which was of course stupid. Like Castiel had said, she would never have a normal life, she was a witch and he was an angel. There was no way it would be even possible to date him – if Anna wanted that.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Castiel asked her and Anna raised her head again. She wasn’t actually sure why she wasn’t sleeping.

“I don’t know, too many thoughts in my head, I guess,” she said.

It was true. Anna couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of her biological mother being alive after all. The Heaven Announcement system confused the hell out of her. How could Aurora be on two lists when it wasn’t supposed to be possible? It was frustrating and she wanted to know the truth.

“Are you okay?” Castiel asked softly.

Anna nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

“It’s okay if you aren’t,” Castiel reminded. “You have gone through so much; it would be a wonder if you didn’t feel like the world is falling on you.”

Castiel was right. It indeed felt like the world was falling on Anna. They talked a lot with the angel, but she had never admitted how much she actually missed Dean and how much the whole situation tired her. She wished she could just have Dean there to figure out this together but she had to be strong. She wouldn’t be the first one to make contact with him. That was a promise Anna had made to herself.

But during late night like these, Anna found herself wondering what Dean was doing at the moment. Did he ever lose his sleeps over their estrangement? Did he miss her at all? Did he regret being so harsh to her? Was he happy living with Lisa and Ben? Had he already embraced his role as Ben’s father?

Anna couldn’t imagine Dean as a father. He didn’t really have a good impression on what a good father looked like. John had been an asshole and had kept Dean as his solder, not as his son. John’s fatherly “affection” was the only thing Dean knew about being a father. Yes, they all thought of Bobby as their father figure but even him didn’t really know how to be a proper father. None of them lived a normal life, how could they have normal parents?

“Dean’s fine,” Castiel suddenly said making Anna flinch. She frowned at the man who had clearly just read her thoughts. He did that every once in while but didn’t always comment on her thoughts which she appreciated. She tended to thought improper things about him.

“I know,” Anna said. “Of course, he’s fine. He doesn’t have to worry about his stupid little sister anymore.”

Now Castiel frowned. “Do you really think Dean thinks of you as his ‘stupid little sister?”

“I don’t know.” Anna shrugged. “His behaviour didn’t say any different.”

Anna knew Castiel hadn’t seen Dean either but sometimes she wondered whether he actually wanted to see him. She was afraid he would let Dean hear a lot about how he has treated Anna. She didn’t want Castiel to intervene even though she appreciated the support. Whether they would fix their relationship was up to them when it was the right time.

“It will be okay,” Castiel said and Anna nodded.

She was grateful for the support she was getting from him and Caoimhe. Without them, Anna wasn’t sure if she would be able to cope. Her life had never been this big of a mess than it was right now. Even the time when she had made the deal with the crossroad demon to save Sam hadn’t felt as complicated as it felt now. The were so many questions. Her existence as a witch had affected her whole life even without her knowing and part of her wished she still didn’t know about it.

Castiel suddenly wrapped his arm around Anna’s shoulders and pulled her closer to his side. It was dark in the house as neither of them had turned the lights on to prevent Caoimhe waking up. They just stood there in silence before Castiel started talking again.

“I think there’s one person we should go visit tomorrow,” he said.

Anna raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

“Her name is Rowena MacLeod,” Castiel said. “She’s one of the most powerful natural witches I have ever met.”

“Do you think she would be able to help me? Did she knew my mother?”

Castiel shrugged. “I’m sure she has at least heard her name. She probably knows much more about the Blooming Days war than I do.”

Anna nodded. A powerful witch from the United States probably had information on the Blooming Days war. Caoimhe had been alive during the war but as she lived in Ireland, she hadn’t really been that big of a part in it. This Rowena could perhaps help Anna find answers to her questions. She leaned her head on Castiel’s shoulder again and sighed. Maybe the pieces of the puzzle would come together slowly but surely.

“I do have a warning for you,” Castiel pointed out. “Rowena is not the nicest person you will ever meet. She’s elegant and has a sharp humour but she’s also very deceiving. I don’t think there has ever been a time when she has thought of anyone else than herself. So, whatever situation it is, Rowena will find a solution that is the best for her.”

Anna was aware that a lot of natural witches only thought for themselves. That was one of the reasons why she had been so surprised had kind and welcoming Caoimhe had been the first time she had met her. A lot of the natural witches tend to think high of themselves, thinking they were better than the others. They would always save themselves over others. They also believe that natural witches are better than other witches hence the whole war over it. Anna could understand the perspective of it being unfair that borrower witches just got their powers from making a deal with a demon. She believed learner witches were fine in the eyes of natural witches as they took the time to actually learn how to practice witchcraft without “cheating”. But to naturals, they would always be the leaders in the game.

“You should go to sleep, Anna,” Castiel suddenly said and Anna nodded hesitantly. She liked his company and right now her bed felt cold and empty – almost unwelcoming. She was tired all of a sudden but she didn’t want to go to sleep.

She stood up but didn’t move. She watched Castiel’s facial expression and wondered whether she should ask him to come to bed with her even though he didn’t sleep. Would that be selfish on her part? Castiel probably had something else to do than make sure Anna didn’t feel lonely. But on the other hand, it would probably rude if she didn’t even offer the option of laying on the bed… right?

Castiel seemed to understand there was something she was wondering about as she didn’t move to leave. He tilted his head curiously and a small smile lingered on his face as he read her thoughts. Anna rolled her eyes. It was so unfair that he knew what she was thinking but there was no way she was going to read his thoughts!

“Do you want me to come with you?” He asked and smirked. Anna felt like she had taught Castiel bad habits.

Anna nodded. “Only if you want to.”

Castiel stood up without saying each other and started walking towards the stairs. Anna smiled shyly and followed him. At the top of the stairs, the man waited for her and they went to the bedroom together. It wasn’t the first time they shared the bed during the time spent in New Orleans but it was still nerve wrecking. Anna wasn’t used to sharing a bed with someone. She had always been single and she didn’t really count one night stands (which she had had very rarely) as sharing a bed with someone.

But Castiel was a good person to share the bed with. He didn’t move around all the time and he let her lean on him the whole night. His body temperature was lower than normal humans which meant Anna didn’t get too hot during the night. He always caressed her hair while she was asleep which made her feel very safe. Of course, him being a literal angel and carrying an angel blade helped in that cause anyway.

In the morning, Anna woke up in the morning with Castiel gone but she didn’t find that odd. She knew he was probably needed somewhere else if he wasn’t in the house. She slowly stood up from the bed and changed into day clothes. There were noises coming from downstairs which meant Caoimhe or Castiel was already doing something.

Anna found Caoimhe working in the kitchen. Her eyes widened as she saw the huge amount of breakfast in front of her on the table. She hadn’t even known that they had ingredients for all of that. Caoimhe only laughed as she saw Anna’s reaction to the sight.

“I thought ye would be hungry,” she winked. “I saw Castiel comin’ out of ye room this morning when tryin’ to find a bathroom.”

Anna blushed. The woman probably thought they had done something else than just sleep. Anna hadn’t told Caoimhe about the relationship between her and Castiel but something made her believe that the other was already aware of it. She had a teasing smile on her face as she carried more plates on the table.

“Where is he by the way?” Anna said deciding not to comment anything. They were all adults, what about it if Caoimhe thought she had had sex with Castiel last night? Surely, Caoimhe had her own pieces of action.

Caoimhe shrugged. “He left very early and didn’t tell me where he was goin’.”

“That’s what he usually does,” Anna said not bothered by it. She was very used to Castiel having disappeared somewhere but she knew he would always come back.

“Aren’t ye curious at all?”

“A little bit, yes,” Anna admitted. “But I know he will tell me if he feels like it’s something that can be said to me.”

Caoimhe looked impressed. “Honestly, I have never seen a witch bein’ in a relationship with an angel.”

“I haven’t heard of it before, either,” Anna said. “But honestly, I’m not even sure what we are called. I don’t think we can actually date.”

“Why not? If ye both like each other, what is the problem?”

“I’m a witch and he’s an angel, how could that work?” Anna wondered out loud. She had never had anyone to talk with about the subject and was grateful for Caoimhe being so supportive. The woman was older and more experienced and probably had opinions on this kind of stuff.

