The power fluctuations around Castiel surged and ebbed like the tide.
A second ago, his eyes had still glimmered with the pain of hesitation, filled with images of the wound in Sam's palm and the disappointment in Dean's eyes. Those images pierced what remained of his reason like nails.
But the next second, something deeper took control of his body.
The dark patterns beneath his skin suddenly lit up like an electrified circuit board.
The patterns radiated from his chest, crawling up his neck and spreading across his cheeks, forming dense spiderweb-like designs at the corners of his eyes.
His eyes shifted from blue to pale gold, then from pale gold to a murky, inhuman sheen mixed with many colors.
"Enough," Castiel said. His voice had become flat, devoid of any emotional fluctuation. "These emotions... are interference."
He raised a hand and gave it a simple wave, as though brushing dust from his shoulder.
Then an invisible force exploded outward, crashing over them like a blast wave. Dean and Sam were both hurled away, their bodies slamming into the warehouse walls with dull impacts.
The concrete walls cracked, and dust sifted down.
Dean coughed up blood and struggled to his feet.
Sam was in even worse shape. The earlier illusion attack had already drained his mind, and this blow made his vision go dark and his ears ring.
Castiel did not look at them, but the influence of Castiel's will had made him hold back as well. He had not killed the brothers.
He turned and walked deeper into the warehouse, toward the site of the Purgatory gate Crowley had once opened, now nothing more than a charred crater.
Moonlight streamed through a hole in the roof, illuminating the pale yellow crystals around the crater's edge. They were remnants of