His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 282

Chapter 282

Elijah’s POV

The extraction point was a jagged hole in the world-the shattered remains of the observation deck where the freezing mountain air roared inside to meet the sterile heat of the Spire.

I held Claire tighter, her weight a fragile anchor against the chao. She was shivering, her fingers tangled in my shirt, her breath hitching against my chest.

Just a little further,” I whispered, though my own legs were trembling from the climb. “The transport is waiting on the lower ridge. We just have to jump the gap.”

I stepped toward the edge, the clouds swirling beneath us like a churning white ocean. But before my boots could touch the shattered glass of the perimeter, a sound echoed through the deck-not a siren, but a deep, resonant chime that seemed to vibrate through the very atoms of the building.

The air around us turned a sickly, bruised violet.

“Lockdown Protocol initiated,” a calm, synthetic voice announced.

From the ceiling and floor, heavy plates of reinforced translucent carbonite slid into place. They didn’t just cover the windows; they sealed the entire observation deck in a seamless, airtight cocoon.

The jagged hole I had made was gone, replaced by a wall of shimmering, impenetrable energy.

We were trapped two hundred stories above the earth.

“Elijah,” Claire gasped, her eyes widening as the sapphire glow in her skin began to spark erratically. “The air… it’s changing.”

She was right. The Spire wasn’t just sealing us in; it was recalibrating. I could hear the hiss of gas vents opening. The Regency wasn’t sending more Sentinels. They were turning the room itself into a weapon.

“Going somewhere, Alpha?”

The voice came from the overhead speakers, rich and dripping with a cold, intellectual boredom. Thorne. I looked up, snarling at the hidden cameras.

My wolf pounded against my ribs, desperate to tear the very wall down.

“You’ve caused a significant amount of property damage,” Thor continued. I could practically hear the smirk in his voice. “And you’ve agitated my most valuable asset. The Anchor’s resonance is spiking into dangerous territory. If I let you take her now, she’ll burn out before you hit the tree line.”

“Open the doors, Thorne!” I roared, my voice echoing off the caronite walls. “Or I’ll tear this tower down floor by floor until I find you?

“A charming sentiment, but look at her, boy. Truly look at her

“We have to break the circuit,” she whispered. “Not the walls. The circuit.”

She looked toward the central pillar of the observation deck-the main conduit that fed the Spire’s energy into Thorne’s private terminal.

“If I give the Spire what it wants,” she said, a tear tracking through the blue light on her face,

“I can overload the lockdown. But I need you to be the ground, Elijah. I need you to hold the weight so I don’t lose myself.”

I looked at the pillar, then back at her. Thorne wanted her spirit: he wanted her to be a mindless battery. If she did this, she was stepping right into his trap-but it was the only way to break the cage.

“I won’t let you go,” I promised, my grip tightening on her waist. I don’t care about the grid. I don’t care about the sky. I’m the ground. I’m the North. I’m right here.”

I felt her take a deep, shuddering breath. The air in the room was getting thin, the first traces of the paralytic gas smelling like sweet, rotted fruit.

“Then hold on,” Claire said.

She reached out and placed her palms against the central condu