Losing Hope | {BOOK 4}

59| Trapping Lucifer

Crowley still looked like he wasn't on board with the plan to have Lucifer put Amos away before we put him back away.

"Crowley, tick tock," Dean told him. "You with us?"

"The crux of your dispute is your contention that Lucifer, and only Lucifer, can use the Horn to beat Amos, right?" he clarified.

"You got it."

"Well, that scenario only works if you actually possess the Horn, which you do not."

"No, we don't," Sam nodded frustratedly. "But you do, so..."

"Exactly!" Crowley yelled. "I do! This isn't a negotiation. I have the high cards, and you have... Hold on. Give me second. Let me have a look... no cards! My offer stands."

"When we sprung Lucifer from the Cage, we had Rowena and the Book of the Damned," I commented. "Both of which we will need to put him back in the Cage, both of which are gone."

"Guys," Sam tried to cut in.

"Back to you," I glared at the demon.

"Gus, look at this," Sam said louder.

We all looked over to see words burnt into an old safe with spell work: 'BACK FROM THE DEAD FERGUS'.

⁘

We met Rowena in an old church where we set up a trap to summon Lucifer while Crowley disappeared to get the Horn of Joshua.

"I hate this," I grumbled.

"Yeah," Dean agreed, finishing spraying the trap.

"And by the way, where is Crowley? I mean, we're essentially all set up," Sam added.

"Yeah, I mean, he's the one who boxed us into doing this," I rolled my eyes. "You'd think he'd have the decency to-"

"Show up?" Crowley finished my sentence. "He does. Because without bait, well... a trap isn't really a trap, is it?"

"That's it?" Sam scoffed, gesturing to the Horn of Joshua in Crowley's grasp. "Doesn't look like much, does it?"

"First impressions can be deceiving, Moose. For instance, I once thought of you as dull and plodding."

Sam glared at him, and he waved a hand dismissively.

"Oh, never mind. Bad analogy."

"For the record, we still think this is a bad idea," Dean said. "We should be using Lucifer, not icing him."

"I'm aware. I'll be standing right here should you hesitate. The hand that giveth can so quickly taketh away."

"Yeah, we getteth it," I rolled my eyes.

"So, Mummy, you were telling us your fascinating tale of resurrection," Crowley addressed Rowena. "But you never did say exactly where you'd been this whole time."

"Same as you, Fergus. Hiding. Once the Dark Prince knew I was alive, I wouldn't be."

"No mucking about like last time," the demon looked over at Dean and I. "The warding and the holy fire won't keep an archangel but for a moment. If he shows up at all."

"Oh, he'll show," I said. "He's too hungry to take Amos out, and we've got the blaster to do it."

I tossed a match into the potion and began the spell to summon Lucifer.

"In nomine magni dei nostri. Satanas, introibo ad altare. Domini Inferi. I summon you to make an offer. The weapon by which its bearer can crush the Darkness forever."

Thunder crashed and Sam and Dean looked around while Rowena hurried to hide behind the door. A moment later, Lucifer appeared inside the trap.

"Sam, now!"

Sam lit a match, dropping it on the holy oil and causing a ring of fire to appear on the edge of the trap around Lucifer. He smirked over at Sam, who appeared to be scared like Rowena.

"I'm sorry. Your prayer implied that I'd be... joining the team," Lucifer spoke, "but I'm just not feeling the warm and fuzzies here."

Dean and Sam exchanged a look and I just stared at Lucifer as he spotted the Horn of Joshua.

"Wow. There it is. Powered by Dad himself. Well, that bad boy plus me... That ought to take him out alright."

He clapped his hands together, rubbing them together with glee.

"Let's get to it. Douse the flames," the archangel snapped his fingers impatiently when none of us moved. "Or don't?"

Dean cut his hand and pressed it against a spell etched on the wall. Lucifer began to shake, and I swallowed hard as his wings flickered from white to black like they did when Cass regained control before.

"Cass," Dean called. "Castiel, show yourself!"

"Dean? Eleanor?" Cass looked between us, breathing heavily.

"Cass," I relaxed my shoulders, staring back at him.

"What are you doing? What's... what's going on?"

"Cass, listen to me," Dean told him. "We don't have a lot of time, okay? You have got to..."

Cass writhed and shook, his wings returning to white as Lucifer regained control of the vessel once more.

"Cass," I called, knowing it was almost pointless.

Lucifer continued to struggle as he gained more and more control.

"Castiel, show yourself!" I shouted.

"Oh-hoo-hoo-hoo!" Lucifer laughed. "Whoo! Uh, he's got to what? You kids... ooh, you almost had me there for a minute, but these mail-order spells... they're just not what they're cracked up to be, are you?"

"Cass, expel him!" Dean yelled. "You got to kick Lucifer out! Do you hear me?!"

"Honestly, I think he's happy with the arrangement. I mean, he did invite me in and all, Dean."

"Cass!" Dean yelled again.

"Cass!" Lucifer mocked him. "Hand over the weapon. What do you say? Or we can just wait for this warding to fail and I'll take it."

As if to prove his point, at that moment the spell work died and the warding began to fail.

"Bloody hell," Crowley swore.

Before any of us could react, Crowley smoked out of his meat suit and went into Lucifer.

"What- what just happened?" Dean asked.

"He's going to try to get Cass to expel Lucifer," I realized. "Like he did with Sam and Gadreel."

I swallowed following the statement, glancing over at Sam guiltily, but he was focusing on the vessel containing Lucifer, Cass, and Crowley in the middle of the failing warding. Rowena had come out of hiding, also staring at the vessel in shock as we all waited to see if Crowley would succeed. After several minutes, the words 'HELP ME' were burnt onto the forehead of Crowley's meat suit. Sam immediately started chanting an exorcism from memory and Dean tossed holy water at Lucifer until the red smoke returned to Crowley's meat suit.