His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 262

Chapter 262

Claire’s POV

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The four hours of “rest” felt more like four minutes of staring at the concrete ceiling and listening to the rhythmic, mechanical hum of the bunker’s air recyclers.

By the time the alarm on Felix’s tablet chirped-a sharp, digital sound that felt like a needle to the brain-I was already standing by the back of the truck.

My hands were shoved deep into the pockets of my oversized hoodie, fidgeting with the smooth, cold surface of the neural dampener headset Felix had given me.

“Everybody ready for the world’s most stressful road trip?” Felix asked. His voice cracked a little at the end, and he looked like he was vibrating with pure anxiety as he tossed a bag of high-protein bars into the front

seat.

He looked at the heavy steel door of the bunker like he expected a monster to come bursting through it any second.

“We’re ready,” Elijah said. He stepped out from the shadows near the storage crates, looking like he hadn’t slept a wink but was somehow twice as sharp as usual.

He’d swapped his burnt, soot-stained hoodie for a sleek tactical jacket Valerius had pulled from a supply locker. It fit him perfectly, making him look less like a high school senior and more like a soldier.

He caught my eye, and for a split second, the hardness in his face melted into a small, tight nod of encouragement.

82 bpm. My heart was steady, but my stomach felt like it was full of cold lead.

We piled into the 4×4, the engine turning over with a low, muffled growl that felt amplified by the stone walls of the bunker.

Valerius led the way on her black motorcycle, her headlights dimmed to a thin, violet sliver that barely cut through the pitch-black tunnel.

The plan was supposed to be simple: stay off the main highways, use the old, overgrown logging trails to bypass the primary Regency sensors, and hit the Southern border at the one point where the forest was thick enough to hide a vehicle.

“Keep your heads down,” Ethan muttered from the driver’s seat. He looked at Silas in the rearview mirror. “If we hit a patrol, nobody shifts unless I give the word. We cannot afford to leave a magical footprint.”

For thirty minutes, it was just the sound of tires crunching on frozen gravel and the occasional branch scraping against the side of the truck.

I stared out the window, watching the silhouettes of the red pines pass by like giant, jagged teeth.

“Checkpoint ahead,” Valerius’s voice crackled over the comms, sounding tinny and cold. “It’s a Council mobile unit. Two armored interceptors and a surveillance drone. They weren’t on the grid twelve hours ago.”

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Chapter 262

Ethan gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. “Can we go around?”

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“Negative,” Val replied. “They’ve deployed a thermal net. If we move into the deep brush, we’ll trigger a proximity spike. We have to go through the bottleneck. Ethan, stay ten feet behind me. I’ll do the talking. Try to look like you’re supposed to be there.”

“Is she for real?” I whispered, clutching the edge of my seat.

“Her father probably has her face on every ‘Wanted’ screen from here to the Citadel. She’s going to get us all

arrested.”

“She’s counting on the fact that the low-level grunts haven’t gotten the update yet,” Elijah muttered. He leaned closer to me, his hand resting on the door handle. He was coiled like a spring, his eyes fixed on the lights appearing through the trees. “The Regency is a big machine, Claire. Sometimes the left hand doesn’t know the right hand is currently committing treason.”

We rolled toward the glowing red lights of the checkpoint. The forest cleared into a small, paved intersection that looked out of place in the wilderness. Two heavy, black SUVs with Regency insignias were parked across the road, their engines idling.

Four Sentinels in full silver-and-grey tactical gear stepped into the road, their rifles raised and aimed directly at our windshield.

“Identification!” one of them barked. His voice was amplified by his helmet’s external speaker, making it sound robotic and terrifying.

Valerius pulled her bike to a stop directly in front of the lead guard. She didn’t take off her helmet; she just tapped a sequence on her wrist-comm. A holographic ID flared into the air-a high-clearance Sentinel badge that shimmered with Regency encryption.

“Sentinel Valerius, Unit 7,” she said. Her voice was flat, cold, and totally devoid of the fear I knew she was feeling. It was her ‘soldier’ voice. “I’m transporting high-risk assets to the Citadel for Proctor Vane’s direct review. We’re on a ‘Black-Level’ priority. Move the barricade and clear the frequency.”

The guard hesitated, his rifle dipping a fraction of an inch. “We have orders to stop all traffic from the Red Pine sector. There was a high-level breach at the Old Well. Total lockdown.”

“I know about the breach, soldier,” Valerius snapped, her tone dripping with fake impatience. “Who do you think secured the targets? The girl is in the back of that truck, sedated for transport. If you delay me and the Prime Anchor destabilizes because we’re sitting in the middle of a dirt road, Vane will have your head for breakfast. Do you want to be the one to explain that to the Proctor?”

The guard looked at the truck. I quickly ducked my head, letting my hair fall over my face like a curtain, trying to look as “drugged” and lifeless as possible. My heart was trying to kick its way out of my chest, thudding against my ribs like a trapped bird.

118 bpm.

“Felix, the jammer,” I heard Ethan whisper under his breath.

A low, high-pitched whine started coming from the bag at Felix’s feet. It was so subtle I could barely hear it, but I saw the Sentinels’ comm-lights on their helmets flicker from solid green to a blinking, confused yellow.

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Chapter 262

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“Sir, our link to the Citadel is lagging,” another guard said, shaking his wrist-comm. “I can’t verify the badge’s current status.”

“It’s the atmospheric interference from the Well’s collapse,” Valerius said, her voice rising in a perfect imitation of a frustrated officer. “The whole sector is a mess. Open the gate. Now. That is a direct order from a superior officer.”

For three long, agonizing seconds, nobody moved. The only sound was the wind whistling through the trees and the hum of the idling engines.

I could see the lead guard’s finger hovering over the trigger of his rifle. Elijah was so still next to me he didn’t even seem to be breathing.

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