Chapter 33

The city was eating itself alive.

Edgar moved like a ghost through the backstreets, his coat tattered from the night’s near-misses. The sky hung low — dirty gray clouds soaking in the neon rot of the slums. Somewhere behind him, heavy boots crushed glass. Somewhere else — laughter, the cruel kind — echoing off dead walls.

He wasn’t going to last another night out here.

Not alone.

Sebastian was gone. Swallowed by whatever nightmare ruled this city now. And Edgar — for all his pride, all his grit — was a stray dog bleeding out on someone else’s turf.

His mind kept circling back to one name.

Magnet Man.

Edgar cursed under his breath. Stupid. Reckless. Exactly the kind of plan Sebastian would have laughed at. But desperate men made desperate choices.

And he was running out of choices.

***

The mansion loomed up from the edge of the forest — black stone against blacker sky. The wind howled through the iron gates. Home never felt so much like a coffin.