"My ex?" Henry stared at Dean for a second before shaking his head. "Dean, can you be serious? This is dangerous enough that if we don't handle it properly, all of us die."
The irritation in Henry's voice immediately killed Dean's joke.
Dean straightened slightly and the amusement disappeared from his face.
"Alright," he said. "I'm listening."
Henry leaned against the workbench and folded his arms.
"The thing is, after we killed Yellow Eyes, Hell didn't just lose its leader and collapse. Somebody stepped in and took control." His expression hardened.
"That somebody is Lilith. She's basically the current queen of Hell, and she's the most dangerous thing we've ever dealt with."
Sam's eyes narrowed immediately.
Ruby had mentioned Lilith before.
Not much.
Dean frowned while processing the information.
"Dangerous how?" he asked. "I mean, we have the demon knife now. We find her, we stick the knife in her, end of story."
Henry shook his head.
"That works on normal demons."
The emphasis immediately caught Dean's attention.
"Lilith isn't normal," Henry continued.
"She doesn't need to get close to kill people. She can throw people around without touching them. She can kill with a single action. If we tried to rush her with the knife, we'd be dead before getting close enough to use it."
The basement became noticeably quieter.
Dean looked less confident now.
Because Henry wasn't the kind of person who exaggerated threats.
If anything, he usually understated them.
Sam thought through the implications.
"So you're saying we won't even get the opportunity to use the knife."
"Exactly."
Henry nodded.
"By the time one of us gets within stabbing distance, she'd already have killed us."
Dean let out a slow breath and ran a hand through his hair.
"What the hell did this bitch want with us anyway?" he asked. "Seriously, why are demons always obsessed with our family?"
For a brief moment Henry considered telling them.
He knew exactly why. He knew about the plans involving Sam, and he knew about the seals. None of that would help right now, though, so he simply shrugged.
"I don't know everything," he said. "But I know she definitely wants us dead."
Dean muttered a curse under his breath.
Sam remained focused on the actual problem.
"So how do we stop her?"
Henry hesitated.
Both brothers immediately noticed.
Because hesitation wasn't something Henry usually did.
"Well," he said slowly, "I already know a way."
Dean nodded.
"Good."
"But we shouldn't kill her."
Dean stared at him.
Sam stared at him.
The silence stretched for several seconds.
Finally Dean threw his hands into the air.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded. "First you tell us she's the biggest threat we've got. Then you tell us there's a way to kill her. Then you tell us we shouldn't kill her."
He pointed directly at Henry.
"Pick a damn lane."
Henry sighed.
"Dean, trust me on this."
"That's not an answer."
"Killing Lilith would create a much bigger problem."
Dean looked unconvinced.
"A bigger problem than the queen of Hell?"
"Yes."
That answer only made Sam more suspicious.
"What kind of problem?"
Henry remained silent for a moment.
Because the real answer was one neither Winchester could hear yet.
If Lilith died, the seals would start breaking.
And once that process began, things would get far worse than one powerful demon.
"Killing her would set things in motion that we can't stop," Henry said carefully. "Trust me when I say that if Lilith dies the wrong way, we're all completely screwed."
Dean folded his arms.
The expression on his face made it clear he didn't like secrets.
Sam didn't either.
"I don't know the full details," Henry said after a moment. "But I got the information from a vision. Every version of it ended the same way. Killing Lilith set a lot of ugly things into motion."
It wasn't technically a lie.
Calling it a vision was easier than explaining why he knew things he shouldn't.
Dean frowned immediately.
"A vision? Since when are you getting visions?"
That caught Sam's attention as well.
After Yellow Eyes died, his own visions had stopped. Now Henry was talking about seeing the future.
"It's recent," Henry replied. "Not like what Sam had. More like dreams."
Sam wasn't completely convinced.
They still didn't know what the meteorite had done to Henry. The powers were strange enough on their own, but the knowledge he kept pulling out of nowhere was harder to explain. Now visions had apparently joined the list.
"Nothing else weird going on?" Sam asked. "We still haven't figured out what that thing did to you. You've been too busy running around the country for us to actually check."
Henry understood the concern.
From their perspective, he had been hit by something supernatural and kept developing new abilities afterward.
"No," he said. "I'm still me."
Dean watched him for a moment before giving a small nod.
"Good."
The answer seemed to ease some of the tension in his shoulders. For all his jokes and complaints, Dean worried about people far more than he liked admitting.
Before either of them could dig deeper, Henry changed the subject.
"Besides," he said, pulling open a nearby drawer, "I've got some good news."
Dean's attention shifted immediately.
Henry pulled out a folded paper and handed it over.
Sam took it first, his eyes moving across the page. Halfway through, he stopped and read a section again.
A slow smile appeared.
"What?" Dean asked.
Sam looked up.
"This is it."
"What's it?"
"The method."
He handed the paper over.
"The formula for making Colt bullets."
Dean took it and started reading. Several seconds later, a grin spread across his face.
Several seconds later, a grin spread across his face.
"You serious?"
"Yep."
That grin only widened.
The Colt was one of the most useful weapons they had ever gotten their hands on. The problem was always the same: ammunition. Without bullets, it was just a fancy revolver.
"So you're telling me," Dean said, looking up from the papers, "the Colt is back in business?"
"That's exactly what I'm telling you."
The mood in the basement lifted immediately.
Even Sam looked relieved. Having the Colt operational again meant they had another answer when something dangerous showed up.
Dean folded the papers carefully and handed them back.
"Best Christmas present we've gotten in years."
Then his expression changed.
Henry recognized that look instantly.
It was the look Dean got whenever he thought he had found something embarrassing.
"Oh no," Henry muttered.
Dean ignored him.
"By the way," he said casually, "what exactly happened between you and Bela?"
Henry closed his eyes.
Of course they had come back to that.
*****
🔥 For Advanced Chapters Join My Patreon 🔥
👉 patreon.com/DeathNote4455
🚀 Get early access to 24 Advanced chapters.