Six more years elapsed with Fiona and her son sneaking in and out of the Coven into the realms and the outside world unnoticed.
Igram grew up into an intelligent sixteen-year-old, it was not easy for him living in a girl form with a lot of hormones circulating in his veins. Puberty only made it worse. But he became an expert in sneaking out and keeping a sixteen-year-old secret.
The duo was so good in the art of deception that not once did any witches or Ezeldah suspect them. They relied on portraying themselves as insane and irritating to others. They barely associated or took part in any activity. They were considered lazy and no one wanted to associate with them which made their disappearance go unnoticed.
However, they all noticed that the Coven was very peaceful when Igram was not around. There was no trouble or anyone getting into one when he was absent. Most of the witches wanted to get rid of him but every time any tried, they had Fiona to deal with. The mother was always alert and seemed to be more powerful than they expected considering that they never saw her practice any magic.
They were usually left with no option but to complain about the boy to the high priestess. Igram had become very good at shapeshifting over the years, an art he was using to con them, especially the girls of his age. On one incident he shapeshifted into a supermodel and made one of the witches fall in love with him. If it weren't for his mother's intervention he would have slept with her. The girl became a laughing stock and received severe punishment from Ezeldah.
According to Ezeldah, she was supposed to detect and smell Igram a mile away but she fell for his sick trick.
Igram on the other hand never received any punishment, if anything the coven was supposed to cheer for his art of deception, an ability Ezeldah began liking and was reconsidering sending him to the pits of hell. She thought his skills would come in handy for spying on the other Covens so she let him rain his sick games in her Coven. It was some test according to her and she believed any witch that fell for his trick was not worthy to be in her Coven.
So every member of the Santris Coven except for Fiona hated him. Fiona was surprised that her son never received any punishment. The only reason she could think of was Ezeldah keeping a record of her son's wrongs to justify assigning him to the Soul gatherers in the pits of hell.
She tried to warn her son not only about his behavior but the number of shifts he was misusing but it all fell on deaf ears. Igram felt like he was a man on top of the world, he was a very rebellious teen. He was aware of the possibility of being sent to hell but that was not enough to tame him.
He began teleporting into the human world without his mother's knowledge and he realized that she never questioned him about it so he made it a habit. He began learning about the human world and their ways to an extent that he enrolled himself in school. He would disappear under the pretense of running errands around the Coven when in actual fact he was in London.
Fiona was not stupid, she knew exactly when and how he was making the teleportations. But she had trouble knowing where he was teleporting too. At first, she was very furious at his recklessness and once followed him to where she assumed he had teleported to but could not find him. She had tried several locating spells but none worked. Her first conclusion was that he got into trouble and someone killed him.
She had panicked the entire day, blaming herself but before the day ended he'd shown up. Confused, she asked where he was but her son lied to her face. She did not scold him but decided to investigate and after two days of watching him teleport she discovered it was impossible to track him. No amount of magic gave her the correct spell, it was just like back when he was in her womb.
Her findings made her conclude that, if she could not locate him then Ezeldah could not do so either, just like back then. She let him be but always emphasized about overusing his shifts. All she wanted was for him to be happy and ever since she introduced the outside world to him he was always happy. Maybe he belonged to that world she had convinced herself.
However the assignment rituals were approaching, there was a set of girls in the coven that were sixteen years of age and Igram was part of that group. Fiona spent days worrying, her plan A was still in the initial stages and it was not safe to try the new spell on her son. She was running out of options.
Ezeldah already assured her she was going to assign Igram the wrong division as a soul gatherer in the pits of hell. This was giving Fiona sleepless nights. For six years she had failed to perfect her plan which only meant going for plan B. She was not ready but it was either that or hell for her son.
In the evenings when her son returned, she finally talked to him. She could smell alcohol and knew he was from the outside world but pretended not to have smelt it.
"In a week the assignment rituals will take place, hope you know what that means," she asked.
"Mother, let's run away from here," he requested.
"We wouldn't last, sneaking out is different from disappearing. Ezeldah would find us, s
he would dedicate her life to finding us," Fiona replied.
There was silence in the room
"Let's not talk about this, walls have ears," she added.
"So I'm going to hell then?"
"Of course not, I have been working on a spell but this spell will separate us. I will talk to you about it in our secret place,"
Igram only stared at her, "hope this spell does not involve me living someone else's life?"
"You have to trust your mother, I have kept you hidden for sixteen years and I can do it for more,"
Igram got up annoyed
"mother I'm tired, we will talk about this in our secret room," he shrugged at her.
" You have been disappearing a lot nowadays, hope you are taking care of yourself?" Fiona spoke up quickly.
Igram froze in his truck.
"Alcohol is very dangerous. It leads to one making wrong decisions… and girls, they give a lot of diseases and unwanted pregnancy… hope you are putting that into consideration?"
"Mother?"
"Just take care Igram," Fiona replied and walked to the kitchen.
He followed her and hugged her from behind. He had earlier thought he was clever but it seemed his mother knew about his teleportation. This meant he had to move his plans up, it was not easy but there was no option.
"Mum, you know I love you?"
Fiona smiled, it was the first time her son was addressing her by the term mum, he always called her mother. The outside was rubbing on him.
"Of course, I know you love me, I love you more and that's why I will not let you work a day in the pits of hell."
"I know mum, I just want you to know that I understand your decisions and even though I always get you into trouble, just know that I love you,"
"I know son," Fiona replied.
He kissed her on her forehead and said; "Now that I'm sixteen years, whatever shit I do, you will no longer be punished on my behalf. Those are coven rules, I'm now old enough to receive my own punishment," he added.
Fiona knew exactly what he meant, her eyes became watery but she held her tears back.
"Goodnight mother, thank you for always protecting me and taking my side."
He kissed her again and gave her a long hug before retiring to his room. He closed the door behind him and shed more tears. There was no other option; he kept reminding himself like he was trying to justify what he was about to do.
In the kitchen, more tears dropped down Fiona's cheeks. She wiped them but they kept falling down her cheeks, she breathed in hard. She knew her son just said goodbye to her. A very big part of her wanted to stop him but for what? He was very miserable in the Coven and was heading to hell. Her spell would work but there was always a limit to magic. She had stretched that thin line already.
Piling more spells on him would bring out adverse side effects, effects that he would live hurting. Letting him go was the only option left, he was young but Igram was a very intelligent boy. He survived the witches of the Coven and she thought he would ace the outside world.
She walked to her room and cried herself to sleep. She wanted to go into his room and hold him but if she did that she was not going to let him go.
She wanted him to believe it was his idea to run away so he would be extra cautious. He would not only be hiding from Ezeldah but her too. And secondly, she was preventing a scenario where he returned to the Coven. She knew he would be alright with whatever shield he was born with that blocked witches from finding him.
Morning came and she could feel he was not in the house. She quickly woke up just to counter-check. Igram always woke up late, but when she walked into his room, it was empty. She dropped to the floor and began crying, it was more painful than she thought. Her only child and baby was gone.
At first, that reality did not sink in but when she remembered Ezeldah. She quickly got up, chanted her teleportation portals, and checked all their secret realms but he was nowhere to be found.
This forced her to teleport to the human world, she checked all his favorite places but could not locate him. She was trying to make sure he was covering any steps left behind but there were no steps to cover up. He was good and she was impressed. And whatever the outcome, she knew Ezeldah would have trouble tracking him. But then she realized she needed to come up with a believable story, a story that would fool Ezeldah into believing she had nothing to do with him running away or learning how to open portals.