Caoimhe tilted her head. “Ye seem to work well together. I think ye just have to put little bit more effort in the relationship. I’m sure, ye will make it work.”

Maybe it would work if Anna stopped doubting everything. She wondered when she had become so insecure. There was a time when she had scolded Dean for being a cock blocker but all of a sudden, it was her who overthought everything to a point where she was so lost. Castiel didn’t pressure her into anything and was the sweetest man she had ever met. Should she stop worrying about them both being supernatural beings and just throw herself in the moment?

Anna liked Castiel a lot. She felt so close to him and she couldn’t imagine her life without him. It was weird how “well” she coped without her brothers but felt like she would fall apart the moment Castiel would leave her. He had become so important to her that it was like he had become a part of her. Castiel read her thoughts but he probably would never understand how much he meant to her. She literally owed her life to him – multiple times.

To imagine, Anna would have taken her own life if it wasn’t for Castiel. He had literally physically stopped her from pulling the trigger. How can one repay that? Castiel was an angel and had everything he needed, what could Anna do to make him know how big of an impact he had in her life?

Caoimhe looked at her with an expression that said she knew what Anna was thinking. It was almost like a motherly look which made Anna crave for an actual motherly affection. It pained her to think that she never had a mother which was why she wanted to find out the truth so badly. Anna felt like she needed the answers to move on with her life.

Hopefully Castiel was right and Rowena would know more about the war and perhaps even about Aurora. It would be a step closer to the answers and Anna had a spark of hope inside her.

Chapter Text

The trip to meet with Rowena MacLeod wasn’t so nice. First of all, it took them almost 13 hours by car to get to her location – finding her ended up being a hassle. Rowena wasn’t an easy person to find. She liked to move around as she didn’t belong to any coven anymore. She also liked making people trying to find her go in circles. From Castiel’s words, Anna had assumed the witch had agreed to meet them but when going around the city for the fourth time, she had come to a conclusion that either the woman didn’t want to see them at all, or she enjoyed wasting people’s time.

When Rowena had enough of putting the trio off, she all of a sudden appeared in front of Anna’s car. Anna had almost driven over her and while getting of the car she was furious. She did not find this funny at all and seeing the redhead smiling innocently at them, made Anna want to throw hands at her. There couldn’t be a reason why the witch would want to help them and it felt pointless to even try to talk to her. Anna was fed up and didn’t feel like talking at all.

Luckily, Castiel started the conversation, although he looked rather pissed of too.

“My, my, an angel coming to talk to me? What could I do for you?” Rowena said with a thick Scottish accent.

Anna refrained from rolling her eyes at her. She already knew she would not like the witch. There was something weird about her. It was almost like she seemed like you could trust her but at the same time you should never trust her. How could Anna believe a word she said? Even Caoimhe seemed reserved and didn’t say a word to the redhead who looked at both of them curiously. She must know they were both witches but when she locked her eyes on Anna, it was as if she was aware that she hadn’t known about being a witch for long.

“That’s pure dead brilliant!” Rowena exclaimed and clapped her hands together as to celebrate something. She took a step closer to Anna and grabbed her by the chin.

Anna fought not to turn her head and slap her hand away. She must not anger the witch if she wanted answers. Rowena might be their only chance of getting proper information on the Blooming Days war and what had happened to Aurora. No matter how much Anna despised Rowena, she must get along with her.

“Yer a new witch,” Rowena said satisfied. “I have been searching for young witches like you.”

“What do you mean?” Anna asked confused.

Castiel stared at the witch. “She’s trying to build a new coven which she would be the leader of.”

Caoimhe let out a gasp. Apparently, she had heard of Rowena before. She had belonged to a powerful coven that had gotten destroyed or at least separated in the war, and now she was all alone. She had been wicked and only thought of herself – naturally. Caoimhe had suspected that Rowena would want to try to create a totally new coven in which she could do whatever she wanted.

The thing about covens was, that there were rules. Anna didn’t know what rules as every coven came up with them together but there were always the witches who only followed the rules because they didn’t want to be kicked out of the coven. They didn’t actually want to follow them, but the advantage of being in a coven was too huge to risking it. Rowena was one of the witches who did not like following other witches’ rules but wanted to come up with her own rules. That was why she needed her own coven with her as the leader but apparently, the other witches from her old coven did not like the idea.

Caoimhe seemed to be surprised that Rowena was looking for young witches but Anna wasn’t as much. It would make sense for her to look specifically for young and relatively new witches as they were easier to manipulate. Anna wasn’t sure how many young witches there were but she was pretty much considered a new witch as she hadn’t known before that she was a witch. But surely, Rowena should assume that Anna wasn’t so easy to manipulate because she wasn’t that young.

Rowena smacked her lips teasingly. “Now, now. You should not reveal a woman’s plans so easily, Castiel.”

“What do you know about the Blooming Days war?” Anna went right into the subject as she did not care to hear more about Rowena’s plans on becoming the queen of some coven.

“Straightforward, I like it.” Rowena smiled. “It reminds me of someone.”

“Perhaps you knew my biological mother, Aurora Corey,” Anna said.

Rowena raised her eyebrow. “Aurora was your mother? Interesting. She was my old but dear nemesis.”

It wasn’t a surprise to Anna that Rowena hadn’t gotten along with Aurora because she seemed like a person who didn’t get along with anyone. Anna was sure she wasn’t going to get along with her because the witch seemed like a pain in the ass.

“What do you want to know about the war?” Rowena then asked suddenly having gotten more serious. Maybe she knew that the topic wasn’t something to joke about as it had ruined her life too. She probably didn’t have fond memories of the war and while she might have hated Anna’s mother, they had still fought on the same side.

“I’m trying to find out what happened to Aurora,” Anna said. She didn’t really want to reveal too much to the woman but she was forced to. She doubted Rowena was the kind of witch who would just reveal her information without having everything laid on the table.  

Rowena nodded. “The last thing I heard about Aurora was that she died in an altercation with the borrowers. The last time I saw her was only few months before that.”

So, Rowena had seen Anna’s mother. There was an actual person alive who had seen Aurora in the flesh. While Rowena might not fully know what happened to Aurora, she had met her. She had probably talked to her. Immediately Anna’s hopes got up. The person in front of her had actually seen Aurora.

“Yer the witch sister of the Winchesters, aren’t you?” Rowena suddenly changed the subject and made Anna gulp. She knew about her brothers?

Anna only nodded after quickly glancing at Castiel and Caoimhe. Both of them had stayed quiet, being a silent support for her. They both looked uncomfortable, even Castiel who usually wasn’t affected by witches like Rowena. He must hate her.

“I have always wanted to meet the infamous Winchesters,” Rowena said. “Young Samuel is in the cage with Lucifer, am I right?”

Anna didn’t know how she knew about Sam being in the cage but the witch probably had her ways. It wasn’t like the supernatural beings didn’t know about Sam and Dean’s existence. They had killed a lot of them, of course the word would go around. They had done business with Crowley, who was now the King of Hell as Lucifer was back in the cage. It would be a wonder if they didn’t know about Sam and Dean.

“This is not about my brothers,” Anna muttered. She didn’t want to talk about them. She didn’t want to include them. No matter how angry she was at Dean, Anna didn’t want to possibly put him in danger just because she needed the help of an evil witch.

Rowena chuckled. “Oh, yer dear brothers! Yer just a wee witch, haven’t you learned yer lesson? Our kind cannot work with the humans the way you think. Are yer brothers really fine with you being a witch?”

“You don’t know anything about our relationship,” Anna said. She suddenly became so defensive about her brothers. It was fine for her to be angry for Dean not accepting her but someone else doubting them made her irritated. They were her brothers and Rowena had no idea what had actually happened between them. It might be true that Dean had never truly accepted her, but he was still her brother. He must still lover her but he just didn’t know how to show it.

“Now, now. Don’t get all worked up, dear,” Rowena said as if she hadn’t said anything. “I just expressed my wish to meet them. But on the other hand, how could I ever meet Samuel when he’s in the cage?”

