CHAPTER 27

The rest of the day passed in a haze of pain, and when Hollyleaf finally curled up in her nest, her dreams were full of darkness. Thick undergrowth surrounded her, leaving scarcely a glimpse of the sky. She heard cats yowling at a distance, but however fast she ran toward them, she never managed to catch up with them.

When she woke to see dawn light filtering through the branches of the den, she still felt exhausted, as though she had really been running through that dark forest. She staggered to her paws and prodded Lionblaze.

“What are we going to do?” she demanded in an urgent whisper as her brother blinked up at her. “I can’t go on like this!”

“I don’t know.” Lionblaze gave a quick glance around the den, as if he was afraid that some cat would overhear. “We’ll talk later.” He pushed his way out through the branches; convinced that he was trying to avoid her, Hollyleaf followed hard on his paws.

“Hollyleaf! Lionblaze!” Brambleclaw spotted them as soon as they emerged from the warriors’ den. “Sandstorm is taking out a hunting patrol. Can you go with her?”

“Sure,” Lionblaze meowed, swerving across the clearing to where Sandstorm waited beside the deputy with Berrynose and Hazeltail.

Hollyleaf was still dazed as she followed, as if her paws belonged to some other cat. How could she fit into the Clan’s everyday routine, now that she knew the terrible secret of her birth? She felt as if the sky should have cracked open or the moon fallen down into the hollow.

“Don’t forget, it’s the Gathering tonight,” Brambleclaw reminded them. “The Clan needs to eat well before the journey.”

“We will—don’t worry,” Sandstorm promised, her whiskers twitching as she signaled to her patrol with her tail and headed for the camp entrance.

Hollyleaf followed, but she couldn’t concentrate on hunting. Pain dazzled her mind like lightning splitting the sky. She had built her life on the warrior code, and now it had failed her. It didn’t matter anymore; it had been broken too many times. Squirrelflight had broken it by lying; Crowfeather, by falling in love with a medicine cat; but most of all, Leafpool had shattered the code and trampled it into dust. She had betrayed her Clan, her duty as a medicine cat, and her kits.

A mouse darted out in front of Hollyleaf’s paws and instinctively she leaped on it, her claws sinking into the soft body. A picture of Leafpool flashed in front of her eyes in a pulsing red haze, and she tore at the prey, imagining that she was clawing the life out of the cat she hated so much.

“Hollyleaf, stop!” Hazeltail’s voice was shocked. “What are you doing?”

Hollyleaf’s vision cleared. She saw her paws dripping with scarlet: The prey she had caught was reduced to a red pulp. There was nothing left to take back to the fresh-kill pile.

Fury surging through her, she rounded on Hazeltail. “Stay out of my fur!”