OPERATION WINTERSPINE (Strings Between Us Book 2)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: OF FRACTURES, FIELD ORDERS, AND THE GIRL WHO

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: OF FRACTURES, FIELD ORDERS, AND THE GIRL WHO DIDN'T NEED SAVING-BUT I'D SAVE HER ANYWAY

KD's POV

They say command is a burden. I used to scoff at that.

I thought: No, it's a system. A calculation of variables, a clean algorithm of logic, sacrifice, outcome. It was never a burden-it was control. A tool to sculpt chaos into something I could predict, prevent, or break before it broke me.

But then I stood up inside that gym. Hundreds of students watching. And the silence that followed felt nothing like power.

It felt like a curse.

"To everyone who participated in the Airsoft Manhunt..."

My voice sounded the way I needed it to: firm, clipped, glacial. But inside, I was unraveling. Not in panic—but in precision. That was the problem. My mind, designed for order, was cataloguing every injury I'd seen in the past hour. Every twitch. Every limp. Every smear of blood.

The burn marks on Saichel's arms. The shockwire scars across a freshman's leg. The too white look on a boy's face after a mine almost exploded at close range.

Then her.

Riyee.

The girl I loved—not moving like a student caught in a game, but like a soldier caught in muscle memory.

Blade drawn. Shoulders squared. Connecting heartbeats like a web. Calculating angles faster than the simulation could render them. And I realized, with terrifying clarity, that this was something she'd done before.

Somewhere else. Somewhere not here. Somewhere I hadn't been.

And I hated that I wasn't there. I hated that I didn't know. That the world she'd come from was one I could only simulate with harmless rounds and fake wounds.

She'd flanked the west barracks like a storm. Efficient. Surgical. Beautiful in that lethal way I wasn't prepared to watch.

And all I could think was—

"What if the next trap wasn't fake? What if I lose her to a war she doesn't warn me about?"

I couldn't afford those thoughts. Not there. Not in front of everyone. So I buried them under the ice.

"No clearance from the attending physician means no access to any school facility..."

They obeyed. Of course they did. It's what people do when they see control.

But none of them saw what I saw.

They didn't see that I was commanding them not to exert power, but to contain chaos. To hold back the wave I felt coming for all of us.

Because this wasn't just about school anymore. This wasn't about alliances or friendly competition or tactical pride. This was the first crack in the system.

And my system doesn't crack. Not unless something—someone—breaks it from the inside.

When the gym emptied, I remained standing for a second longer, pulse ringing behind my ears. I didn't move because I knew the moment I relaxed my spine, I'd fall apart.

She was waiting outside. Of course she was.

She always finds a way to meet me at my breaking point like she doesn't realize she's the reason I keep trying not to break.

"Why are you still here?" I asked. I needed it to sound annoyed. It came out colder than I meant. Too cold.

She smiled, shrugging like none of it mattered.