His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 256

Chapter 256

Claire’s POV

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The transition from the clinical terror of the testing crystal to the performative nightmare of a ‘diplomatic” lunch was almost too much to bear.

The Great Hall had been cleared, and the Regency now sat at the long mahogany table in the formal dining room.

The air was heavy with the smell of roasted lamb and expensive wine, but to me, it felt like oxygen was in short supply.

High Proctor Vane sat at the head, her obsidian eyes tracking every movement I made.

“Tell me, Claire,” Vane said, daintily cutting a piece of meat. “How does a fragile heart handle the ‘static’ of a wolf-run territory? Many of our Southern diplomats require suppressants just to visit the North without developing migraines.”

“I get headaches sometimes,” I lied, keeping my eyes on my plate I was picking at a piece of bread, my movements sluggish. “But the Hales have been… supportive. They say it’s just my body adjusting to the altitude.”

76 bpm. The Phase-Lock was holding, but the mental strain was like holding a heavy door shut against a hurricane.

Across the table, Elijah was a statue of forced restraint. He wasn’t eating; he was watching Vane’s Sentinels, who stood like statues against the wood-paneled walls.

“Altitude,” Vane mused, a thin, sharp smile touching her lips. “A convenient explanation for many things in the North. Marcus, don’t you agree?”

Marcus Valerius, sitting beside his daughter, nodded stiffly. “The North has always been an environment of extremes, Proctor. It breeds a certain… resilience.”

I caught Valerius’s eye. She was staring at her water glass, her expression unreadable, but her hand was clenched tight under the table. She knew the ice we were walking on was paper-thin.

Lunch dragged on for two agonizing hours.

Every question from Vane was a trap, a subtle probe designed to trip me into revealing the depth of my connection to the Wells.

By the time they rose to retire for their “afternoon deliberations. I felt like my brain had been scrubbed with sandpaper.

12:05 AM.

The Manor had finally fallen into a deceptive silence. The Regency and their Sentinels were housed in the West Wing, guarded by their own tech and the Hales’ wary hospitality.

But in the sub-basement, beneath the foundations of the old carriage house, the real work was beginning.

“The resonance is peaking,” Felix whispered, checking a handheld scanner. The Regency’s presence is actually agitating the Wells. If we don’t move the core tonight, the feedback loop will trigger every alarm in the valley.”

Silas, Ethan, Elijah, and I stood before the hidden vault. This wasn’t the Hearth Well; this was the Core-Link, a crystalline heart that acted as the primary relay between the mountain peaks and the Manor’s defenses.

It was a jagged, pulsing shard of pure sapphire light, housed in a lead-lined containment chamber.

“Claire, you have to be the one to lift it,” Ethan said, his voice a lov, urgent rasp. “If a wolf touches the bare core, the surge will be lethal. Your heart is the only thing that can act as a buffer

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10:08 Mon, Jan 26 GB

Chapter 256

Elijah stepped closer, his hand hovering near the small of my back. “I’m right here. If the pressure gets too high, lean on the bond. I’ll take as much of the heat as I can.”

I stepped toward the chamber. The air was vibrating so hard my vision blurred. I reached in, my fingers closing around the cold, humming crystal.

95 bpm. The moment my skin touched the sapphire surface, the world exploded into blue light.

It wasn’t pain-it was everything. I could feel the roots of the tres three miles away; I could feel the snow melting on the high ridges; I could feel the predatory hunger of the Regency Sentinels sleeping two floors above us.

“Move!” Silas hissed.

We moved through the shadows of the underground tunnels, a lent procession of ghosts.

Elijah held me steady, his strength the only thing keeping me from being swept away by the Core’s massive data-dump.

We were heading toward the “Old Well”-a deactivated, deep-cath shaft that predated the Manor itself. It was the only place shielded enough to hide the core from Vane’s orbital sensors.

“Almost there,” Elijah grunted, his eyes glowing a fierce, protective gold.

Suddenly, a red light flared on Felix’s tablet.

“Stop! Perimeter breach! A Regency drone just detached from the helicopter. It’s sweeping the grounds with thermal imaging!”

We froze in the damp darkness of the tunnel. Above us, we could hear the faint, high-pitched whirring of the drone.

I clutched the pulsing crystal to my chest, trying to wrap my ow heartbeat around it to mask its signature.

105 bpm. “Claire, calm down,” Elijah whispered into my ear, his breath warm against the cold sweat on my neck. “Focus. Phase-Lock. Hide the light.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. I am a stone. I am the earth. I am nothing but a shadow. The drone lingered directly above us for thirty seconds-the longest thirty seconds of my life. The Core in my hands throbbed like a living heart, wanting to scream its defiance to the sky. I bit my lip until I tasted blood, forcing the energy back down into the lead-lined box Felix had prepared.

The whirring faded.

“It’s moving toward the ridge,” Felix panted. “Go! Now!”

We reached the Old Well and lowered the Core into the lead-shielded sub-chamber. As Ethan locked the heavy iron seal, the crushing pressure in my chest finally dissipated. The blue light faded, leaving us in the dim, orange glow of the emergency

lanterns.

“It’s hidden,” Ethan said, wiping sweat from his brow. “To the Regency, the Manor’s energy signature just dropped by sixty percent. We’ll tell them it’s a localized brownout due to the storm.”

I leaned against Elijah, my heart finally slowing to a shaky 82 bp. “They’re going to know something is wrong, Ethan. Vane isn’t stupid.”

“No,” Silas said, looking toward the ceiling. “She isn’t. But she’s a legalist. Without a direct signature, she can’t seize the territory. We’ve bought ourselves a few more hours.”

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