Page 175 of Savage Throne
As though he could see beyond the surface of my calm exterior and strip away my control to expose the raw fury seething underneath.
Careful, son. I’m the one who taught you how to glare that way.
Still, I felt his gaze deep in my chest.
Felt the subtle shift in the table’s energy, in the exact way one would sense an oncoming storm brewing off in the distance before it arrived and unleashed flooding rain all over.
Lei sat with his shoulders squared yet deceptively relaxed, mirroring a dragon’s stillness before it descends from the heavens to claim its kill.
How dare you look at me that way?
I sneered.
His hand rested on the table, fingertips drumming in a rhythm that seemed casual, yet I knew better. That rhythm wasn’t idle—it was a cadence, a measure of time, perhaps counting down to the moment he’d strike.
Would you dare to try and fight here? Surely, you would not be that disrespectful.
The air between us thickened.
I can’t wait for you to see Plan B. I will smile as you lose yourself. As you crumble.
I forced myself to keep my breathing even, to hold his gaze without flinching but the tension crackled in my chest like fire sparking across a dragon’s scales, feeding its insatiable hunger.
I am a dragon too, son. Be very fucking careful.
As if he could hear me, Lei’s lips curved ever so slightly—not into a smile, but into the faintest expression of triumph, as though he could taste the ashes of the future I’d so carefully built.
So young. So cocky. I will teach you.
I picked up my chopsticks.
His eyes, like the Azure Dragon’s, were alive with an intensity that promised he wouldn’t just defeat me—he would obliterate everything I stood for.
And yet, there was no movement.
No outburst.
Just the steady nerve-wracking force of his presence.
I gripped my chopsticks tighter. The wood creaked under the strain. The urge to rise, to challenge him outright, gnawed at me, but I held back.
Lei had learned patience, a trait I’d once drilled into him as a boy, never imagining that this too would be turned against me with such precision.
Still, I would not cower before him.
I straightened my spine, meeting his gaze with the same unyielding resolve.
If he was the Azure Dragon, then I would be the Black Tortoise—a guardian of strength and resilience, unmovable and enduring.
Let him coil and threaten.
Let him burn with that unholy fire.
I would endure, even if I had to shatter my own scales to do so.
Suzi spoke to Monique and the women carried on light conversation, although they both glanced at us in between their tense glances.
Then, Lei moved and it wasn’t to get up or eat.