Anna could feel Castiel and Caoimhe both tense up next to her. The situation had started to feel threatening. It was almost as if Rowena was wishing that Lucifer was still free. It wouldn’t be a wonder, she seemed just the type of a witch who adored the devil. Anna personally couldn’t understand how could anyone ever do that. Even Crowley had seemed to despise the idea of having Lucifer walk freely on the Earth.

“You know, I could help you get Samuel out of the cage?” Rowena suddenly said and Anna’s eyes widened.

This wasn’t what she had expected when she had agreed to meet the witch. Could it be true? Could Rowena really get Sam out of the cage or was she just bluffing? There’s no way Anna should trust her, right? But what if there was an actual chance of getting Sam out of the cage? Shouldn’t she take the chance? She hadn’t tried to get him out before, but maybe this could be her chance?

Castiel was shaking his head next to her and even Caoimhe looked at Anna warningly. Anna knew she shouldn’t really trust Rowena but she couldn’t help but get her hopes up. She missed Sam so much, she wanted to see him again.

“How?” Anna decided to ask.

“Anna… No,” Castiel said and Anna glanced at him. “You shouldn’t trust her.”

Rowena just smiled and tilted her head as she waited what Anna would answer.

“I’m not trusting her, I just want to hear what she’s going to say,” Anna defended her choice to be curious.

“She cannot get Sam out of the cage, trust me,” Castiel said and looked rather uncomfortable. Only now Anna saw Caoimhe’s face.

The witch looked pained. She was glancing between Anna and Castiel as if she knew what was going on. She looked at Castiel pleadingly which made Anna remember the look she had gotten when Castiel had finally greeted her. Something had flashed on her face that Anna couldn’t read and this expression looked pretty much the same. What was going on?

“I know a spell that could make the access rather easy,” Rowena now rejoined the conversation.

“What is it?” Anna said knowing better. The witch would never give her the spell without getting something in exchange. This was only a game for her to see how far Anna would go to get her brother back.

Castiel grabbed her from the shoulder. “Anna, you should not engage with this. Rowena cannot be trusted in this.”

Anna was irritated. “You were the one who suggested meeting up with her! Why don’t you even hear what she has to say! I’m not agreeing to anything!”

“You seriously think a witch could break into the devil’s cage to free Sam without any ulterior motives?” Castiel sounded annoyed too.

“He’s my brother, Castiel! If I have a chance of getting him free, shouldn’t I even try?” Anna spread her arms around in frustration knowing Rowena was enjoying every bit of the show. This was probably exactly what she had wanted; chaos.

Castiel sighed. “You haven’t shown any wish to get him free before, so why now?”

Anna quieted down offended. It was true, she hadn’t expressed any wish to free Sam from the cage out loud but it didn’t mean that she didn’t think about it every day. Who would enjoy knowing their brother was being tortured by the devil while they were doing whatever on Earth? It felt unfair for Castiel to bring that up against her even though he was right.

But this was the first time Anna might have a way to get Sam free. It wasn’t like she could just do it on her own. If Rowena really knew a way to get him back, Anna needed to know what it was. She didn’t know what the witch would ask in return but she at least wanted to hear what it was.

Without saying anything Castiel disappeared, leaving Anna alone with Caoimhe and Rowena. The three women were standing there in silence; Rowena enjoying the chaos she had created, Caoimhe clearly uncomfortable by the change of events and Anna having hear heart ripped apart. She didn’t know what to do. Castiel clearly didn’t want her to do anything but wouldn’t she be selfish if she didn’t take the chance?

“So, how is it? Do you want to hear it or not?” Rowena broke the silence.

Anna looked at Caoimhe who shook her head. No one wanted her to do it, maybe she should listen to them. It annoyed her that she would miss the opportunity but maybe Castiel and Caoimhe knew what they were talking about. Something about Castiel’s behaviour bugged Anna. It was as if he didn’t want Sam to get out. He was hiding something and it annoyed Anna that she didn’t know what. What was something he couldn’t tell her?

“I think I might have to pass,” Anna finally said immediately regretting it.

Rowena just shrugged. “Oh, well, yer loss.”

Caoimhe and Anna were just about to turn to leave the situation, when the redhead cleared her throat to get their attention. She was smiling the same innocent smile as she looked at the two of them.

“I have a location for you,” she said. “And you’ll get it for free as I’m very curious about yer situation.”

Anna raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms to her chest. She wasn’t sure whether she should trust her on this. What if she told her wrong information out of spite? It wasn’t as if she couldn’t do that. According to Castiel, Rowena was very much of a mischievous witch who clearly loved creating chaos everywhere she went.

“There’s a small coven that is still holding a deep grudge against us naturals,” Rowena said. “It’s located only few hours from here. They are holding their place inside a rock.”

She then continued saying the location and Anna was surprised how easily she just gave out the information. Was it true or was she trying to put them off just like she had done when they were looking for her? Caoimhe still looked like she didn’t believe a word Rowena was saying but she kept her mouth shut.

Rowena then walked away, leaving them by themselves. Anna quietly pulled her phone out and opened the conversation with Dean. The last message was from her just before Sam had went to Hell. Suddenly, she was filled with urge to text him about the possible chance of getting Sam out of the cage. Anna knew she had just passed the chance but if Rowena had been honest, there was a way of getting him out of there and Dean probably wanted to know that.

Anna
Hi, it’s me. There might be a way we could get Sam out. Text me.

Anna didn’t have any believe that she would actually get an answer but she had to send the text. If Dean had a way, she would want to know that. Sending that text didn’t mean that she had forgiven him. Or at least it didn’t tell Dean that she had forgiven him.

“We should go,” Caoimhe said and Anna turned to look at her.

“Yeah, if they are so close than just few hours, we should go quickly!” Anna said but something about Caoimhe’s expression told her that she wasn’t talking about going to the coven.

Caoimhe sighed. “Anna, I know ye are eager to find out what happened to ye mother, but this is somethin’ ye don’t want to mess with. Ye are talkin’ about facin’ a hostile coven that is filled with borrower witches who don’t like naturals.”

Anna understood her point of view but she wasn’t ready to give up. This was the first time they actually had a lead. They should follow it when they still could. Who knew how long the coven stayed in one place. If they really were witches who wanted to revenge the naturals for the war, they probably moved around a lot. Anna didn’t want to lose the opportunity. Maybe the coven would have more answers to what happened to Aurora.

“You don’t have to come, I can ask Castiel to bring you back to New Orleans and I will go alone,” Anna then said. She didn’t like the idea of going alone but she didn’t want to force Caoimhe do anything she didn’t want to. It would be more dangerous to go alone and they both knew that.

“Ye are too stubborn for ye own good, Anna.” Caoimhe shook her head disappointed. “If ye really want to go, I will go with ye. I will never forgive myself if I didn’t go and something happened to ye.”

Anna nodded grateful for the help. She had a good feeling about all of this. Finally, things were moving forward and she was a step closer getting her answers. They hopped in Anna’s car and drove off. Caoimhe was acting nervously the whole ride and didn’t say much. Anna knew she was a bit upset by her decision to go, but in the moment she didn’t know to regret it.

Rowena had been right; the trip had only been few hours. They were both tired when they reached their destination but Anna was determined to do it right now. Caoimhe had asked her in the car if she was sure about this and Anna had never been more sure about anything. She was glowing with determination. She could feel the magic in her veins move around and she could feel the magic around her as they found the correct rock.

The magic felt different from her and Caoimhe’s magic. It was darker and thicker and felt almost threatening. They said naturals were evil but this felt like it wanted to hurt them as soon as they touched it. Suddenly, Anna didn’t feel so sure about it anymore. Caoimhe looked so uncomfortable that Anna almost regretted of pulling her with her. But it was too late to turn back now, they had already come this far.

There was a small entrance in the rock, and Rowena had advised them to go through that. They would have the element of surprise that way as according to her, the borrowers used some other way to go in to avoid being followed. Inside the huge rock was dark, cold and humid and Anna regretted not bringing a jacket with her.

Caoimhe stopped her as they saw light coming from the deeper parts of the cave. They heard quiet conversations and the closer they got, the louder the voices became. Now Anna was almost able to see multiple women standing in a circle inside a wide area that opened in front of them. They seemed like a cult – and honestly, they pretty much were a cult. Anna wondered whether they were doing some kind of ritual when she suddenly kicked a lose rock on the ground and it created a huge noise in the tunnel.

