SPELLBOUND

When Gideon just returned her stare at her with his own placid and perfectly blank face, Evie rose, never averting her firm gaze from him. She was resolute on wanting to wrestle whatever details she could get from this dearest brother-in-law of hers. 

"Tell me…" Evie hesitated for a moment but then she lifted her chin and held his gaze with an even firmer intensity. She was giving him the full force of the eyes of a queen who did not know how to give up. "Is the plan you are talking about the one where you were planning to force your brother to kill you?" she finally asked. She had her suspicions and threw them out at him, questioning his plans at point blank range in the hopes that he would be flustered enough to divulge more. However…

Another long moment of silence reigned between them. Only this time, the silence was definitely much heavier. 

Evie waited after throwing her suspicion out to him. Hoping that he will not avoid this question and disappear as he usually does when he did not want to face certain issues. His expression however, surprisingly remained very calm, and he did not even blink.

"Just how much did that smart ass friend of mine tell you, Queen Evielyn?" his voice was now shrouded with unsettling darkness. 

But Evie managed to stay completely unfazed, ignoring his questioning of her. She narrowed her eyes at him. "So I was right? Your plan does somehow involve having yourself being killed off at some point in time?"

When not a single word left his lips in agreement or denial, Evie scoffed. "You know what? If that's really your great plan, then I'm telling you now. That. Is. One. Terrible. Plan. In fact, I believe that your death alone might be the sole reason which caused the disaster that I saw in my dream to happen!" Evie shot out at Gideon.

Still, Gideon did not speak, and his expression now became absolutely unreadable. 

With urgency and a tinge of anger in her voice, Evie took a step closer towards him. "If you still stubbornly keep your mouth shut like this, I won't." she told him decisively. "I'm going to find King Belial right now and I'm telling him all I know about this matter. Everything that I had seen in my nightmare, every detail, I will tell him. Not a single tiny point will be left out." Evie spelled it out lowly, the threat very real in her tone.

Evie unleashed her fiercest, unwavering gaze to tell him how serious she was. It was all in the hopes that he would give in and tell her everything to stop her from speaking out. But he did not move, nor said a thing, even when Evie walked past him and headed towards the door. 

She bit down hard on her lip when she had already reached the entrance and her fingers had grabbed onto the doorknob because he did not shout out the word 'wait'. Why? Why was he not stopping her despite her warning actions? Does this mean he truly did not care if she actually told all these things to King Belial? Really? Evie questioned silently within herself as she paused for a couple more seconds, giving him the final chance to take action or to say something. However, nothing happened.

With a heavy sigh, Evie turned her head over her shoulder and looked at him. Gideon remained standing there, unmoving. It angered her at how stubborn he was being in regard to this matter. What the hell was going on in his mind? Does he not care at all at the immensity of the implications if her nightmare actually did come true?

She finally pushed the door open after giving him sufficient time and then shut it hard behind her, wanting to jolt the stubborn tough nut. Walking with much haste along the spacious corridor, Evie could only shake her head when she did not sense even a shadow of him following her. It seemed that it was impossible to make him talk right now and reveal what his plan really was. She could not help but find his reactions suspicious when she said those words to him. Could it be that Kione's theory was wrong? That's why he didn't show any reaction at all? 

"Good Lord, that guy's going to be the source of my headaches at the rate we're going!" she grumbled as she headed to Queen Beatrice's room. Evie hoped that maybe the queen can make him spill out the details of his plan. But she halted when she remembered the queen would still be asleep until tomorrow. Still tomorrow… she could not be wasting any more time! A single day could be a crucial moment for actions to be taken or for the king to prepare for what was coming. 

As she stood there contemplating and thinking hard over what might be the best move she could attempt, Evie felt a presence approaching her quickly. She knew it would not be Gideon, so she immediately raised her guard up. Who could it be? This person's movement was really quick!

Soon, a person in a purple cloak stood before her, silent and not speaking for now. After she observed for a moment, she realised that it was one of Queen Beatrice's journey companion? 

Slowly, the person raised his hand and pulled down the hood and Evie blinked, her eyes slowly widening as a familiar face was revealed beneath that heavy hood. 

"Claudius!" she exclaimed. "It's you!"

A kind smile curved on the dark fae's face and then he respectfully bowed his head to Evie, acknowledging her identity as the queen of the light faes. "I am so pleased to finally meet you in person, Queen Evielyn." He said and Evie smiled back as she too, nodded at him in greetings. 

"Pleased to meet you too.. I can't believe you're with Queen Beatrice! Did you deliberately hide yourself from me since arriving with the entourage yesterday?" Evie asked, raising her brow at him as she said her last line.