His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 272

Chapter 272

Claire’s POV

The silence that followed the explosion was louder than the alarms.

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It was that ringing, high-pitched vacuum that happens when your eardrums are trying to decide if they’re still functional.

I lay flat on the cold metal floor of the cylinder, my cheek pressed against the vibrating base. The yellow gas was swirling above me, a thick, toxic blanket, but the pressure in the room had changed.

The glass didn’t just shatter; it surrendered.

With a final, sharp crack, the structural integrity of my cage gave way.

A million tiny diamonds of reinforced glass rained down around me.

They weren’t sharp like normal glass-they were rounded, heavy shards that bounced off the floor with a sound like hailstones on a tin roof.

64 bpm. My heart was heavy, sluggish, but the oppressive “pull”

of the extraction was gone.

I coughed, my lungs screaming as a whiff of the yellow failsafe gas hit the back of my throat. It tasted like burning copper.

I knew I had maybe thirty seconds before the gas settled or the backup ventilation kicked in and flushed the room with something even worse.

Move, Claire. Move or die.

I dragged myself forward on my elbows. My legs felt like they belonged to a different person-one who had spent the last century running a marathon through a swamp.

Every movement was a battle against the gravity of my own exhaustion. I crawled over the mounds of glass shards, the pebbles biting into my palms, but the pain was a good thing.

It meant I was still alive. It was the only “light” I had left.

I reached the edge of the containment dais and tumbled off, landing hard on the polished floor of the main lab.

The impact knocked the wind out of me, and for a second, I just lay there, staring at the flickering overhead lights.

The lab was a graveyard of tech. The consoles I’d spiked were smoking, their screens cracked and weeping black liquid. The violet glow of the floor had been replaced by the rhythmic, red strobe of the emergency lighting. Red for danger. Red for ‘you’re in so much trouble.”

I forced myself up, shaking like a leaf in a gale. I used a nearby surgical table to haul myself to a standing position.

My vision was swimming, the room tilting at a nauseating angle. I looked at the heavy blast doors the scientists had fled through.

They were locked, probably mag-bolted from the outside.

“Okay,” I wheezed, wiping a streak of soot from my forehead. “Think. You’re a literal human battery. Do something battery-

ish.”

12:08 Wed, Feb 4 G

Chapter 272

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I reached for the light again. It was faint-a flickering ember at the bottom of a well-but the shadow I’d used to spike the system had cleared out some of the “static.”

I could feel the Citadel now. It wasn’t the beautiful, earthy thrum of the North Ridge. This place felt like a machine made of teeth.

I could feel the power lines running through the walls, the hum of a thousand sensors, and the cold, distant pulse of the main elevator shaft.

I didn’t try to blast the door. I didn’t have the juice for that. Instead, I put my hand on the keypad next to the exit.

I closed my eyes and whispered to the electronics, sending a tiny, focused pulse of “error” into the circuitry.

Click-hiss.

The mag-bolts retracted. The doors slid open just enough for me to slip through into the hallway.

The corridor was a nightmare of white tile and sterile light. It

stretched in both directions, seemingly forever.

There were no windows, no signs, just the hum of the air conditioning and the distant, muffled sound of shouting.

They were coming. Vane would have every Sentinel in the sector descending on this floor in minutes.

I turned left, mostly because the air felt slightly cooler in that direction. I stayed close to the wall, my hand trailing against the cool metal as I limped forward.

88 bpm. My heart was picking up speed, fueled by pure, unadulterated terror.

I reached a junction and ducked behind a massive pillar as a squad of Sentinels sprinted past the end of the hall.

Their armor clattered, their heavy boots sounding like a drumroll of doom. They didn’t see me; they were focused on the lab, expecting to find me still trapped in the glass or knocked out by the gas.

“Subject is unaccounted for!” a voice barked over the intercom system, echoing through the halls. “Seal all sectors. Initiate a Level-Five sweep. If she flares, use the dampener grenades. Do not let her reach the central hub.”

Central hub, I thought. That’s where the exit is. Or at least the way up.

I wasn’t a soldier. I wasn’t an Alpha wolf with super-strength and a killer instinct. I was just a girl who was tired of being poked with needles.

But as I watched the red lights flash, a cold, hard knot of anger began to replace the fear.

They thought I was a prize. They thought they could just drain me and toss the shell away.

I looked down at my hands. They were covered in small cuts from the glass, and my fingernails were stained with that weird, blue-black residue from the spike.

I wasn’t the same girl who had been snatched from the sunroom The Citadel had tried to eat me, but they’d forgotten that some things are indigestible.

I moved deeper into the industrial heart of the fortress. The sleek, white hallways gave way to grittier, darker service

tunnels.

This was the “gut” of the Citadel-pipes hissed steam, and massive turbines roared behind thick steel cages.

I found a service ladder and began to climb. Every rung felt like a hundred pounds. My muscles screamed, and my breath

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ས༩ (74)

Chapter 272

came in ragged, shallow gasps.

One more. Just one more.

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I reached a small landing and pushed open a heavy grate. I crawled out into a narrow maintenance crawlspace that overlooked a massive, hollow chamber.

My breath caught in my throat.

I was looking down into the main hangar of the Citadel. It was enormous-large enough to hold a fleet of those black VTOL crafts.

Thousands of Sentinels were mobilizing below, a sea of silver and grey. And in the center of it all, I saw her.

Proctor Vane was standing on a raised platform, talking to a man in a dark suit. Even from this height, I could feel the coldness radiating off her.

“She couldn’t have gone far,” Vane’s voice was amplified, echoing up into the rafters. “The extraction was nearly at the threshold. She’s weak, she’s confused, and she’s alone. Find her.

Bring her to me in chains if you have to, but do not-I repeat, do not-damage the core.”

I flattened myself against the metal floor of the crawlspace, my heart hammering against my ribs. 115 bpm.

I was alone. I was in the heart of the enemy’s lair. Elijah was miles away, probably tearing the forest apart looking for a trail that didn’t exist. There was no rescue coming. Not today.

I looked at the massive power cables running along the ceiling of the hangar, right above my head.

They were thick as tree trunks, vibrating with the sheer amount of energy being diverted to the search efforts.

A small, dangerous smile touched my lips.

If they wanted my energy so badly, maybe I should just give it to them. All of it. At once.

I reached out and wrapped my hands around the primary power conduit. The insulation was hot, the electricity inside humming like a swarm of angry bees. I didn’t pull this time. I didn’t try to hide.

I let out a breath, picturing the North Ridge one last time-the snow, the trees, and the boy with the golden eyes.

“Okay, Citadel,” I whispered into the dark. “Let’s see how much you can actually hold.”

I closed my eyes and let the fire in my chest roar to life.

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