Anna covered her mouth by her hand to avoid gasping out loud as Caoimhe pulled her to the side to avoid getting caught. They leaned on the cold stone wall behind another wall and held their breaths as they heard footsteps coming closer. Anna started to regret coming here at all. How had she thought this was a good idea? Why had she thought the witches would just answer her questions if she asked nicely? Caoimhe had been right, this was a bad idea but now there was no way out.

They both screamed out loud when a woman, who looked at least 60-year-old, suddenly jumped in front of them with an evil smile on her face. She let out a blood curdling screech as she looked at the two of them. Anna knew they were in trouble from what they wouldn’t be able to get out of.

Caoimhe immediately sent out a spell that Anna didn’t recognize. It pushed the borrower little bit further from them, almost as freezing her to the spot. Meanwhile, Caoimhe pushed Anna out of the hole they were hiding in and Anna didn’t stop to think. They started running for their lives – or at least Anna thought they were doing. When she turned around to see if the borrowers were following them she realized to her horror that Caoimhe had stayed to fight against them.

Anna’s eyes widened as she shouted Caoimhe’s name.

“GO! ANNA, GO!” The older woman shouted but Anna wasn’t going to just abandon her friend. It had been her idea to come here, she couldn’t just leave Caoimhe fight her fights.

She started running towards Caoimhe but the witch held up her hand towards her and stopped her by a spell. Anna looked at her with wide eyes as she realized what Caoimhe was doing. Caoimhe had already turned back to the borrowers, sending multiple spells at them simultaneously fighting them off. Anna was left with no other choices than just watch or run and she physically couldn’t do the latter. She was not going to leave Caoimhe alone.

“ANNA, MERLIN’S BEARD, RUN!” Anna heard her shouting at her but she refused to move. She was trying to remember any spells to get rid of Caoimhe’s spell that she didn’t know. She wanted to go help.

But then Caoimhe suddenly let a blood curdling scream as she dropped on the floor. Anna’s arms dropped on the side as she watched in horror and waited for her to get up but she didn’t. The woman laid on the ground unmoving and Anna couldn’t see if she breathed. She was gone. Caoimhe was gone. The borrowers behind her were only smiling their evil smiles and still sending spells on Caoimhe’s lifeless body.

“NO!” Anna screamed and she could feel the rage fill her. Caoimhe’s spell gave out as her spirit was gone and Anna was able to move again. She started running towards the borrowers, throwing angry spells at the borrowers. Few of them got hit but they were more powerful together than she was alone.

Suddenly, Castiel appeared in front of her and before Anna could even realize what was happening, she was standing in the living room in the New Orleans’ house. She just stared in front of her before turning to Castiel and banging her hands on his chest.

“Take me back! Take me back, Castiel!” She screamed. “We cannot leave Caoimhe there! Take me back!”

“Caoimhe is there all alone! We cannot leave here there!” Anna started sobbing and Castiel wrapped his arms around her, still not saying anything. “She’s gone… Caoimhe’s gone. I don’t know what happened. I… I didn’t see what happened. She… she just dropped on the floor…”

Anna felt Castiel put his head on her head.

“Caoimhe’s dead,” she cried in his jacket.

“And it’s all my fault.”

Chapter Text

It had been a month since Caoimhe died when Anna finally left the house for the first time. It was only for picking up the mail, but it was more than she had done in ages. She just didn’t have the energy to do anything. Anna was too sad – too angry to cope with anything having to do with real life. Caoimhe was gone and it was all her fault. It had been two months since Caoimhe died when Anna finally started practicing her magic again. It was weak as Anna's emotions were also weak from her being so depressed. 

If she hadn’t insisted going to find the coven, the witch would still be alive. Anna couldn’t believe how selfish she had been. Caoimhe had warned her and had only come with her to make sure nothing happened to Anna. But then she had died. The coven had been too strong. Anna couldn’t get the image of Caoimhe laying on the ground out of her head. She just couldn’t believe she was gone.

Anna hadn’t been able to bury Caoimhe. Castiel hadn’t let her go back to retrieve her body and when she had asked him to do it, he had said that Caoimhe probably wasn’t there anymore anyway. The coven would destroy the body themselves. Destroy. That had sent Anna into a bigger spiral that she still hadn’t come out of. How could she have done this to Caoimhe?

Castiel had tried helping her the best he could but Anna didn’t let him. She’d lash out at him whenever he tried to get her to eat or to go outside. For some reason, he didn’t leave her. The angel still stayed by her side, coming to check her every once in a while as she was hiding in her room.

The magic around the house had weakened, Anna could feel it in her bones. Caoimhe was gone and Anna was too weak to practice anything. She hadn’t done anything magical since coming back from the coven. She had just sat in her room doing anything else than hating on herself. Castiel had warned her not to blame herself too much, but what else was Anna going to do? It was her fault that Caoimhe was gone, she had been the one who had been in such a hurry to find the coven.

She hadn’t gotten her answers and had lost her dear friend who had done nothing but been helpful and kind to her. Caoimhe was the first person to give her answers when she had found out that she was a witch. She had been the first one to say that perhaps Anna needed some time off without her brothers. Caoimhe had always been honest with her and this was how Anna thanked her – getting her killed.

Anna’s phone was laying on the ground next to her as she came back with the mail. It was open on her and Dean’s conversation. The last message was her telling him that there might be a way to get Sam out of the cage. Like she had expected, Dean hadn’t answered her but few hours ago, the message had been read. Which meant he was still checking the conversation with Anna. He hadn’t forgotten about her. For some reason, Anna had gotten caught in just staring at the mark that said the text was read. It made her feel closer to Dean whom she suddenly missed too much.

Caoimhe’s death had made Anna want to call Dean and cry to him. She had refrained from doing so just because she knew he probably wouldn’t want to hear from her. The last thing he would want is to hear his stupid little sister call him crying how she had messed up and gotten someone killed. That was what Dean was expecting from her anyway. Maybe, his beliefs had now gotten true; Anna had become dangerous.

But Anna couldn’t help but need the comfort of her brother. She needed him to say everything was going to be fine. She didn’t need him to apologize, she just wanted to see him. But Dean was far away and there was no way he would actually want to see her. Anna had blustered how she was so independent and how she didn’t need him at all. So, why would Dean take her back with open arms now? She had been independent and see where it had gotten her.

She only made mistakes. She hadn’t progressed at all. Yes, Anna knew more spells now but she was still stupid. Maybe Dean had been right, maybe Anna was just a child who didn’t know well enough to survive in this world. If she had just swallowed her pride, she would still be with Dean and none of this would have ever happened.

There had been many times when Anna had thought so little of herself but it was different now – she hated herself. She almost couldn’t recognize the person staring back at her in the mirror. It was like ever since Caoimhe’s death, Anna had become a totally different person. She had gotten someone innocent killed which made her a killer – a murderer. Anna belonged in prison, not in the free world. She should be in the cage with Lucifer, not Sam.

She should be the one who was dead, not Caoimhe.

A knock on the door woke Anna up from her miserable state of mind. She didn’t even raise her head; she knew it was Castiel coming to check up on her again. Castiel’s eyes were filled with pity and sadness and Anna couldn’t look at him. He shouldn’t pity her; he should hate her. He should be angry at her that she had gotten their friend dead. Anna couldn’t understand why he wasn’t. Why did he think she deserved to be pitied as if she had made a mistake of locking herself out of the house instead of being the person responsible for someone’s death? It didn’t make any sense.

“Anna, you should eat something,” Castiel’s soft voice said but Anna kept her eyes on the floor. She wasn’t hungry; she hadn’t been hungry for weeks.

The door opened wider and steps entered the room. Soon, Anna could feel the angel sitting down next to her on the floor. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and if Anna had any will power left in her at all, she’d have shaken them off but she didn’t. She just sat there, not saying a word.

Castiel picked up the phone which was still open on the floor.

“You can text him if you want, Anna,” he said. “No matter the differences, he’s still your brother and you need all the support you need right now.”

Anna shook her head. “Why would he answer me now when he didn’t answer to that.”

