Leon stepped onto the platform and sighed. The invisible but touchable barrier sealed behind him with a hum.
The crowd's noise came like a wall, but he blocked it out as he narrowed his senses to the space before him.
The opposite gate remained dark. Then, in an instant, all the light in the arena and the trial hall died.
The roaring sounds of the crowd got choked into a unified gasp of surprise, then turned into an eerie silence.
Leon couldn't even see his own hands when he moved them upward.
In the thick darkness, the only light that seemed to flicker was the ghostly glow of the emergency exit signs far above.
'What's going—' Leon dropped into a defensive stance, every nerve in him screaming for answers.
A whisper of air that seemed sharper and more controlled licked past his left cheek in a flash. He jerked his head back and moved a step backward.
