with blood. “Mother…” My voice comes out weak and childlike. But it reaches her. She turns. Icy terror surges in my veins. Her eyes are black as pitch—no whites, no pupils. Just pure, demonic black. I stumble back as she opens her mouth to speak. No words come. Black blood pours from her lips and streams from her unseeing eyes. An echoing, disembodied voice thunders through the arena, filling me with terror unlike any I’ve known before. “Nocturn is calling. Are you listening?”
