The remaining elders who weren’t sequestered under review were in an uproar at being tossed out. Hardin simply smirked at me as if I’d stepped right into a minefield I didn’t even know was before me.
While others were throwing fits and being too loud, he moved closer and leaned in so no one else would hear me.
“Be careful how far you try to play this hand, Sagan. You dig too deep and you won’t find gold, but too much of what you shouldn’t and will probably bring your own house down as well.”
I leaned away and let him see the amusement in my eyes. “Sounds like fun, Cassius.” It made me feel better when he was unnerved and pissed that I’d used his first name. “If my parents did anything wrong, then so be it. Let itallbe aired out.” I nodded when he narrowed his eyes at me. “I’ll always pick that over you getting your slimy hooks into me.”
“You have no idea the fight you’ve started and cannot win,” he bit out.
“No, you have no idea the adversary you picked the fight with,” I purred. “I barely knew those people, practically strangers to me, even if they were my parents. I don’t have any loyalty to them over this nation and myself.”
I stepped into him, which shocked him, and he took a step back, people around us going quiet.
“And I would rather throw myself into one of our ice chasms before I ever live an imprisoned life led by snakes who do everything for themselves and not others. Never doubt that. See it in my eyes and feel it from my dragon, Cassius. You overplayed your hand at every turn, but see it now that ifyoukeep going down this path, it will be your head, not just your position.”
He didn’t believe me. That was clear.
But he might have finally realized that if I went down, I would take him with me.
And right then, that was enough.