“Because he probably doesn’t believe that you would actually have a way to get Sam out of the cage, and honestly you really don’t,” Castiel said carefully not trying to pick up a fight. “But if he knew you were struggling and needed help, he would come as fast as he could.”

Anna doubted that. She wanted to believe that what Castiel said was true, but it was difficult. She felt like an idiot wanting to even see her brother. Anna should still stay mad at him and not crying after him. Dean had treated her badly; he didn’t deserve to have her run to him after she had gone through something. He didn’t deserve to be the one to comfort her but why did Anna want it so badly?

It didn’t take her more than five minutes before she looked at Castiel who was still sitting next to her with his arm around her.

“Can you please take me to him?” She suddenly asked and could see the surprise on the angel’s face.

He nodded carefully. “I can but are you sure?”

“Yes, I want to see Dean,” Anna said quietly. She knew this basically made her a quitter; she should have been stronger. She should have been able to cope with Caoimhe’s death without Dean’s help. This made her feel a helpless child but at the moment, she didn’t really care. She just wanted to see her brother.

It didn’t take long for Castiel to get them behind Lisa’s door. He left Anna alone and went somewhere else to let the siblings talk alone. Anna looked at him before turning to the door and raising her hand to knock on the door. But just before her fist connected with the door, Anna stopped herself. What was she doing?

Dean was living his own life here, happily without Anna. What gave her the right to come and ruin all that just because she was feeling depressed? Dean hadn’t known Caoimhe, to him she was just a woman who had ‘taken’ Anna away from him. He had no reason to feel bad for her death. Caoimhe was just another witch to him, and Dean thought all witches deserved to die. Maybe Anna shouldn’t do this.

She moved away from the door but went to sit on the ground in the shadows. Dean could see her if he opened the door but Anna would be able hid herself with a spell. Anna leaned on the wall and hid her face in her hands. She couldn’t believe she had actually made Castiel bring her all this way to see Dean. What had she been thinking? Dean wouldn’t want to see her. She would just make a mess out of his life making him miserable.

Anna stared in front of her. It was getting darker and she probably should leave but she didn’t have the energy to move. She was so tired of not doing anything. The whole month Anna had been depressed about Caoimhe’s death and she felt useless. Now she was filled with the urge to get revenge for her friend’s death.

Without Castiel knowing, Anna had secretly tried to find the coven again. She had practiced a spell that could show its location but she hadn’t succeeded at it yet. She had tried to come up with a plan what to do with the coven but until now, her own morality had been stopping her. Now, it felt clear to her that the coven had to be killed. The witches of the coven had killed Caoimhe even when she had done nothing to hurt her. She had been innocent. In reality, they would be called cold blood killers.

Anna wasn’t strong enough to kill them now, but she would be by the time she found the coven again. They would taste her anger, that was a promise she made to herself and to Caoimhe. Anna would show them that they messed with a wrong person. The coven would be destroyed no matter what. Her morality aside, she would do anything to get her revenge.

Even Castiel wouldn’t be able to stop her. She would tell him the plan and if he didn’t agree, he could just stay home. She wouldn’t force him to help her but she wouldn’t let him do anything to prevent the revenge from happening. This was the only way Anna could come up with to make it better. If Caoimhe was dead, so should be the coven too. They had no right to kill her. They would regret having even look at her after Anna was done. Once Anna was strong enough to face them again, they wouldn’t see the next daylight.

Anna knew Aurora’s grimoire had darker spells but she had been too scared to even look at them. After what Dean had been saying to her all the time, Anna truly had been afraid of turning evil. But she knew that once she got back to New Orleans, the first thing she would do was to open the grimoire on those pages. The darker spells would tell her what to do in order to inflict serious bodily harm onto other witches. There weren’t many of them but she knew the few were so strong that she should be able to take on the whole coven at once.

It had gotten even darker now that the lights from the windows seemed brighter. Anna knew she should now leave. She wasn’t going to knock on the door, she wasn’t going to let Dean know she had been there. Coming here had been a mistake; she had lost precious time by doing so. It was stupid of Anna to think that Dean would be the answer. He would just make her feel bad again, saying it was her own fault that Caoimhe was dead.

And nobody could ever blame her as much as she blamed herself. No one.

Anna got up slowly just to see Castiel already standing in the middle of the street. Him and his trench coat looked like a statue as the small streetlight illuminated him. Anna walked up to him and he almost swallowed her into his arms as he hugged her tightly. He seemed to understand that Anna hadn’t seen Dean. Anna didn’t say a word but gave him a small kiss on his lips which clearly took him by surprise.

He looked at her with his eyebrow up but didn’t comment.

“Are you okay?” He only asked and for the first time in a long time, Anna was able to say yes. Although the reason behind her yes probably wouldn’t make the angel very happy. He would try to stop her but she was prepared for that.

“Yes, I’m perfect,” she said.

Chapter Text

“You must be joking, Anna!” Castiel was in clear distress after hearing about Anna’s plans for revenge. He was walking in circles around the living room throwing murderous looks towards the witch every once in a while.

Anna was just sitting on the couch without really caring about Castiel being against the idea. She had already expected that when she had first come up with the plan. It had taken her few days to actually tell the angel about it and now when she had done it, she was totally unsurprised by the reaction she received.

“You are talking about going to the coven that killed Caoimhe to what? Kill them? Destroy them?” Castiel’s voice got louder as he repeated the exact words Anna had just said to him. She had used the expression destroy because it seemed to fit better than just kill. Killing would be merciful but Anna wanted them to be so destroyed that no one could even recognize that they were human bodies.

Caoimhe’s death had made Anna become rather emotionless. She had been so depressed for so long that now it was almost as if she had just switched her emotions off. Based on Castiel’s expressions, Anna could imagine that she had become just the person Dean had feared her to be. Back then it would have scared the shit out of her but right now, Anna didn’t care. In order to actually destroy the coven, she had to be evil. If she followed her own morals, she wouldn’t be able to do what she had to do.

“Exactly, they killed Caoimhe!” Anna defended her choices. “They deserve to die.”

Castiel sighed in frustration. “You are not talking about just killing them, you are planning to blow them up so there won’t be anything than blood left!”

“Yeah, so?” Anna shrugged. She was aware the plan sounded terrible but the rage inside her didn’t give up and it was pushing her towards to more and more angry ideas. She only wanted to have a revenge for her friend. Could she be blamed for that?

“That is not you, Anna! You are not a killer,” Castiel groaned.

“Oh, I’m not a killer? Castiel, tell me, what have I been doing for the past five or so years?” Anna challenged and crossed her arms to her chest.

“That’s different…,” Castiel said. “You have been helping people from monsters. You haven’t been running out killing for a revenge.”

Anna laughed. “What about Azazel? What should we call killing him if not a revenge? The whole reason why we have been in the hunting life was to avenge Mary Winchester’s death!”

Castiel sighed. He knew she was right. The Winchesters would never have started hunting (again) if the yellow eyed demon hadn’t killed their mother. Sam and Dean had been on the search of the demon ever since they were little kids with John. They were after revenge, there wasn’t calling it anything else than what it was.

“You know what I mean,” Castiel said. “Killing Azazel was just shooting him with the Colt, not mutilating him.”

Anna shrugged. She honestly couldn’t care less right now what Castiel had to say about the topic. She had already made her mind on it and if he didn’t want to help her, so be it. Anna would be able to find help from somewhere else. But even if she got help, she would be going to the coven alone. There was no way she would let anyone else go with her and get them killed. That was a mistake Anna wasn’t going to do twice. This time she was on her own once she got to that point.

“Anna, please think about this again. If you do this, there’s no coming back.”

Nothing Castiel said was news to Anna. She was aware of the fact that she would probably become a different person after doing something so horrible to someone. But it was for Caoimhe. Anna couldn’t let her death not be avenged. That was something that was so sure to her. She didn’t understand why Castiel didn’t see it in the same way. Wasn’t it obvious that Anna would want to get revenge for her friend’s death? Wasn’t it obvious that it was the right thing to do?

“I know,” Anna mumbled.

Castiel didn’t give up. “You are going to become the person Dean was afraid you would. Is that something you want?”

