Spellbound Pt. 03

"So, what are your plans for the day?" Edward asked, pleased she hadn't lied to him about what happened at the police station. Still under the false assumption that Amanda was still on his side.

"Oh, well, you know how Adam and I talked at the Gala, right?" Amanda mused, seeing Edward nod. "Well, see, you know how appearances are everything to the nobility," again Edward nodded, "seeing how Adam can't always use the room he has at the castle," Amanda uttered, keeping her smirk hidden as she noted the jealousy and hate in her husband's eyes. When it came to her son Edward was like an open book, especially after they learned Adam was the Sage-in-waiting. "I discussed with him buying a home fit for the next Sage. You know how young men are, head in the clouds, he totally hadn't thought of it," she lied; they had discussed it at the graveyard where Jason has rested since his death.

"True, I don't say this to demean Adam, yet he just doesn't have the mind for this, to think ahead, what to do to show off his new status," Edward spoke with Amanda nodding along.

"I know dear, I know, that is why I offered to do it for him, given how busy he is with his schooling and studies with Sage Harthorne. And you know the moment I start looking, word will spread around the city that House Mortanhouse is aiding in seeing that the next Sage has a fantastic place to live while he's still in his journeyman ship."

"He's advanced that far, already?" Edward sputtered.

"Mmmhmm, he has," Amanda nodded, enjoying the fear she saw in her husband's eyes. "You should have sensed the power coming off his staff Edward; it was immense. It's only a matter of time before Adam's fame will spill over to his family," she uttered, sitting regally in her seat.

"Yes, I can see it now," Edward mused as he leaned back in his seat. A greedy smile formed on his lips at the thought of the gold pouring in by those that want their names tied to the next Sage, along with the gifts from the other noble families that will undoubtedly be trying to get their daughters attached to Adam in the way of marriage.

"And just think of it, Edward, when he takes over for the current Sage, that nice house will be sitting unused." Seeing the lights growing in Edward's eyes.

"Yes, yes, and we'll take it over, under the disguise of stewardship, so Adam can keep his focus on defending the realm and not his home that's sitting vacant waiting for some thief to steal into it," Edward mused in delight.

"Just think of it, Edward, us up there, near the castle, where the upper nobility lives. So when we finally get Adam onboard, we'll already be established among the upper elites," Amanda spoke, putting on airs, playing on Edwards's lust for power and status.

"And you'll be overseeing this place while he's in his..." The loud chime of their doorbell rang noisily in their spacious home. Ignoring it, allowing his servant to answer the door while he and Amanda continued to discuss their plans on how to get Adam beneath their thumb. Smiling at his wife, he did love her devious mind as he gestured for the man to approach. Peering oddly at the Marquess seal stamped into the wax denoting the House of Rose, and the Viscount seal of House of Griffin two very old Houses, Houses that he wasn't in contact with. So receiving anything from them was highly unusual.

"Those are the Houses Jill's friends belongs to; I told you about them when last I spoke to her. You know... what were their names..." Amanda tilted her head back and tapped her finger against her lip, "Skyler and Ryann, Jill just couldn't stop talking about them when she called home after her first day there."

"Oh, right, right, yes, Jill did seem very fond of them." Amanda had to give Edward credit when it came to Edward Jr and Jill; he was rather a very attentive father. "But why would their fathers be writing to us?"

"Open them and find out," Amanda encouraged him.

"Well, well," Edward mused as he read both at the same time side by side.

"What?" Amanda inquired as she took her last bite of her morning meal.

"Seems your son has made quite the impression on their daughters."

"Oh?" Amanda uttered, keeping her tone passive, not letting on that she wasn't about to give up that cock of his.

"They're asking to meet and discuss this with them," Edward said after draining his glass.

"I don't know, Edward, Adam might not go for us trying to control who he's married to," Amanda warned.

"Oh, I know, dear, why we're going to let him think it was all his doing," Edward stated with a sneaky smile as he got to his feet. "Do let me know how your house hunting goes. I'm off to meet with their fathers and discuss what the future holds for whoever wins Adam over."

