He is the Bad Wolf

SILVERY PLAN

The next morning Sia was in the dining room having a cup of coffee with some milk. She was thoughtful. The fissure seemed to have closed but whenever she saw Caden - even from afar - the abyss would re-form threatening to let her fall helplessly into it. A kiss. A kiss that consumed everything in its path. Sia began to fantasize awake. Caden taking her in his arms as they hid from everyone in the deepest part of the maze. Was it normal for her to think about these things? Was this correct? A well-educated girl didn't have these kinds of ideas in her head. Maybe there was something broken inside her for feeling attracted to another wolf. Hadn't she learned anything? Sia's thoughts suddenly evaporated as she felt the table move slightly. Across from her Silver sat with a waffle in his mouth. He smiled at her despite having his mouth full. She couldn't help but smile back.

He swallowed the entire thing not bothering to chew it first, “No murderous Sia this morning?” he teased her.

“Nope.”

“So… you’re good?” a brow quirked upwards. “Good mood switches on?”

“I guess.” She shrugged, not quite comfortable enough -yet- to discuss Caden kissing her yesterday with him. “Have you seen Caden?” she found herself asking. Her face heated painfully. It was not at all comfortable feeling so exposed especially in front of a man. Sia watched Silver as he ate and noticed the relaxed energy stemming from him, as if nothing mattered more to him than his breakfast.

Silver shrugged tearing apart another poor waffle. “Not since last night. He explained the whole Gideon thing, though.”

“He did?” Had he gone to Silver right after they kissed? Had Caden also mentioned the kiss to him as well? I doubt it. Sia rolled her eyes internally. “And what else did he say?” By then Sia was fishing in an empty lake and she knew it perfectly.

"Oh yeah!" Silver exclaimed. "Now tell me, was there love for you in Gideon's beautiful eyes?"

Sia considered ignoring the question and changing the subject as this was somewhat delicate. But the longer the pause between the two of them lengthened, the more the silence stretched, the same question began to arise in her. She had been so angry, so filled with hatred to see him that she did not have time to read Gideon. And since she didn't have an answer to give, she simply said, "I don't know." and that was the stark truth. She didn't know and probably never would.

In contrast, Silver had assumed a smug posture while sipping coffee. "I think he still loves you." Such a simple thing to say without foundation and at the same time scandalous for her. Silver didn't know Gideon as she had, there was no reason for him to presume the state of Gideon's feelings for her. But now Sia felt a fish tug at the gossamer in the supposedly empty lake. So, she began to pull at it, slowly and evenly.

“You don’t know that.” She stated firmly. She wouldn’t sit here and watch him brag about what he clearly had no insight of.

"Did you know that wolves fall in love few times in life?" Silver whispered. His mirth gone forever. "Our species, by nature or by cosmic wonder, falls in love only once or twice in their life and they are faithful to their mate until the day they die. I have heard stories about Gideon and his witch many times, there are many variants, but they all say that he loved her more than anything in this world." Sia didn't realize that she had been holding her breath. "So, believe me when I tell you, he still loves you."

Sia let Silver's words sink into her. Suddenly the lake was full of fish and they all jumped out of the water, some fell sadly into the boat in which Sia was waiting. She smiled to herself. If what Silver was saying was true, then this was good news. She had originally planned something else much more ghoulish for Gideon, like sneaking out in the middle of the night and finding him and cutting his throat and watching him bleed to death as she smiled triumphantly. But no. This was so much better. "I have an idea.” She grinned at him.

“What idea?” Caden’s voice startled her, she almost jumped out of her skin. He sat down next to Silver and nodded at her in a way of saying hi. “What’s going on?”

Sia waited patiently for Caden to sip his coffee to drop the bomb. In a very low whisper she said, “I will make Gideon fall in love with me,” and then Caden spat his coffee out. “again.” She finished off with a happy and prideful smile. Silver shook his head in disbelief. Caden was still coughing from she shock of hearing ‘her oh, so awesome plan’. It is an awesome plan! "Just think about it! Now that I know there is a chance that he still loves me I must exploit it! I need to get as much out of this as I can."

Once Caden recovered from the shock he immediately intruded, "First of all, that's a lousy idea." she rolled her eyes at him. "Listen to me! Your plan has a major flaw."

“Which is?” she asked mockingly.

“He’s already seen you.”

“In a dream.”

Caden scowled at her. "He noticed that you look different, Sia. He saw you in clothes from this era, didn't he?" she nodded slowly. "Then what you want to do will not work and will end badly."

"But it was in a dream." she insisted, sure she could carry out the plan. "I would deny everything. It would be as if nothing had happened five hundred years ago. He will believe me if he loves me."

“No!” Caden growled. His eyes were glowing red now, any trace of the beautiful leafy green gone for good. He was dangerous now however she didn’t let him intimidate her. “Let me get this straight. You want to find him, play dumb and win him over and then… kill him?” She nodded. “It’s not going to work!”

"Wow, you don't have any faith in me." Sia was disappointed to see the lack of support from Caden.

“It’s not about faith,” Silver interjected on Caden’s behalf, “It’s about your safety. Have you thought how you want to do things? How would you find him and such? You’d be pretty much alone the entire time while the plan takes it course.”

“I know.”

“You know?” Caden gritted out. No doubt the vein on his forehead would pop at any minute now. “Then why would you want to do such thing? Or is it an excuse to be alone with him?”

“Not an excuse,” she gritted out. He had no right to question her motives. “But trust me, this is better than using violence. I’ll get close to him once more and take advantage from that closeness to bring him down. There’s also the whole dream thing with us. Maybe I can use that as well.” Something clicked inside her head. “We need to tell The Countess about that.”

Caden sighed, defeated. He seemed practically deflated. “She already knows. I told her last night.”

“And what did she say?” Silver asked before she had the chance to do so herself.

Caden shrugged, noncommittal.

“Well… let’s go talk to her, then.”

“I don’t want to go with you.” Caden started at her. The shadow of despair wrapping itself around his neck and closing in on him. “I don’t want to see her agree with you.”