Chapter 35

The forest was a living thing.

Dark, gnarled trees clawed at the night sky. Fog coiled between the trunks like slow rivers. Every step Edgar took seemed too loud, too sharp — as if the woods themselves were listening.

Magnet Man walked ahead, his long coat torn and ragged, but his movements strong again. His eyes, once dulled in the prison, now burned with grim purpose.

Professor followed silently, occasionally checking a battered compass that clicked and spun strangely in his hand.

The compass didn’t point north.

It pointed toward Sebastian.

Or at least, to the last place he had been.

“How much farther?” Edgar whispered.

Magnet Man didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he crouched beside a tree, pressing a hand to the bark.

The wood shuddered — faintly — and Edgar realized the metal veins running through the forest were reacting to Magnet Man’s touch.

Finally, Magnet Man stood and said, “Close. But not close enough.”