"Okay, dear, be safe, and I want the juicy details when you come home," Amanda said, playing the good wife as she blew him a kiss from over the table. The moment her husband left the room and closed the door behind him, her true face appeared. She was not happy, to say the least, that some woman thought she was going to give up Adam's cock. There was no way in hell she was going to let some strange woman take her son away from her. After all, she was her son's slut. There wasn't anything he couldn't do to her body while she had him deep inside of her. While she couldn't come right out and tell Adam not to marry one of them, she knew if she did, he would do so out of spite. Grimacing as her attendants scurried to her side as she left the dining room.

Going through the list of homes, she had ordered them to compile for her so she wouldn't be wandering aimlessly around. Waving them away once she reached her bedroom so she could speak with her son in private before she left to go house hunting for him. Also, so she could pleasure herself to his image and allow Adam to see how slutty she could and will be for him. Amanda just stared perplexed when her orb failed to connect with her son's. Not once, not twice, but five times. That wasn't something they were known to do; they were very reliable, so something like this has never happened before. Wondering what could have happened that her orb failed to connect with his. Sighing to herself, knowing she wouldn't be getting her gratification that morning. Rising and headed back out of her room, informing her attendants to prepare her car for her departure. Peering back at her orb, a touch of worry appeared on her face at the fate of her son as her bedroom door closed.

Chapter Two

Later that night...

Frank held his wife close to him as sparks flew, a howling wind swirled within their living room as magjols saturated the air around them. They had been so worried ever since last night when Adam had failed to return. Just as the strange occurrence started, it suddenly stopped, and there knelt their grandson with his staff in his right hand, the crimson stone that sat in the center of the egg-shaped cage spun rapidly in place, glowing lines ran along Adam's staff from the butt to the very tip, showing them that Adam had succeeded in mastering his staff. A hum vibrated the air as a slight glow pulsated around Adam's body. Their gasps were loud within their home as Adam peered up and supported a full beard due to his time in the Fae lands.

Frank peered oddly at his wife when she uttered a spell and directed it at Adam. Who just looked at her as confused as he was at that moment. Before she rushed up to Adam and threw her arms around him. Crying into his shoulder as she held him tightly.

"Hey, grandma, sorry for making you worry," Adam said in a soft tone as he rubbed her back. Nodding to his grandfather when Frank placed a hand on his right shoulder.

"Where have you been?! We were so worried about you?" Elenore exclaimed once she had her hug.

"Studying," Adam said cryptically.

"Studying what?" Frank cut in.

"Can't say, I know you want answers and want to know what I've experienced while over there, yet I can't."

"Why not?" Elenore asked in a disapproving grandmotherly voice.

"Made an oath to Queen Mab that I wouldn't."

"You really saw her?!" Elenore uttered with wide eyes as Adam nodded that he did.

"And this?" Frank asked, lightly tugging on Adam's beard.

"Wha'da ya expect when it's been a month with no razor," Adam smirked, "What?"

"Adam, it's only been a day since you stepped through that portal," Elenore answered weakly.

"No way?!"

"Oh yeah, an entire day," Frank nodded.

"Huh? I did not know that," Adam muttered, dropping his chin and began to stroke his beard. "So, how do I look with it?" he asked with a toothy grin as he returned his staff to its holder.

"So much like your dad," Elenore answered, trying not to tear up. "Can you talk about any of your time there?" Noticing how he tapped his lips as he thought about it.

"About half of it," Adam finally spoke after a moment of thought.

"Good! You can tell me everything!" Elenore said excitedly as she pulled her grandson towards the kitchen to fix him something to eat.

Adam noted how his grandparents were riveted to their seats as he spoke about his time in the Fae lands. Answering his grandmother's questions the best that he could while keeping to his oath. Also, asking why she cast a spell on him, which she answered that the Fae were notorious for sending back doppelgangers of the people they took a liking to, so she had to make sure it was him or something else. Adam was savoring his grandmother's cooking after a month of surviving on conjured bread and water. It might not seem much, yet it had everything one needed to survive. Watching how they eyed him when he spread a bit of honey on a bit of bread and placed it on the floor.

"You have brownies," Adam stated when he rose back up.

"I have what?!" Elenore mumbled.

"You have brownies living here, have been for a while," Adam said, hearing their chattering voices as they converged on the bread. Seeing his grandmother ducking her head under the table, gasping in amazement as she just watched how bites were being taken out of it, yet she couldn't see them doing it.

"So, you can see them now?" Frank inquired with a quizzical look.