“Of course not! I have no choice! There’s no way I can just carry on with my life knowing the coven is walking freely somewhere!” Anna raised her voice in frustration. “I don’t understand how you don’t feel the same!”

Not giving Castiel time to response, Anna walked out of the room and went upstairs in her room. The whole conversation with the angel had just made her more angry and she felt like punching something. The magic was responding to her strong emotions – like it had been for the past month – and she was unable to calm down. Therefore, she just let the magic burst out of her and the mirror in the room broke to small pieces. Anna stared at the pieces on the floor, grabbed one of them and laid it down on the table.

Spreading her arms, she started to mutter a spell.

“eitilt, eitilt díreach mar a bheadh ​​éan beag neamhchiontach.”

The broken piece started to float in the air between Anna’s hands. It goes as high as the crown of her head before she lets it fall on the floor. Floating things was something she had learned just before Caoimhe had come from Ireland. It was a small skill but Anna had been so proud of herself when she had mastered it. Now it felt like nothing. She felt like she should know better and more powerful spells than just floating a broken piece of mirror.

She should know how to kill.

That thought should have scared the hell out of Anna – but it didn’t. It was all she could think about. She wasn’t good enough to kill someone with her magic but she must learn if she really wanted to get revenge. Castiel wasn’t happy with her right now but she didn’t give a damn. If he didn’t find Caoimhe’s death unfair, it was solely on Anna to make it happen. Therefore, she grabbed Aurora’s grimoire and opened it in front of her.

There were pages about darker magic with big warning spells on them. It had taken Anna a while to break through them. Aurora clearly hadn’t wanted anyone to learn these spells but Anna had to. She had to break the warning spells so she could master the skill of killing someone. In that moment, it didn’t even feel that evil for her but she knew her brothers would never ever forgive her for this – Castiel would never forgive her.

But avenging for Caoimhe’s death would be worth it.

Slowly Anna started to spell out the spells out loud but being careful not to actually do anything. She would have to find a living object to actually try it on and that was the biggest problem in this. No matter how angry Anna was, she would never hurt an innocent person. An animal could do but that way she can’t be sure if the spell would work on an actual person. She would need to go on a test run which sounded pretty horrible.

But luckily Anna was resourceful even in her sorrow. She did what she had been doing ever since Dean had picker her up from Bobby’s all those years ago – hunted. She found a whole vampire nest to test her skills and it had worked. It had taken her only about half an hour to kill the whole nest with her spells she had practiced. Of course, they weren’t actually human but they were close enough.

Castiel had looked terrified when she had come back. There was blood all over her and the question could be seen on his face. Anna just shrugged and passed him and went pack to her room. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, right? He would get over it soon. Anna was just going to avenge Caoimhe’s death and then she would turn back to normal.

When in her room, Anna realized she would have to contact Rowena again to find the coven. The elder witch had known the location before, she must know it now. Anna wasn’t happy about having to speak to the ginger again but it was a must.

Taika, you are making a mistake.

It had been a long time since Anna had heard the voice the last time. It hadn’t spoken to her even when Caoimhe had died. Anna had assumed it had disappeared after Sam went in the cage. Of course, it would now come back when it was Anna who was doing something reckless. She was well aware that what she was doing was against her own morals, she didn’t need Castiel nor the voice to tell it to her. But Anna had already wrapped her mind around the plan, she wasn’t going to back down now.

“Shut up,” she mumbled to it as she prepared to contact Rowena.

You shouldn’t anger the wrong people.

You don’t know what you are doing.

“Go away.”

There’s no going back if you do this.

Even I cannot help you then.

“Good, I haven’t asked for your help,” Anna said now angrily. Why did everyone think of her as a child? She wasn’t a helpless, little kid anymore. She did know what she was doing, she was making sure Caoimhe’s death didn’t go unnoticed.

Be careful Taika.

You are messing with the wrong people.

Anna was just about to answer the voice when a ginger witch suddenly appeared in front of her in the room. It was Rowena but she wasn’t really there, she was see-through as if she was a ghost. Anna knew what it was, the witch was astra projecting. It was a surprise to Anna, that Rowena was able to do that despite the protections in the house.

“Ah, wee Anna, ye look awful,” Rowena smacked her mouth as she set eyes on the younger woman on the floor.

“Rowena,” Anna greeted her. “Glad you were able to come.”

Rowena smiled – or smirked. “Well, despite the disagreements we had with yer mother, I find ye adorable.”

Anna refrained from rolling her eyes. She didn’t want to be adorable, at the moment she wanted to be someone who others were scared of. She didn’t care for being cute and adorable, a beautiful woman. There was a need for her to be strong and dangerous right now. Rowena, of course, knew that but she probably enjoyed putting Anna down.

“Let’s stop with all that,” Anna said calmly. “I need your help finding the coven again.”

“Ahh, I did hear yer last trip ended rather tragically.”

Anna closed her eyes for a second to gather herself again. “Yes and I need to know where the coven is located now.”

Rowena smirked and tilted her head. She seemed to be quite amused about the situation. Anna could see the witch enjoyed when someone was asking for help because that meant she could ask favours. Anna had no intention of paying back those favours, though. There was so much more to do than worry about what Rowena might ask her to do.

“What makes ye think I would help ye again? Ye had yer chance.” Rowena smacked her lips and shook her head in disappointment.

“I thought you found me adorable.”

Rowena laughed. “Ye refused my help when I offered to help ye get dear Samuel out of the cage.”

“That’s a different thing, my brother has nothing to do with this,” Anna defended. She started to get annoyed at the witch. Rowena was clearly just trying to make this as long as she wanted. Anna felt she wasn’t going to help her this time – and honestly, that wouldn’t be a surprise.

“Fine, I can teach ye one thin’ or two,” Rowena finally said. “Ye can astra project yourself to the location without them knowin’.”

Anna nodded. “Show me how to do it.”

It wasn’t an easy task for Rowena to teach astra project while projecting herself but Anna found herself learning it rather easily. With the help of Aurora’s grimoire, she managed to project herself to downstairs where Castiel was doing his research on witches. The sight made Anna want to yell at him. He was probably trying to find information how to stop Anna from learning how to kill other witches.

“Ye are natural,” Rowena sounded genuinely proud. “But I must warn ye, Anna. This is a risky game ye are playin’, the borrowers know to expect ye now. Going to them isn’t goin’ to be as easy as it was last time and this time ye don’t have Caoimhe with ye.”

Anna knew all that. She was prepared to go there alone; she wasn’t going to risk anyone else. It had been a mistake to ask Caoimhe to go with her. If Anna hadn’t done that, she would still be alive. She wouldn’t be now planning for a revenge. So, she was going alone. She might tell Castiel what she was going to do; he could choose for himself if he was going to go with her or not. Anna wasn’t going to ask him to come.

“Thank you for your help, Rowena, I appreciate it,” Anna said quietly, hoping the older witch would leave now. While she appreciated Rowena’s help and advice, her company still made Anna uncomfortable. She didn’t fully trust the woman.

Rowena smacked her lips. “Ye be careful, ye don’t want to lose another friend, do ye?”

Anna frowned. Rowena’s words came out as a threat and she didn’t like the feeling. It was as if the redhead had known that something bad would happen the last time she had helped Anna. It only occurred to Anna now that she could have set a trap for her. What if Rowena had warned the coven before Anna and Caoimhe had gotten there? What if…

What if it was Rowena’s fault that Caoimhe was dead?

No. Anna was still responsible for her death. Even if it was a trap set by Rowena, it had been Anna’s decision to go there in the first place. She could have listened to Caoimhe’s warnings and not have gone there. There was no way to go around it. Anna and the coven were the only people who were to take the blame for Caoimhe’s death. No matter what Castiel said, Caoimhe deserved to get avenged for. She had been there when Anna needed help the most. She had helped her come to terms with her new identity. Without Caoimhe, Anna would probably still be even more lost with herself than she was now.

So, after Rowena finally left, Anna did all the preparations that Rowena had just showed her. As she started to feel like her soul was leaving her body, she closed her eyes and the next time she opened them, she saw bunch of witches in front of her. Anna’s eyes widened as she watched them perform a ritual that she wasn’t familiar with but it looked dangerous. She looked around them to try to catch where they were and she did catch one detail that could help her find them. The only problem was that she had no idea how but luckily, she knew who could help her with it.

