“Are you okay?” Leafpool asked gently as she drew close to him.

Lionblaze was too dazed to reawaken his old grudge against her. “Not really,” he confessed. “Things aren’t working out with Cinderheart.”

Leafpool nodded, and to his relief she didn’t ask him to explain why. He knew that he couldn’t tell her about the prophecy.

“Why don’t we look for prey beside the lake?” she suggested, turning in that direction with an inviting twitch of her tail.

Surprising himself, Lionblaze fell in beside her and they shouldered through the undergrowth together, the tang of water in the air growing stronger as they drew closer to the waterside.

“Cinderheart seems to think we have different destinies,” he meowed after a few moments. “I don’t understand her.”

“I think I do.” Leafpool blinked sympathetically. “And I really believe that she loved you—in fact, I think she still does.”

Lionblaze clawed in frustration at a tendril of bramble that snaked across their path. “Then why can’t she just be with me? Why does she have to make it all so difficult?”

Leafpool shook her head but didn’t reply. For a while they padded along together in silence. As they reached a narrow track that wound its way toward the lake, Leafpool halted, tasting the air. Lionblaze thought she had detected prey, and winced as she darted noisily to the edge of a bramble thicket.

You won’t catch anything like that!

But Leafpool was pushing dead leaves aside with one paw, to reveal three bright yellow coltsfoot flowers. “The first this season!” she exclaimed. “I’d better take these back to camp. They’ll be good for Mousefur’s cough.”

“Do you miss being a medicine cat?” Lionblaze asked, as Leafpool carefully nipped off the stems.

“With every breath I take,” she murmured.

“Then what was your destiny?” Lionblaze mewed, the words tumbling from his jaws. “I mean, if you were meant to be a medicine cat, then you wouldn’t…StarClan wouldn’t have let you and Crowfeather…”

Leafpool bowed her head. “Destiny isn’t a path that any cat follows blindly,” she meowed. “It is always a matter of choice, and sometimes the heart speaks loudest.” She paused, then added, “Deep down, I always knew what I had to do, and that’s why I came back to the Clan. Lionblaze, whatever else happens, I trust you to know the right thing to do as well. Listen to your heart, because that’s where your true destiny lies.”

CHAPTER 9

Dovewing’s pelt prickled with excitement as she followed Squirrelflight past the horseplace and up the hill. She had never been this way before. New sensations crowded in on her from all sides: the scent of horse, and the way the huge creatures slammed down their hooves as they cantered across their field; strong RiverClan scent borne on the wind that blew from their territory; the scents of reeds and stagnant water from the marshes that bordered the lake.

“This is so cool!” she exclaimed to Jayfeather, who was padding beside her, setting down his paws unerringly in spite of his blindness. Jayfeather just let out a faint grunt and twitched an ear.