"Yeah," Adam muttered bashfully, recounting how Queen Titania's court attendants barely wore anything. Watching how his grandmother nearly leaped from her seat and dashed to the cabinet. The small saucer dish clanged on the counter and grabbed two slices from the loaf of bread she had made that day.

"Hon, what are you doing?" Frank asked in a curious tone.

"I'm feeding the brownies," Elenore spoke in a child-like voice as she began to tear the bread into pieces.

"But I thought the Fae were bad?" Looking at his wife and Adam in confusion.

"Brownies are pretty harmless; if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone," Adam said factually.

"And if you feed them?" Elenore asked, peering over her shoulder.

"They'll be helpful to a point unless you befriend them, and well, who knows," Adam said with a shrug. "As long as you have lots of this," he uttered, shaking the bottle of honey that he held between his fingers.

"Frank?!" Elenore spoke in a voice that foretold her obsession with the Fae.

"Yes, honey, I'll pick up some more honey in the morning," Frank sighed, however, at least it wasn't a messy pet, and if he couldn't see them, then he could ignore them and hopefully forget he had Fae living in his home.

"Thank you, baby, I'll try to keep it contained to the kitchen," Elenore said with blushing cheeks, knowing her husband knew her so well to know she might go a little crazy with it. "So, Adam, can you tell me about other Fae that might be friendly?" Looking at her grandson, seeing where he was pointing to place the saucer once she had drizzled some honey over the torn piece of bread. "Really?! They were that accurate?" she asked in surprise once Adam told her she already knew which ones, nodding to her books.

"Pretty much, on the general stuff, the more specifics of the Fae, not so much," Adam said offhandedly.

"Oh?! Will you tell me about which ones are wrong?" Elenore lit up, her smile stretched from ear to ear when she heard the love when he uttered: 'Sure, grandma.'

"I'm happy your home, Adam," Frank said in a loving tone, resting his hand on Adam's shoulder as he stood at his side. "Don't go disappearing like that anytime soon, alright?"

"Nope, you're stuck with me," Adam responded with a wide smile as he peered up at his grandfather.

"And we wouldn't have it any other way; I'm going to get the shaving cream and a razor," Frank muttered, getting a chuckle out of his grandson.

"That bad, huh?" Adam asked jokingly.

"No, it looks good, but that doesn't happen in a day," Elenore said, gesturing to it as she sat back down with her pad and pen. Ignoring how the plate was rocking and the bread was thrown about.

"Adam, just what is happening?" Frank asked, his eyes flickering at the commotion.

"Oh, yeah, that much honey, it's like... you remember how you and I would sneak..."

"What was that?" Elenore cut in in that voice we all know when neither was supposed to be there.

"Oh, yes, that old game," Frank nodded, feeling Elenore's eyes giving him the death glare. Elenore had forbidden him from taking Adam down to Salivans Tavern, given how violent the place was most days. "What about it?"

"It's about like that just without the... prizes," Adam spoke, quickly catching on.

"Frank?!" Elenore's voice rose, not buying it one bit.

"What? Nothing happened," Frank said, walking away.

Adam couldn't help but smile at their antics. It reminds him so much of his youth on the days his grandmother was having a good day. Savoring the image of his grandmother shaking her head, his eyes watched that same smile that's always greeted him as she opened her pad.

"Now, Adam, tell me what you know about fairies?" Elenore inquired as she leaned on her right hand, with her pen ready to jot down Adam's words.

"Before that, and this might be weird given after all this time, since Dad's death..."

"What is it, baby?" Elenore asked in a motherly tone.

"Can I call you, Mom?" Adam asked; after his father's death, his grandmother had felt like more of a mother than his own mother did to him.

Elenore's hand lightly covered her mouth as her lips started to tremble. Not drawing attention to Frank, that stood in frozen shock behind Adam as he reentered the room as she tried not to cry. They had wondered when this day would come, and they tried not to pressure Adam. Even though they hated what she had done to their son, Amanda was still his mother. Still, they weren't blind to how he always was at their home, rather than his mother's place, so they left it unspoken.

"Oh, Adam," Elenore cooed in a loving tone as she reached across the table. A table they had spent many, many years around. "Yes, honey, you may call me that any time you want," she said; her thumb rushed along the back of his hand as a tear danced down her cheek. Watching how he peered up when Frank placed a hand on Adam's shoulder.