Chapter Text

Anna should have guessed Castiel was going to follow her. He caught up with her quite quickly and now they were sitting in a quiet car as they were both sulking at each other. The first thing the angel had done when he got in the car was to yell at her for making bad decisions – again. While Anna could agree with that, she didn’t want to acknowledge it. She needed to go through with her plan or otherwise she didn’t believe she could go on. Even with the revenge, Anna would carry this guilt on her shoulders for the rest of her life.

“Anna…” Castiel started but she interrupted him immediately.

“No, Castiel,” she said. “You cannot change my mind.”

The man sighed. “I know and that wasn’t what I was going to say. I was going to say that I don’t think you should go to Bobby with this.”

Anna was indeed driving to see Bobby to ask whether he would help her. She had considered the possibility of him declining but she had to at least try. Bobby was the only person who she knew who could possibly help her to figure out where the coven was. While astra projecting, Anna had seen a sign that said something that she couldn’t understand. She had hesitantly showed it to Castiel too who didn’t know what it meant either – well, at least he said so. Anna didn’t really trust him to tell her the truth at the moment. Bobby was an expert with these kind of things. The problem was that they hadn’t seen each other since Sam went to Hell and Anna knew he wouldn’t like this just like Castiel. But she had to try.

“Bobby will never help you with this,” Castiel continued when Anna didn’t say anything for a while.

“You don’t know that,” she mumbled even though she knew he was right. Bobby probably wouldn’t help her with this. He would be angry for her for putting another person in danger and getting that person killed. It would be a wonder if he didn’t “disown” her the moment he was told the truth.

Anna was a murderer.

Castiel looked at her. “Anna, you remember how he reacted when you sold your soul for Sam?”

“Of course,” Anna said quietly. “But he recovered very quickly. He will get over it once I explain it to him why this is important to me. You weren’t even there when that happened so you wouldn’t know.”  

The rest of the car ride was silent. They weren’t going to get to Bobby’s for a while because the car drive from New Orleans to South Dakota was quite long. Anna pulled up to a motel that looked busy. She wanted to be around people right now. Maybe she could even find a pub and get drunk so she wouldn’t have to deal with Castiel being angry with her. They could continue driving the next day and maybe Castiel would stop sulking at that point. It was his decision to follow her so, Anna wasn’t going to apologize.

An hour later, Anna was sitting at the local pub, surrounded by drunk old men. If the situation was different, she would be bothered by it but right now, she didn’t really care. The beer in front of her was the thing she craved the most right now. Castiel was sitting opposite of her, not saying a word. She had tried to get him to stay at the motel but he had refused to let her go alone. Anna knew he wanted to keep eye on her because he thought she would run away to “mutilate” the witches.

After her fourth beer, Anna suddenly caught a glimpse of a person that looked painfully familiar. Brown haired and a tall figure was standing at the bar back to Anna and Castiel. Anna stood up. Something inside her told her that this person was Sam. But… Sam was in Hell in the cage with Lucifer. There was no way Anna’s brother was now standing in a random bar in the middle of nowhere. There was a bald man standing next to him that Anna didn’t recognize. It couldn’t be Sam.

Castiel looked at her weirdly. “Anna? Are you seeing something?”

“Him.” Anna pointed at the man. “I think it’s Sam.”

“Anna…” Castiel said pitifully but something in his eyes said something different. It didn’t look like he didn’t believe her but rather that he didn’t want her to believe it. Anna couldn’t catch his expression before it was already gone.

Anna started walking towards the man confidently and tapped on his shoulder as she got to him. When the man finally turned around, it was like the earth under Anna’s feet fell apart. The man was her brother. He was Sam. Somehow, Sam Winchester, her former twin brother, was standing in front of her, alive and well. Anna couldn’t believe it. Tears burst through her eyes as she stared at him.

“Anna?” Sam said as if he wasn’t surprised at all to see her.

“S-Sam? You are a-alive?” Anna stuttered. She didn’t know what to feel. Confused? Scared? Happy? Sad? Guilty? Amazed? She couldn’t understand how Sam could be alive. They didn’t think there would be a way to get him out. Had Dean succeeded? But surely Dean would have told Anna that he had gotten Sam out, wouldn’t he? Or could he be so angry at her that he wouldn’t have done that?

“Yes,” Sam said. Anna frowned. Why didn’t he seem happy to see her? Did he blame her for what happened just like Dean did? She didn’t understand but she was so happy to see him to care too much.

Anna sniffled. “I can’t believe you are here. So much has happened since you were gone. I’m just… speechless, how can you be here?”

She saw Sam throwing a glance at someone behind her and Anna realized Castiel was standing there. What was going on? Why did Sam seem so different? Anna pulled him with her to her table, not caring about the bald man who looked rather upset that his companion was taken away. She wanted to hear everything. For a moment she was able to forget about her plan; for a moment, it didn’t matter because her brother was alive.

“How long have you been out?” Anna started her questions.

Sam didn’t answer the question. “How’s Dean?”

“Oh,” Anna said. She should have expected Sam to ask about Dean but part of her had thought he would have already seen their older brother. Sam she knew would have gone to Dean immediately after getting out of hell. “Truthfully, I haven’t seen him since you… went to the cage.”

Sam only shrugged like he didn’t care to which Anna frowned even more. She tried to share a look with Castiel but the angel was clearly avoiding her stare. Something was going on with both of them and Anna wanted to know what. She didn’t like being in the dark. For most of her life she had been in the dark with everything and now finally she had started to be the master of her own decisions.

“I’m living in New Orleans now, in my mother’s house.” Anna decided to give Sam bit more time to think about what to say to her. “I found a witch who knew my mother. And… my friend Caoimhe got killed.”

Castiel shot a warning stare at her but Sam didn’t even blink an eye. Anna had to take a deep breath so she wouldn’t react. Sam knew how much Caoimhe meant to her and he didn’t even say he was sorry? What was wrong with him? Whatever had happened to him, he wasn’t doing alright and honestly, Anna didn’t have the energy to deal with that. She didn’t know if this was just Sam’s way letting her know how disappointed he was in or if something was actually wrong with him but either way, Anna didn’t like it.

“Sam, how long have you been out of the cage?” She asked one more time and now Sam shrugged again.

“Around six months,” he then said and Anna’s mouth dropped open.

“SIX MONTHS? YOU HAVE BEEN OUT SIX MONTHS AND YOU HAVEN’T EVEN TRIED TO FIND ME?” Anna was furious and the whole bar was looking at her but she didn’t care. Her brother had been out for six months and he hadn’t even bothered to contact her.

“Anna…” Castiel said slowly but she didn’t stop.

“Have you been to seen Dean?” She asked scared to get the answer. She wasn’t sure whether yes or no would be better. She would feel betrayed if he had only let Dean known that he was alive but if he hadn’t told either of them, she would just be angry at Sam for betraying both of them.

Sam shook his head. “No.”

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? I have gone through so much while mourning for you! And then my friend dies and I would have definitely need the support of my brother! And you have just… what, hanged out with some old bald dude?” Anna went on and on and she could feel her magic start flowing in her veins stronger and stronger. She knew it was dangerous for her to get angry like this in a public place but she couldn’t control herself – not now.

Anna felt Castiel’s grace trying to cool her down but it didn’t help, she was too angry. Anyone who had mourned for months over the death of a brother would be angry if they suddenly found out that the “dead” brother had been alive for the whole time! Anna couldn’t understand how Sam could do this to them. Didn’t he want to see them?

When Sam didn’t say anything, Anna continued. “How did you even get out?”

“Ask Castiel,” Sam said and in disbelief, Anna turned to look at Castiel who was now forced to look her in the eyes.

“Castiel,” she said slowly. “What does he mean?”

The magic in her veins was now boiling. She had already guessed something was going on by the way the angel had been acting but apparently, this was so much bigger. Why did Sam tell her to ask Castiel how he had gotten out? Did Castiel have something to do with it? But… surely, the angel would have told Anna that her brother was out? Right?

“I got Sam out,” Castiel then admitted and before anyone could say anything, Anna felt her eyes turn purple. The rage inside her was now come to her skin and she felt like she was burning up. The man who she had trusted with her life had been lying to her for six month.

