Hollyleaf waited until Leafpool had gone out through the thorn tunnel, then followed her into the forest. The medicine cat was out of sight, but Hollyleaf tracked her by her scent until she joined her at the top of a treeless rise overlooking the lake. Leafpool was sitting with her tail wrapped around her paws, gazing out across the water.

She sprang to her paws as Hollyleaf bounded up beside her. “Hollyleaf! Were you looking for me?”

“Yes, I—I wanted to ask you something.” Now that the moment had come, Hollyleaf didn’t feel so sure about what she was about to do. The answer would change her life forever. Was that what she wanted? I have to know the truth!

Leafpool’s eyes were wary as she mewed, “Go on, then.”

She knows we’ve found out about the lie! Hollyleaf guessed, her belly lurching. Squirrelflight must have told her what happened that day on the cliff.

“Well?” Leafpool prompted.

Hollyleaf took a deep breath. “Tell me what you know. All of it. I have to know the truth!”

Leafpool’s amber eyes brimmed with sorrow. She took a pace toward Hollyleaf, sweeping her tail around as if to lay it on the younger cat’s shoulder, but left the gesture unfinished.

“You don’t have to worry,” Leafpool meowed. “I will never tell any cat. But please tell me why you did it.”

Hollyleaf felt as if a massive piece of fresh-kill were stuck in her throat. This wasn’t how she had intended their talk to go. “Did what?” she managed to choke out.

Leafpool let out a long sigh, closing her eyes as if she had to nerve herself for what she was about to say. Then she faced Hollyleaf again.

“Why did you kill Ashfur?”

No! Hollyleaf dug her claws hard into the ground. That wasn’t what she had asked! Leafpool couldn’t know! She opened her jaws to reply, but the words of denial wouldn’t come.

“I know, Hollyleaf,” Leafpool mewed gently. “When I was preparing Ashfur’s body for his vigil, I found a tuft of your fur caught in his claws. But I hid it away where no cat would find it. I think I wanted to hide it from myself.” She paused, swallowed, and repeated, “Why?”

“He had to die!” Fury made Hollyleaf hiss through gritted teeth. “You know why!”

“No, I don’t.”

Leafpool’s eyes were genuinely mystified, and Hollyleaf realized that Squirrelflight had never told her about revealing the terrible secret to Ashfur.

“He had to die because he knew!” Hollyleaf snarled. “That night, on the cliff in the storm, Squirrelflight told him that we weren’t her kits. He was going to tell all the Clans, at the Gathering, and I couldn’t let him do that! They think we’re true Clan cats, forestborn like they are. I couldn’t let them find out the truth—that Firestar’s Clan was even less pure than they thought. Ashfur would have destroyed ThunderClan.”

As she spoke, Leafpool’s eyes had grown wider with dismay. “Oh, StarClan, no!” she whispered. “This is all my fault….”