Abaddon's Gift

Chapter Twenty-One

When Graydon went to fetch Naena, he was surprised to learn she had left the campus. He searched nearly the entire grounds before he found his way out to the Magi Hall and found the dip in the stones. Theon had siphoned off magic to teleport without alerting Amos as to what he was doing.

Annoyed, Graydon had to go back into the university and request a mage for teleportation, giving a record of where he was going.

As there was only one place Theon would teleport to, Graydon knew where to head.

He arrived at Greywood Manor in the early afternoon. He found his mother on the second floor, sitting on a balcony overlooking the estate. She had a glass of wine with her.

"That's not good for the baby," Graydon said.

"It's just here to keep the servants from asking questions," his mother responded, sighing out as she turned her head to look at him. "Why are you here, Graydon?"

"I came for dinner," he said.

"And a private conversation with your father about Naena," she responded. "And shields, no doubt. Wondering about a time-honoured tradition, perhaps?"

"How do you know?" he asked.

Theon said his mother wasn't aware. That Graydon wasn't to bring it up around her.

"That you came to speak with your father about rape?" his mother asked. "Why would you do that, Graydon? Did I not teach you better?"

He walked dangerous ground with his mother just by entering the estate to ask his father such a question. The servants who worked the estate were trusted. That meant that if his mother grew upset because Graydon wanted to ask about an old tradition and didn't explain quick enough, his father would, without question, beat him back and blue.

"Is it still happening?" Graydon asked as he took the seat beside his mother.

"No, your father put an end to it," she responded, her anger not tempering. "Do drink the wine, so they don't catch on."

Graydon picked up the glass and sipped, then set the glass back on the table.

"Question one answered," Graydon said. "Weekend classes for a mage."

"I've admonished the girl," his mother said. "About twisting your uncle's cock around her finger and jumping beds so often, as that is the rumour going around. More studying, more work. If all she's doing is speaking to you two, she learns nothing on her own. How can she make her own spells if she only learns from you?"

"She can't read."

"Graydon," she said in the icy tone he knew too well.

That of Lady Pan and not his mother. Graydon drew in that centring breath and focused his full attention on Lady Pan.

"Report," she said.

"No other heir has to report to mother and father," he muttered before he sighed under her icy stare. "She can use magic on me, and I can barely understand it. She used a truth spell written onto the palm of her hand and then over my chest to make me babble like a fool. She spelled Theon into not being able to drink scotch. No one even knows why she was dabbling in those spells."

"Good that she spelled Theon."

"Father fixed it."

Graydon took the time to sip his wine as his mother processed that information. He gave her the time and tried not to pay too close attention to that reaction.

He couldn't stop his mother's anger, so he redirected it. He didn't know why she was angry with him for wanting to ask questions when she had raised him to question everything.