"So... how about we take care of this?" Frank asked, brushing the back of his fingers against Adam's beard.

"Sure, Papa," Adam replied with a playful smirk. "Where do you want me?" he asked, noting how his grandfather peered down at him with that look on his face. "So, fairies, what do ya want to know, Mom?" he inquired once he was settled by the sink as his grandfather wrapped a towel around his neck.

"What were they like, are there just one kind, or are there like different types of fairies? I know Titania is their Queen, but she's also..."

"Queen Mab of the Fae," Adam finished for her, getting a nod from his grandmother.

"Well, depends on what kinds of fairies you wish to discuss," Adam uttered as his grandfather wetted his beard. Seeing how her eyes widened and her ears perked up at that.

"Okay, how many are there?" Elenore asked quizzically.

"Are we talking strictly fairies or Fairy-type?" Adam asked, giving his grandmother a small nod to her unspoken question if there was a difference.

"Both, then," Elenore answered, writing down how many there were for both species of fairies. "Let's start with fairies then."

"Well, told you about brownies, dark fairies, be wary of, they are helpful if you're willing to pay the price, but that's as far as they'll go for you."

"Have you encountered many over there?"

"A few," Adam admitted, the clipping of the scissors was like a hypnotic wave on his eardrums.

"I see, and what about fairies themselves?"

"What's to tell, they're fairies. Now," Adam's voice trailed off, drawing his grandmother's attention, "there is a subspecies that is to be wary of," Adam said in a deathly tone.

"Oh? There's no mention of such a thing in the books?!"

"I know; you could only learn about them over there."

"Okay, and what is this subspecies?"

"They call themselves The Wish-givers; the others of the Fae call them the Djinn. But not all The Wish-givers are Djinn, but all Djinn are Wish-givers." Turning his head to the right, peering out the corner of his eye, watching his grandmother hurriedly writing it all down.

"Okay, what's so different about the two?" Elenore asked, leaning forward on her crossed leg, very interested to hear the answer.

"Well, Djinn only came to be when humans of the past used to trap Wish-givers into containers. The longer they were trapped in those containers, their malice began to twist their magic. Now their prisons aren't forever, with every wish a Wish-giver grants it siphons off a bit of magic from the wish to grow stronger until it reaches a certain number of wishes to break free of its prison."

"I know," seeing the disgust in his grandmother's eyes at the acts of people in the past, "it's why the Fae, along with the good fairies, both kinds, freed them from their captors some hundred-odd years ago. Since then, every Fae and fairy alike have been visiting those trapped fairies."

"Is that why all the portals closed up?" Elenore asked.

"No, they didn't close up; they just made it harder to find. You can still get to their lands; the question is, why? It's your intentions that lead you towards your destination and what you hope to find. And no," pointing to the areas he wanted to be shaved off just so he would know what he would look like once he regrew it, "I won't help you find it."

"What?! Why!" Elenore asked, incensed.

"Because Fae lands aren't peaceful, there are worse things in those lands than Trolls," Adam said with deathly undertones.

"Like," Elenore urged him on with a roll of her hand.

"The Bastiker."

"A what?!"

"It's one of the fairy-types that magic won't affect, well not direct magic at least," Adam mused, while flashes of memory of the time he had to fight one roared in his mind.

"And what would work against them?" Elenore asked her eyes on her notes.

"A Fairy blade," Adam said factually.

"A what?" Frank muttered as he froze in place. Glancing down, watching how Adam reached into the right side of his tunic and pulled out a rather ornate dagger with beautiful workmanship, the likes of which he hadn't seen since he was a little boy eighty-two years ago, although he thought it was a little small for a dagger.

"Don't," Adam warned when Frank tried to touch it. "It's enchanted, don't want either of you hurt. The spell isn't pleasant."

"Adam, who gave you that?" Elenore queried with a nod down at the blade.

"Rhonnan."

"Who would that be?"

"A very perverted and warped fairy that makes her home in a lake." Adam noticed how his grandfather was interested in that tidbit. Noting the look in Frank's eyes, he wanted to hear more in private. Looking to his right as his grandfather ran his straight razor along a leather strap. "Mom, thanks."

"For what, sweetheart?"

"For this," Adam held out the amulet she had given him, "worked like a charm." Recounting the times it had saved him from the more potent spells the Fae use. It was one of the reasons he had survived learning how to draw on Fae mana.