Maya's POV
"You're doing it wrong."
The foreman—a massive man named Rico who'd been running the weapon forge for three months—turned to glare at me. "Excuse me?"
I pointed at his production line, where twelve workers hammered away at metal with zero coordination. "You're wasting thirty percent efficiency by having everyone work independently. Reorganize into assembly teams. Three people per weapon, rotating tasks. Production doubles."
"I've been doing this for—"
"Three months. I know." I pulled up my holographic display, showing him the numbers. "And your output is decent. But decent doesn't win Territory Wars. Excellent does."
Rico stared at the projections. Then, grudgingly: "Fine. We'll try it your way."
"Not my way. The right way."
That had been my mantra for seven days straight. Seven days of tearing through the Northern Kingdom's systems like a hurricane, reorganizing everything that moved. And some things that didn't.
Work rotations? Restructured. Supply chains? Optimized. Defense schedules? Completely redesigned. Food distribution? Cut waste by forty-eight percent in four days.
The kingdom hummed with new efficiency, and I was running on three hours of sleep and pure spite.
"You're making enemies," Nina said, appearing beside me with a medical scanner. "Hold still."
"I'm fine."
"You're exhausted. And you've had five death threats this week." She scanned me anyway, frowning at the results. "When's the last time you ate?"
I couldn't remember. "I had coffee."
"Coffee isn't food." She shoved a protein bar at me. "Eat. Kaden will kill me if you collapse."
The mention of his name did something to my pulse that I absolutely refused to acknowledge. "Kaden doesn't care if I collapse."
Nina's laugh was sharp. "Sure. That's why he checks on you six times a day. Why he redirected his best guards to watch your quarters. Why he nearly broke Marcus's jaw yesterday when Marcus suggested you were pushing too hard."
My heart stuttered. "He did what?"
"Oh, you didn't know?" Nina's smile turned knowing. "The whole kingdom's noticed, honey. The way he looks at you. The way he finds excuses to be wherever you're working. How he watches you like you're the most fascinating thing in the Wastes."
"He watches me because I'm reorganizing his kingdom."
"Keep telling yourself that." Nina patted my shoulder. "But maybe ask yourself why Cassandra hasn't tried to kill you yet. It's because Kaden made it very clear what would happen if she touched you."
She walked away, leaving me with thoughts I couldn't afford to have.
I didn't have time for this. Didn't have time to think about gray eyes that followed me everywhere. About a voice that went rough when he said my name. About the way my skin still tingled from that handshake a week ago.
I had a kingdom to fix.
By day seven, the transformation was undeniable. Workers who'd hated their assignments now moved with purpose. The forge production had actually doubled, just like I'd predicted. Food stores were fuller. Weapon quality had increased.
The Northern Kingdom wasn't just functioning anymore. It was thriving.
I stood in the main courtyard at sunset—or what passed for sunset in this blood-red world—watching people move through organized streets. My Strategic Vision highlighted everything I'd built, every improvement, every success.
For the first time since arriving in the Wastes, I felt something other than terror.
Pride.
"You're smiling."
I spun. Kaden stood three feet away, and I had no idea how long he'd been there. He moved like a ghost when he wanted to.
"The reorganization's working," I said, trying to sound professional. Trying not to notice how the crimson light made his eyes look like molten silver.
"It's not just working. It's revolutionary." He moved closer, and my heart picked up speed. "Weapon production up sixty-three percent. Food waste down to almost nothing. Even Marcus is impressed, and he's never impressed."
"That's the job."
"No." Kaden's voice went quiet. Dangerous. "The job was to analyze and recommend. You've rebuilt my entire kingdom in a week."
"You gave me authority. I used it."
"You used it like you were born to rule." He studied me with an intensity that made breathing difficult. "Where did you come from, Maya Chen? How did someone so brilliant end up invisible in the old world?"
The question hit harder than expected. "I wasn't invisible. I was just... safe. Small. I played it safe because I had to. Because Derek needed stability, and risk meant he might suffer."
"And now?"
"Now there's no such thing as safe. So I might as well be dangerous."
Kaden's smile was slow and devastating. "You have no idea how dangerous you are, do you?"
Before I could respond, he turned and walked away, leaving me standing there with my heart trying to break through my ribs.
That night, I couldn't sleep. Again.
I climbed to the tower roof—the highest point in the kingdom—and spread out my maps. Tomorrow I'd tackle the trade routes. After that, the intelligence network. Then—
"You're going to work yourself to death."
Kaden's voice shouldn't have startled me. I was starting to expect him to appear whenever I was alone.
"Can't sleep," I said without looking up.
"Because you're thinking."
"Always thinking." I traced a trade route with my finger. "If we establish a secondary route through the western ruins, we could cut travel time by—"
"Maya." He sat beside me, close enough that I could feel his warmth. "It's midnight. The trade routes will still be there tomorrow."
"But the Territory War won't wait."
"The War is ten days away. We have time."
