“I wonder what this means for the prophecy,” Alderheart meowed, catching Violetshine up to bound along beside her. “Is Tigerheart the shadow that must not be dispelled? But if he’s dead . . . ?”

He let his voice trail off with a confused shake of his head.

Violetshine felt just as confused. She hadn’t even realized the direction they were heading until, a moment later, Alderheart halted.

“Hang on!” he exclaimed. “This isn’t the way to the SkyClan camp. Why are we going toward WindClan?”

“We’re not,” Grassheart told him. “We’re going to the Moonpool. The cats with Tigerheart insisted on taking his body there.”

“Puddleshine and Frecklewish are with him,” Strikestone added.

Alderheart shook his head sadly. “If Tigerheart is truly dead,” he mewed quietly, “then I don’t think StarClan can help him.”

Violetshine’s legs and paws were aching by the time she and the other cats reached the last steep slope that led to the Moonpool. The sun had started to go down, casting a red light over the rocks.

Her jaws gaped with astonishment as she saw the crowd of cats waiting at the foot of the slope. The first cat she spotted was Dovewing, her claws flexing, scraping anxiously at the stones. Three kits huddled beside her.

“Dovewing!” Alderheart exclaimed, rushing over to her. “You’re here—you’re safe! Oh, thank StarClan!”

Dovewing leaned forward briefly to touch noses with the ThunderClan medicine cat. “It’s not the homecoming I wanted,” she responded. “But I have to be brave for our kits.”

“Yours and Tigerheart’s?” Alderheart mewed, looking down at the three young cats. “The dark brown tabby looks exactly like him.”

“That’s Lightkit,” Dovewing told him. “The gray striped tom is Shadowkit, and the gray she-cat is Pouncekit.”

While Alderheart admired the kits, Violetshine was staring at the other cats who stood with Dovewing. Four of them were ShadowClan warriors.

“Berryheart, Sparrowtail, Cloverfoot, and Slatefur,” she breathed out, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. “We all thought you were dead!”

Three even smaller kits were clustered around Berryheart. And beyond them were three cats Violetshine had never set eyes on before: two full-grown and one younger, the age to be an apprentice.

“Where have you all come from?” Violetshine asked.

It was Dovewing who replied. “I was living in a huge Twolegplace with Tigerheart and our kits. That’s where we met Ant, Cinnamon, and Blaze.” She flicked her tail toward the three strange cats. “But in the end, we knew we wanted to return. And on our way back we found Berryheart and the others.”

Dovewing fell silent, and Violetshine was aware of the tension among the cats as they waited, breathless with fear and anticipation. What are they waiting for? What is there to hope for? Tigerheart is dead!