OPERATION WINTERSPINE (Strings Between Us Book 2)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: OF SLEEPING WEAPONS AND STRATEGISTS WHO DON'T SLEEP

"He meant let Khaizer sleep in your room. Don't think of anything green."

Saichel laughed, a short, mischievous burst that made the room feel smaller somehow. I glared at him, trying not to picture exactly what he was imagining.

"He anchors to you," Lyle said simply. "You're the only thing that brought him back within seconds. That's not a coincidence—that's emotional tethering. You're the thread Khaizer holds onto when Lucem pulls."

Saichel grinned. "Aww, how poetic. Khaizer's anchor is love."

I ignored him. My grip on Artemis tightened, knuckles whitening. I was still trying to process Lyle's order—sleeping with KD. Lucem. Not just the boy I love, but the part of him trained to kill, to think faster, to react before anyone else even knew what was happening.

Every instinct in me screamed caution. Every fiber of my being screamed protect him. And somehow, both instincts collided in a dizzying, impossible mix.

Keryn stepped in. She laid down Athena, her falchion, and crossed her arms. "It's not just emotional. It's pulse-related. Ari, your frequency matches his. If he's having echo-triggered episodes in his sleep, you're the best variable we can test against."

"To be blunt," Tofer added, tightening the acoustic chains of Atlas, "we need to study how Echo-9 functions. You're the only thing we've seen that reverses a slip."

"And if we can understand it," Keryn said softly, "maybe we can teach him to control it. Not erase Lucem—but reclaim him."

A long silence followed.

I sat back slowly, gaze dropping to my lap. My fingers curled into the fabric of my uniform. Could we really manage something like this? Could we... study a weapon and not lose the boy inside? Could I hold onto KD without being cut by the blades he doesn't even remember holding?

"I just don't want to lose him," I said quietly. "He's not just some rogue weapon we found in the dark. He's Khaizer. He's mine."

The room stayed silent, and for a moment, the war hall felt less like a strategy chamber and more like the quiet before a storm.

"And that means he's ours," Seb said, voice calm, almost teasing. "So yeah. We help him. Rules be damned."

Then Thres spoke. He was quiet the whole meeting, holding Deimos, his kinetic. But when he looked up, his eyes were unflinching.

"We can't do this alone. If we pretend we can, we'll lose him before Lucem even takes him," he said."

"What do you mean?" Alexie asked, tilting her head.

"I mean your mom," he looked at me. "Tita Dana Ysabel Soriano Del Rio. She was the one who uncovered the Patch illegal business so she might know about it. Or we go directly to the Frost Monarch's parents. Because they were one of the people who created him."

Everyone fell still.

Lyle stood. He tapped his Compass Ring once, syncing a temporary lock on the room.

"Alright," he said. "Then we move forward with this."

We all straightened instinctively. When the Crown spoke like that, it wasn't a suggestion—it was an order. And once Lyle gave an order, you followed. No questions. No hesitation.

"We split our next movements into three threads," Lyle began. "Thread One—Control. Thread Two—Knowledge. Thread Three—Containment."

He flicked one of his orichalcum cards into the center table. It embedded itself there, humming.

"Thread One: Control. Ari, you're with Khaizer every night. Let him sleep here in Eclipsa Sanctum. We monitor his dream states, Echo surges, and memory bleed-throughs. Keryn and Tofer will set up a stabilizing field inside your room—low-frequency pulse dampeners to keep Lucem from fully surfacing during rapid eye movement cycles. We run a two-week trial. If the tether holds, we escalate into deeper phase-mapping."

Keryn gave a single nod. "I'll craft the sync anchors myself. No one else touches the design."

Tofer started muttering calculations under his breath, already imagining the pulse configurations.

"Thread Two: Knowledge," Lyle continued. "We dig. Quietly. We'll split into two subteams. Seb and Alexie—you track down what Tita Dana Ysabel might know. Start with the archives at the old Reform Council files. She left trails. Follow them. Discreetly."

Alexie grinned, already plotting the disguise rotations. "Finally, some action."

Seb merely nodded, cracking his neck. "On it."

"Meanwhile," Lyle said, "Saichel and I will handle the Frost Monarch's bloodline."

Saichel raised an eyebrow. "And by handle, you mean...?"

"We pay his parents a visit," Lyle replied coolly. "Under court protection. Not as children. Not as students. But as operatives of the Ardent Court. If they made Lucem, they will explain how. And why he's bleeding into Khaizer 's mind now."

There was a cold weight to his voice—one that even Saichel didn't joke over.

"Last thread." He tapped another card. "Thread Three: Containment. Thres, you're on standby. You're our wall. If Khaizer breaks control and Lucem takes full reign, you activate Deimos and isolate him. Only you can tank his hits long enough for the rest of us to react."

Thres nodded once. "Understood."

The Sigil Heart Hall hummed faintly with his command, the pulse-lights flickering like the breath of some sleeping beast. The meeting was over.

But I wasn't ready for what came next. Not the strategies, not the questions, not the inevitability of Lucem. I left before anyone could speak—before a kind word, a cruel word, a comforting word—could reach me.

I had chosen him. And now, I had to face whatever that choice demanded, alone.

My boots echoed lightly against the stone spiral of the Sanctum stairs, leading up to the third floor—toward the only room that still felt like mine.

I pushed open the door quietly.

Inside, the curtains were drawn just enough to let in the late afternoon. Faint light spilled across the floor, catching on the soft edges of a blanket rising and falling.

There he was.

KD—Khaizer Dylan—was asleep on my bed. Curled slightly, his head turned to the side, one hand half-hanging off the edge like he had reached for something mid-dream and forgotten what it was. His hair was a mess, his breathing slow. Peaceful, for now.

I stepped in, slowly. Shut the door behind me.

My fingers hovered over the lock—then dropped. If something came for him now, no door would stop it.

I moved closer. Sat at the edge of the bed, careful not to wake him.

And I just... watched.

The faint rise and fall of his chest. The way his lashes twitched like maybe—just maybe—he was dreaming of things less cruel than the world he'd woken into.

Lucem was inside him. A weapon honed sharp and left in the dark too long. And yet here, now—he looked like a boy. Not a weapon. Not a threat. Just... mine.

I touched his knuckles lightly, like that might remind him where he was. Who he was.

"You're safe," I whispered. "I'm here. I'll keep you here, even if I have to fight him to do it."

His fingers twitched, almost closing around mine. I stayed. Silent. Watching.

And for a moment, the war felt far away.