I finally looked at him. Really looked. He was tired too—shadows under his eyes, tension in his shoulders. Running a kingdom of three thousand people while preparing for war took its toll, even on someone as strong as Kaden Cross.
"When's the last time you slept?" I asked.
"When's the last time you did?"
We stared at each other, and suddenly we were both smiling. Tired, broken smiles that understood too much.
"We're a mess," I said.
"We're survivors." Kaden's expression softened into something I'd never seen before. Vulnerable. "Maya, I need to tell you something."
My pulse jumped. "What?"
"You're changing everything." He looked out over his kingdom, jaw tight. "Not just the systems. Not just the efficiency. You're changing the way people think. The way they work. The way they see what's possible."
"That's good, right?"
"It's terrifying." He turned those gray eyes back to me, and they were burning. "Because I've built this kingdom on control. On fear. On being the strongest, the most ruthless, the one nobody dares challenge. And then you walk in and make me want to be better."
My breath caught. "Kaden—"
"You make me want things I can't afford to want." His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "You make me—"
Alarms exploded through the night. Deafening. Urgent. Terror-inducing.
[EMERGENCY: PERIMETER BREACH. EASTERN WALL COMPROMISED. MONSTER WAVE INCOMING. THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME.]
We were on our feet instantly, the moment shattered. Kaden's entire demeanor shifted from vulnerable to lethal in a heartbeat.
"How many?" he barked into his comm device.
Marcus's voice crackled back. "At least two hundred Crimson Ravagers. Maybe more. They're pouring through a gap in the eastern wall. Kaden, this isn't random—someone sabotaged our defenses!"
My blood turned to ice. Sabotage. Inside job. Someone in the Northern Kingdom wanted us dead.
Kaden was already running, and I ran with him. Down the tower stairs, through corridors, toward the sounds of screaming and chaos.
We burst into the eastern district, and it was carnage.
Monsters flooded through a massive breach in the wall—Ravagers like the ones I'd seen before, but more. Different types. Some small and fast. Some huge and armored. All of them killing machines designed by hell itself.
Kaden's soldiers fought desperately, but they were being overwhelmed. I saw people falling, heard screams cutting off too abruptly, watched my week of careful organization dissolve into blood and terror.
My Strategic Vision flared to life, showing me the battlefield in terrible clarity. Attack patterns. Weak points. Defensive formations that might work.
"Marcus!" I grabbed the commander as he ran past. "Pull your forces back to the secondary line! Create a funnel at the market junction—make them come through narrow streets!"
"Who the hell are you to—"
"DO IT!" Kaden roared, not looking away from the monsters. "Follow her orders!"
Marcus hesitated for half a second, then started shouting commands.
I coordinated like my brain had been rewired for warfare. Archers to high ground. Melee fighters in rotating waves. Civilians evacuated to inner districts. The chaos started organizing into controlled defense.
Kaden fought like death incarnate, his blade moving so fast it blurred. Every strike killed. Every movement was precise. He was beautiful and terrifying, and I couldn't look away.
Then I saw it.
A figure near the breached wall, moving wrong. Not fighting. Not fleeing. Watching.
My Strategic Vision zoomed in, and my heart stopped.
Derek.
My brother stood in the shadows, thirty feet from where the wall had been sabotaged, holding something that looked like a detonator. His face was pale but determined.
And he was looking directly at me.
Our eyes met across the battlefield. His expression crumbled—guilt, shame, fear. Then he turned and ran into the darkness.
"No," I whispered. "No, no, no—"
A Ravager lunged at me from the side. I barely got my weapon up in time, the impact sending me sprawling. The creature's claws raked my shoulder, pain exploding white-hot.
Kaden was there in an instant, his blade taking the monster's head off. He pulled me up, eyes wild. "Are you hurt?"
"Derek," I gasped. "He was at the breach. He had—Kaden, I think my brother sabotaged the wall."
Kaden's expression went very still. Very cold. "Are you certain?"
"I saw him. He had a detonator, and he ran when I saw him, and—" My voice broke. "Oh God, what if he's been working against us this whole time?"
Before Kaden could respond, Nina's voice came over the comm: "We've got wounded pouring into medical! And someone's asking for Maya specifically—says it's urgent about Survivor 1039!"
Derek's designation.
"Go," Kaden ordered, already turning back to the fight. "I'll handle this. Find your brother. Get answers."
I ran toward medical, my mind racing. Derek sabotaging the wall. Derek working with someone. Derek betraying not just me, but everyone.
The brother I'd raised. The person I'd sacrificed everything for.
I burst into the medical center and found Nina waiting, her face grim.
"Where is he?" I demanded.
"Maya, you need to prepare yourself—"
"WHERE IS HE?"
She led me to a private room. And there, lying on a medical bed, was Derek. But not injured from the battle.
Tied down. Restrained.
And standing over him, holding a blade to his throat, was Cassandra.
"Hello, Maya," she purred. "We need to have a conversation about your darling brother. About what he's really been doing since he arrived. About who he's really working for."
Her smile was vicious. "And about why the Sovereigns want you dead so badly that they sent a spy into your own family."