His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 261

Chapter 261

Claire’s POV

:

(26)

55 vouchers

The bunker wasn’t exactly a five-star hotel. It was more like a giant, metal sardine can that smelled like WD-40, old batteries, and pure desperation.

The air was thick with the hum of the ventilation system, a low-frequency drone that seemed to vibrate right in the back of my skull.

While Ethan and Valerius were hunched over a flickering map in the corner, arguing in low, intense voices about “entry points,” “perimeter sweeps,” and “dead zones,” Elijah and I found a spot on the far side of the massive 4×4.

I was sitting on a stack of scratchy, military-grade wool blankets, my back against the cold, mud-caked tire of the truck.

My heart was finally behaving, sitting at a quiet 78 bpm, but my brain was a total mess. It felt like someone had taken a whisk to my thoughts.

“You’re doing that thing again,” Elijah said, sliding down the side of the truck to sit next to me. He nudged my shoulder with his, his presence a warm, solid weight in the chilly bunker.

“What thing?” I asked, staring at my hands. The blue sparks were gone, but my skin still felt… buzzy. Like I’d just touched a silver railing after walking across a plush carpet.

“The thing where you try to solve the entire world’s problems by staring at your fingernails like they’re a crystal ball,” he teased, though his voice was soft, lacking its usual competitive edge.

He reached over and took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine. His palm was rough, covered in small nicks from the fight at the Well, but it was the most grounding thing in the room.

I leaned my head on his shoulder, breathing in the scent of him-pine needles, woodsmoke, and just a hint of that metallic ozone that seemed to follow us everywhere now.

It was the only thing that felt real. The rest of this-the secret bunkers, the glowing crystals, the private armies -it felt like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.

“I’m just thinking about tomorrow,” I whispered, my voice sounding small even to my own ears. “The Citadel. It sounds like a horror movie, Elijah. What if I can’t do it? What if the moment I get close to their main relay, I just… explode? Or worse, what if I don’t explode and I just turn into a giant human battery for them? Like a lightbulb they never turn off?”

“Not gonna happen,” Elijah said firmly. He squeezed my hand so hard it almost hurt, but I didn’t mind. I needed the pressure. “We have Valerius. She knows their tech better than anyone. And you have me. I’m not letting anyone plug you into anything, Claire. I don’t care if it’s the Proctor, the Council, or the whole Southern army.”

“She’s literally a traitor now,” I said, glancing over at Valerius. She was pointing at a digital screen, her face tight with a kind of grim focus that made her look ten years older. “She gave up her whole life for us. Her dad, her career, her home. It’s weird, right? A week ago, I thought she was going to kidnap me. Now she’s basically

16:23 Tue, Feb 3

Chapter 261

:

the only person who knows how to keep me from melting down.”

26

55 vouchers

“People change when they realize they’re on the wrong side of a landslide,” Elijah muttered. He looked at me then, his golden eyes searching mine in the dim orange light of the emergency lanterns. “But hey, let’s talk about something else. Anything else. Tell me the first thing you want to do when this is over. No Wells, no wolves, no Council breathing down our necks. Just normal stuff.”

I laughed a little, the sound feeling strange and hollow in the heavy silence of the bunker. “Normal stuff? God, that sounds like a fantasy. I want to go to that burger place in town. The one with the greasy fries and the milkshakes that are basically just soft-serve in a plastic cup. I want to sit in a booth with a ripped vinyl seat, listen to some bad pop music on the radio, and not worry that my heart rate is going to trigger a national emergency.”

“Done,” Elijah smiled, and for a split second, he looked like a normal seventeen-year-old boy again, not a wolf prince on the run. “Double cheeseburgers on me. And I’m totally stealing half your fries. It’s the Alpha tax.”

“In your dreams, Hale. You touch my fries and I’ll use my ‘Anchor powers’ to make your milkshake salty.”

We sat there for a while, just breathing together. It was a small bubble of “normal” in the middle of a literal war zone. But like every good thing lately, the bubble popped.

Felix walked over, looking like he hadn’t slept since the Reagan administration. He was holding up a weird- looking headset that looked like a crown made of matte-black wire and sensors.

“Sorry to kill the vibe, guys,” Felix said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking genuinely apologetic. “But Val says we need to prep your neural dampeners. If we’re actually going into the Citadel, the static from their main relay is going to hit you like a freight train. This is supposed to act like noise-canceling headphones for your soul.”

I took the headset from him, feeling the weight of it. It was surprisingly heavy, the metal cold against my palms. It looked like something out of a low-budget sci-fi flick, but I knew the Council didn’t do “low-budget.”

“Is it going to hurt?” I asked, looking at the sharp-looking pins on the inside of the band.

“It might feel like a brain freeze for a second,” Felix admitted, woncing. “Maybe a little bit of a metallic taste in your mouth. But it’s better than having your brain fried by the Council’s frequency. We leave in four hours. You guys should really try to get some shut-eye. Or at least stop staring at each other like it’s the end of the world.”

He walked away, his shoulders slumped under the weight of his laptop bag, leaving the heavy reality of tomorrow hanging in the air like a fog.

Elijah stood up, pulling me with him. He didn’t let go of my hand. In fact, he pulled me into a fierce, silent hug, burying his face in the crook of my neck.

I could feel his heartbeat-steady, strong, and completely, terrifyingly devoted to me. It was the only rhythm I wanted to follow.

“Four hours,” he whispered against my skin.

“Four hours,” I repeated.

16:23 Tue, Feb 3

Chapter 261

26

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify