His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 273

Chapter 273

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Claire’s POV

The power conduit felt like a living thing beneath my palms-a jagged, electrical pulse that wanted to shred my skin.

It wasn’t the warm, grounded hum of the North Ridge. This was sharp. This was artificial. It was the sound of a thousand stolen dreams being forced through a copper wire.

120 bpm. My heart was hitting a frantic rhythm, but for the first time since they dragged me into this hellhole, I didn’t feel like a victim. I felt like a conductor.

“Subject located! Maintenance Level 3!” a voice screamed from below.

I didn’t look down. I knew what was there: a dozen red laser dots dancing across the metal grating of the crawlspace, the heavy thud-thud-thud of boots on the stairs, and the high-pitched whine of drone rotors.

“Claire, stop!” Proctor Vane’s voice boomed, amplified and echoing. “If you discharge that much energy into the primary line, you’ll vaporize yourself along with the sector! Step away from the conduit!”

“You wanted my light, Vane?” I whispered, my voice lost in the roar of the hangar. “Here. Take it all.”

I didn’t just open the tap. I ripped the door off the hinges.

I reached deep, past the fear and the exhaustion, and grabbed every bit of sapphire energy left in my core.

Then, I didn’t just push it into the wire; I used my body as a bridge. I pulled the Citadel’s own massive power reserves into myself, let them mingle with the Anchor’s resonance for one chaotic, blinding second, and then slammed it all back into the

system.

It wasn’t a spark. It was a tectonic shift.

155 bpm.

For a heartbeat, the world went white. Not the sterile white of the lab, but a brilliant, soul-searing blue.

I felt the energy scream through my arms, bypassing my nerves and hitting the Citadel’s main breakers like a sledgehammer.

CRACK-BOOM.

The sound was like a mountain splitting in half. Below me, the massive power cables didn’t just short out; they disintegrated. Fireballs of blue static raced along the ceiling, leaping from one relay to the next like a virus.

Then, the lights went out.

Not just the hangar lights. Not just the emergency strobes. The everything went out.

The hum of the turbines died. The high-pitched whine of the drones stopped mid-air, and I watched as a dozen of them fell like stones, smashing into the hangar floor.

The elevator banks groaned and seized. The massive bio-scanners, the heat sensors, the dampening fields-everything that made the Citadel a fortress simply stopped existing.

The darkness was absolute. It was thick, heavy, and sudden. The only thing glowing in the entire city was me.

I slumped back against the metal rafters, my breath coming in ragged, glowing putts of mist. My skin was shimmering with a fading sapphire light, making the shadows around me look even deeper.

12:08 Wed, Feb 4 G

Chapter 273

Chapter 273

Claire’s POV

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The power conduit felt like a living thing beneath my palms-a jagged, electrical pulse that wanted to shred my skin.

It wasn’t the warm, grounded hum of the North Ridge. This was sharp. This was artificial. It was the sound of a thousand stolen dreams being forced through a copper wire.

120 bpm. My heart was hitting a frantic rhythm, but for the first time since they dragged me into this hellhole, I didn’t feel like a victim. I felt like a conductor.

“Subject located! Maintenance Level 3!” a voice screamed from below.

I didn’t look down. I knew what was there: a dozen red laser dots dancing across the metal grating of the crawlspace, the heavy thud-thud-thud of boots on the stairs, and the high-pitched whine of drone rotors.

“Claire, stop!” Proctor Vane’s voice boomed, amplified and echoing. “If you discharge that much energy into the primary line, you’ll vaporize yourself along with the sector! Step away from the conduit!”

“You wanted my light, Vane?” I whispered, my voice lost in the roar of the hangar. “Here. Take it all.”

I didn’t just open the tap. I ripped the door off the hinges.

I reached deep, past the fear and the exhaustion, and grabbed every bit of sapphire energy left in my core.

Then, I didn’t just push it into the wire; I used my body as a bridge. I pulled the Citadel’s own massive power reserves into myself, let them mingle with the Anchor’s resonance for one chaotic, blinding second, and then slammed it all back into the

system.

It wasn’t a spark. It was a tectonic shift.

155 bpm.

For a heartbeat, the world went white. Not the sterile white of the lab, but a brilliant, soul-searing blue.

I felt the energy scream through my arms, bypassing my nerves and hitting the Citadel’s main breakers like a sledgehammer.

CRACK-BOOM.

The sound was like a mountain splitting in half. Below me, the massive power cables didn’t just short out; they disintegrated. Fireballs of blue static raced along the ceiling, leaping from one relay to the next like a virus.

Then, the lights went out.

Not just the hangar lights. Not just the emergency strobes. The everything went out.

The hum of the turbines died. The high-pitched whine of the drones stopped mid-air, and I watched as a dozen of them fell like stones, smashing into the hangar floor.

The elevator banks groaned and seized. The massive bio-scanners, the heat sensors, the dampening fields-everything that made the Citadel a fortress simply stopped existing.

The darkness was absolute. It was thick, heavy, and sudden. The only thing glowing in the entire city was me.

I slumped back against the metal rafters, my breath coming in ragged, glowing puffs of mist. My skin was shimmering with a fading sapphire light, making the shadows around me look even deeper.

12:08 Wed, Feb 4 G

Chapter 273

72 bpm. The drop was instant.

I felt empty. Not just tired, but hollow, like an old battery that finally gave up the ghost.

Below me, the hangar was a chaos of shouting voices and clattering armor.

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“Report! Status report!” Vane was screaming, her voice no longer amplified by the speakers. Without the tech, she sounded small. She sounded human.

“The grid is fried, Proctor! The surge bypassed the failsafes-it hit the central core! We have total system failure!”

“Get the backup generators online! Now!”

“The conduits are melted, Ma’am! There’s nothing to route the power through!”

I took a shaky breath, the air smelling of ozone and burnt insulation. I needed to move. I had a head start, but I was glowing like a neon sign in a dark room.

Every Sentinel with a pair of eyes would be looking up any second.

I crawled along the rafter, my muscles feeling like they were made of lead. I found an air vent that hadn’t been sealed yet and squeezed inside. It was narrow and smelled like old dust, but it led away from the hangar.

I moved by instinct, following the slight draft of cooler air. I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t have a map, and the “static” I’d caused was still ringing in my head, making it impossible to sense the Wells. I was flying blind.

After what felt like miles of crawling, the vent opened into a small, dark office. I tumbled out, landing on a plush carpet that felt like heaven after the metal rafters. I stayed low, creeping toward the window.

The sight took my breath away.

The Citadel-the city that never slept, the glowing heart of the South-was a graveyard. Thousands of buildings were nothing but black silhouettes against the moon.

The streetlights were dead. The massive holographic advertisements that usually lit up the sky were gone. The only lights I could see were the flickering orange flames from the relays I’d blown.

I had done it. I had turned off the sun.

65 bpm.

I slid down the wall, pulling my knees to my chest. I was shivering, the cold of the night finally catching up to me. I was in a dark room, in a dark city, surrounded by an army that wanted me dead.

I looked at my hands. The sapphire glow was almost gone, leaving only a few faint, pulsing veins of blue. I felt smaller than I ever had. No wolf, no pack, no Elijah.

Where are you? I thought, a single tear carving a path through the soot on my cheek. Elijah, please. I don’t know how to get home from here.

Suddenly, the door to the office creaked open.

I froze, my heart leaping into my throat. 110 bpm.

A figure stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the dim

moonlight coming through the hall. They weren’t wearing Sentinel armor.

They were small, dressed in dark rags, and holding a flickering chemical light stick.

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