Her brother had been alive for six whole months and Castiel had been the one to save him – and have made the decision not to tell Anna. She was betrayed and she didn’t think she had ever been betrayed like this. She loved Castiel and he had gone and done this to her? What kind of person did that? Anna stood up with her whole body shaking from the anger. Castiel’s eyes were wide and she could feel him pushing his grace into her harder but she pushed back with her magic. She deserved to feel this rage.

“You. Fucking. Asshole,” she said through her teeth. “You have known he was alive for half a year and haven’t told me anything? And you were the one who saved him? How dare you. How dare you to act like you are the more rational one out of us when it comes to my plan but then keep lying to me every day!”

“Anna…” Castiel said. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t say anything.”

“You couldn’t? Or you wouldn’t?”

“I couldn’t.”

“Yes, you could have. You could have said ‘Anna, I managed to get your brother out of the cage, he’s alive’! but no, you didn’t,” Anna seethed. “I TRUSTED YOU WITH MY LIFE AND YOU DO THIS? WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST LOCK YOURSELF IN THE CAGE INSTEAD?”

With that, Anna rushed out of the bar. Her eyes were burning and she was sure she would set on fire any second. She had never been this angry. She had thought Castiel would always be there for her but guess she had been wrong. Maybe she had taken him for granted. Maybe Castiel didn’t have the same kind of feelings for her as she had for him. Maybe this was all for nothing.

Maybe Anna really was alone in the world.

Everything seemed to fall apart in her life. Every time she thought something was getting better, something else came and took that moment away from her. Nothing ever lasted in her life, maybe it was time for Anna to accept that. Maybe she should just go on without anyone in her life. She could find the coven by herself; it wasn’t like she had needed Castiel to come with her in the first place.

After walking a while, the rage was finally subsiding and Anna’s skin didn’t burn anymore. She felt her eyes turn back to normal and she was calming down. She still didn’t want to go back to the motel, Castiel would be there waiting for her and she didn’t want to see him right now. Maybe she didn’t want to see him ever again. Maybe this was it, the end of their joined journey. It should have made Anna even sadder but she was too angry to feel sadness. Everything was piling up inside her and she knew she wasn’t able to control them but she didn’t even want to control her emotions.

Anna suddenly noticed an orange cat following her and she tried to get it away from her but it didn’t butch. Stubbornly, the cat continued walking behind her until Anna lost her senses and yelled at it to go away. She didn’t want company, especially from some cat. All she wanted was some peaceful alone time. If people just knew what she had planned for the coven, they wouldn’t have made her this angry. Well… Castiel knew and still betrayed her.

Anna was stopped by the cat running in front of her and in the overwhelming rage, she was just about to kick it when it suddenly transformed in front of her. Her eyes widened as the cat wasn’t a cat anymore but a beautiful woman with faint, orange hair. The woman looked rather annoyed and was staring at Anna blatantly rudely. Well, who could blame her; Anna had been just about to kick her.

“Taika Corey,” the woman said making Anna frown. How did she know her name? Anna took few steps back not sure if this woman was there with good intentions. She had never seen someone transform from a cat to a human before so she was naturally suspicious.

“Who are you?” Anna asked carefully and the woman rolled her eyes.

She sighed. “I was told you are a newbie but I did not realize you are this thick.”

“Excuse me?” Anna was offended. “Do you expect me to know every single catperson in the world?”

“I am Ginger, I am assigned to you,” the woman introduced herself but it didn’t make Anna any less confused. What did she mean by assigned to her?

“What?”

Ginger sighed again, this much filled with frustration as if it was so clear what she was talking about. “I am your familiar.”

Oh. Now it made sense. Anna had heard of familiars from Caoimhe. They were witch’s companion and basically served as their servants. She had heard a familiar and their master shared a special bond and would die for each other. She had never thought she would have a familiar herself, though. Caoimhe had let her known that they were quite rare and witches in Ireland didn’t usually possess a familiar. Anna hadn’t even thought what she would do if she had a familiar because she had assumed she didn’t have one.

“I didn’t know I had a familiar,” she confessed and for some reason she felt guilty for it.

“Do not worry, most of the witches do not know before we find them,” Ginger said. “Trust me, I am equally as surprised as you. I had always hoped my master would be an acknowledged witch but I guess a cat cannot always get what she wants.”

Anna got flustered. “I’m sorry to disappoint you with my being but you don’t have to be here if you don’t want to. I don’t specifically want to be your master.”

Ginger laughed and sat down on a bench nearby. She was tall, skinny and was wearing high black boots. Even as human, she had a cat-like appearance. Anna wasn’t sure whether familiars aged but she couldn’t be much older than Anna. Ginger had a royal-like feeling to her. She clearly didn’t like Anna and seemed rather bossy. Anna wasn’t sure who the master would be in this situation, she or Ginger.

“You are right, at the end it is your decision whether to accept me or not, but I feel the obligation to let you know one thing,” Ginger said slowly watching Anna’s every expression. “I do not want you to feel bad for me and make your decision solely based on this – because if I am being honest, I am not sure if I want you to accept me after all – but if I do not make the bond with my assigned witch, I lose the opportunity to transform again. I will be forever stuck in the form of what I am in the moment when you decline me.”

Anna listened to her in horror. She didn’t want to be responsible for Ginger being stuck in a form or another for the rest of her life. But would it be healthy for her to accept her just because she felt bad? Just like Ginger had just said, she shouldn’t make the decision solely based on that information, right? But on the other hand, Anna would be glad of the company. If the familiar was bound to her and was loyal to only her, that would be a benefit. At least she would have someone who couldn’t betray her like Castiel had just done to her.

“Okay,” Anna said and Ginger tilted her head.

“Okay as you are accepting me or something other dumb thing that is going through your head?” She asked.

“Okay as me accepting you as my familiar,” Anna said and felt the need to explain herself further. “Don’t worry, I didn’t make the decision just based on you getting stuck otherwise.”

Ginger didn’t say anything but she stood up and walked up to her. She put her hand on Anna’s forehead and after a while Anna could feel warmth spreading through her body. It was different warmth than her magic flowing in her veins but more like she was sitting at a bonfire. It was comfortable and made her sleepy but once Ginger pulled her hand away, Anna was wide awake. Nothing felt different and it made her wonder if it had worked or not.

Can you hear me?

Anna flinched. She heard a voice in her mind but it wasn’t the voice she usually heard. This voice sounded different. She looked at Ginger who had transformed into a cat again. She was sitting on the bench, staring at her with her head tilted.

“Was it you?” Anna asked out loud.

Yes. We can hear each other’s thoughts from now on.

“Oh, can we ever turn it off?” Anna got scared. She hadn’t realized she would be sharing her thoughts with someone now. It would probably make things more difficult with the whole revenge thing.

We can but only for few moments at a time. We cannot hear each other if we are too far from each other either.

What is this revenge you are thinking about?

“My friend Caoimhe got killed few months ago and I want to avenge her death,” Anna said honestly. There was no point trying to avoid it if Ginger could hear her every thought.

I am in. If she was a good friend, she deserves to be avenged for.

“Well, I’m glad someone agrees with me!” Anna said. Only if Castiel was there to hear this. He would have probably said it was a bad idea to get bonded with a familiar. Anna didn’t really care for his opinion now. He had made his decision when getting Sam out of the cage without telling Anna about it. She still couldn’t believe he had done that. She had thought they were telling everything to each other. She had told him about the plan she knew he would disagree with, hadn’t she? Why wouldn’t Castiel tell her about Sam? He was aware she would be overjoyed if her brother was alive. Anna couldn’t find one reason why he should have stayed quiet about it.

Who is Sam and in what cage he was in? Castiel is your angel friend, is he not?

Anna gave Ginger a short recap of the happenings and she could hear the distaste of the cat. Ginger expressed how much she despised Dean and Castiel. To Sam she showed a little compassion but didn’t let him go for not coming to see Anna after he got out. Anna was surprised about the voice tone of the cat.

I despise people who treat their loved ones badly but I despise men even more than that.

“Well, that makes sense,” Anna mumbled. “Sometimes I really despise men too.”