His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 274

Chapter 274

Claire’s POV

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The darkness was a pressurized, synthetic weight. It felt like being buried alive in a coffin made of static and cold needles.

Every time I tried to claw my way back to the surface of consciousness, a sharp, metallic tang filled the back of my throat- the chemical footprint of the sedative keeping me under.

When my eyes finally flickered open, the world did not return in colors or shapes. It returned in vibrations.

I was lying on a cold, ribbed metal floor that hummed with the deep, bone-rattling throb of a heavy-duty engine.

I tried to lift my hands to rub the grit from my eyes, but a heavy hydraulic snap echoed in the small space, pinning my wrists back.

I was shackled to the floor of a moving vehicle, my arms spread wide in a cruciform position.

52 bpm. My heart was barely ticking, suppressed by the Regency’s chemical leash.

The silver collar around my neck was the worst part. It felt like a cold snake tightening its grip every time I took a breath. It wasn’t just a physical restraint; it was a sensory vacuum.

Every time I tried to reach for the memory of the North-the scent of cedar, the heat of a bonfire, or the golden light in Elijah’s eyes-the collar would pulse with a low-frequency hum that scrambled the thought into white noise.

I was officially offline, a disconnected terminal in a world of steel

I shifted my head, my neck screaming in protest. I wasn’t in the lab anymore. The air here was stale and smelled of diesel and ozone.

I was in the back of a high-security armored transport. The interior was bathed in a dim, rhythmic red light that cast long, distorted shadows across crates of equipment labeled with the Proctor’s seal.

Across from me, sitting on a fold-down bench, was a Sentinel. He had his helmet off, resting in his lap. He looked young— barely older than Elijah-with pale, sallow skin and deep shadows under his eyes.

He was staring at a handheld tablet, the blue light of the screen reflecting in his pupils like a ghost.

“Where…” I started, but my voice died in a dry, painful cough. It felt like I had swallowed a handful of sand.

The Sentinel looked up. There was no malice in his gaze, just a profound, exhausted apathy. He reached for a plastic bottle of water on the bench next to him and unscrewed the cap.

He leaned forward, holding it to my lips with a steady hand.

“Drink,” he muttered. “The sedative dehydrates the core. If your itals drop below the threshold, the alarms will trigger an automated adrenaline spike. You don’t want that. It feels like your blood is turning into boiling acid.”

I took a few desperate sips, the cool water hitting my parched throat like a blessing. I leaned my head back against the vibrating wall, watching him through the haze.

“Where are you taking me?” I rasped. “The Citadel is dark. I turned it off. There’s nothing left to power.”

The Sentinel let out a short, hollow laugh that didn’t reach his eyes. “You turned off a city, Anchor. You didn’t turn off an empire. We’re heading to the High Spire. It sits on a geothermal vent. It doesn’t need the grid you fried. It’s a closed loop, and once those doors shut behind you, the North might as well be on another planet.”

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11:18 Mon, Feb 9

Chapter 274

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65 bpm. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the movement of the transport. We were climbing. I could feel the tilt of the floor, the way the engine groaned as it fought a steep incline.

We were leaving the valley, heading into the jagged, obsidian peaks that guarded the South’s inner sanctum.

I tried to find the wolf. I reached for that hot, primal spark that Had erupted in the ventilation shaft-the instinct that had allowed me to tear through the Hounds like they were made of paper. I needed that fire. I needed the teeth.

But the collar was a wall. Every time I touched the edge of the shift, the silver ring would tighten, sending a jolt of neural- dampening static through my spine.

It felt like a thousand needles pricking my brain simultaneously forcing the wolf back into the dark.

“Don’t try it,” the Sentinel said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “The collar is synced to your DNA. If it detects a metamorphic shift, it’ll discharge a lethal dose of neurotoxin. The Proctor doesn’t care if the Anchor is a person or a corpse, as long as the resonance is still harvestable.”

I looked at him, my vision blurring with tears of frustration.

“Why? Why do you work for her? You’re human. You have a life. How can you stand to be the one who guards the cage?”

The Sentinel’s jaw tightened. He looked back at his tablet, his fingers hovering over the screen. “My sister is a Level-Four clerk in the Lower Wards. She’s sick, Claire. The kind of sick that requires the ‘Zero-Point’ meds only the High Spire produces. If I do my job, she stays on the list. If I don’t…” He trailed off, the blue light of the tablet making him look like a

statue.

The transport jolted as we hit a rough patch of road. Outside, the wind was howling through the mountain passes, a lonely, mourning sound.

Suddenly, a proximity alarm chirped on the Sentinel’s tablet. He stiffened, his hand flying to his sidearm. “We have a contact. Five hundred yards and closing fast.”

“Is it them?” I whispered, hope flared in my chest like a dying ember. “Is it the Hales?”

“Negative,” the Sentinel said, his eyes scanning the data. “The thermal signature is too small for a wolf. It’s… it’s moving too fast. It’s jumping the frequency.”

A violent thud echoed from the roof of the transport, as if someone had dropped a boulder on us. The vehicle swerved, the tires screeching against the mountain rock.

“Breach! Rear hatch!” a voice screamed over the comms.

The back doors of the transport didn’t rip open. They didn’t explode. They simply… dissolved.

The reinforced steel turned into a shimmering cloud of black dust, and the freezing mountain air rushed in, smelling of snow and old magic.

Standing in the opening was a figure dressed in a tattered grey duster. His silver eyes glowed in the dark, cutting through the red emergency lights of the hold. It wasn’t Elijah. It wasn’t the pack.

It was Kael, the messenger from the Eclipse Coven.

“The Regency has had their turn with you, Anchor,” Kael said. Hi voice was calm, undisturbed by the roaring wind or the swaying of the truck. “Now, the mountain wants its debt paid.”

The Sentinel raised his pulse-rifle, his finger tightening on the trigger. “Get back! I have orders to-”

Kael didn’t move. He didn’t even look at the guard. He simply snapped his fingers, and the Sentinel’s rifle turned into a handful of dry sand, spilling through his fingers.

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r

11:18 Mon, Feb 9

Chapter 274

The guard stared at his empty hands, his eyes wide with a terror that no wolf could ever inspire.

“Sleep,” Kael commanded.

The Sentinel slumped over, his head hitting the bench before he even touched the floor.

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