OPERATION WINTERSPINE (Strings Between Us Book 2)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: OF CROWNS, CHAINS, AND THE SILENCE THAT CUT DEEPER

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: OF CROWNS, CHAINS, AND THE SILENCE THAT CUT DEEPER

KD'S POV

IMPERIAL WING – HIGH CHAMBER OFFICE
Broadcasted Live to the Entire Academy

The High Chamber smells like judgment. Dust, steel, and a lie that's about to bleed.

I arrived before the others. Not because protocol required it—but because I needed to own this room before anyone else dared to. Power, after all, isn't given. It's claimed. Early. Quietly. Absolutely.

My seat was waiting. Elevated. Centered. Framed in obsidian with chrome-lined edges. Every other chair in the room faced mine, like weapons drawn in polished wood.

I sat. Slowly. Let the room adjust around me. Let the cameras pan in. And I waited.

They came, one by one. First the faculty. Then the accused. Then the court. Then her.

I didn't look at Riyee. If I did, something inside me would shift, and I couldn't afford that. Not now. Not with eleven other eyes watching me like I was both sword and scale.

My hands folded on the table. I didn't move. I didn't blink. My silence had a weight now. One I couldn't drop.

"Let the hearing commence."

The Headmaster's voice cracked across the room. Formal. Deadpan. But it couldn't cut the cold that had already settled.

The charges followed like gunshots.

"Deployment of unauthorized high-risk traps during the Sovereign Chase."
"Simulation tampering."
"Targeted aggression against recognized Court members."
"Bypassing of internal safety systems using elite council override codes."

Each one landed like a blade. Precise. Final. But the accused didn't flinch.

Bianchi Madriaga. Lucian Ortega. Rowan Lopez.
All seated like they still believed they were invincible.
They weren't. Not anymore.

Lucian stood first. Smooth. Controlled. "This was a controlled field test. The results were merely... unexpected."

I could've laughed. But kings don't laugh at jesters—they just let them perform.

Rowan followed. Louder. Angrier. "They turned the crowd against us. They staged failure. They made us look like the villains."

"You needed no help looking incompetent." Saichel's voice, soft and serrated, slid through the silence like a poisoned dart. Mic caught it. Everyone heard.

Bianchi rose last. Her voice is the calmest of all. "This was meant to be a legacy event. But the Ardent Court used it as performance theatre. This was political."

Performance. She wasn't wrong. But the wrong cast had claimed center stage.

Tofer countered with surgical precision."Timeline breach registered seven minutes prior to phase start. Primary trigger identified as trap protocol B-5... assigned to Ortega."

A beat.

"Your signature is hardcoded, Lucian."

Then the wall exploded with truth.

Alexie's projection veiled into clarity. A freeze-frame of four volunteers. Two rookies. A medic. A tech.
Unarmed. Cornered. Forgotten by their own council.

"That's what your 'field test' almost hit."

Seb followed. Blueprint in hand. "Terrain archives. Rowan's override seal still active."