He scented Leafpool leaving their den; right now she was the last cat he wanted to talk to. Beyond her, fainter, he picked up Hollyleaf’s scent.

What’s she doing in our den? What did she say to Leafpool?

Darting across the clearing, he crashed through the brambles and confronted his littermate. “Hollyleaf! What are you doing here?” Sniffing, he detected another scent. “Why are those deathberries out here?”

“Leave me alone!” Hollyleaf screeched.

Before Jayfeather could dodge, she leaped at him, bowling him over and raking her claws across his shoulder. Jayfeather’s legs flailed and his hind paws connected with Hollyleaf’s belly. Her anger and despair flooded over him as she gave him a cuff over the ear and fled out of the den.

“Hollyleaf, wait!” Jayfeather scrambled to his paws and launched himself after her.

When he emerged into the clearing, Hollyleaf was already plunging into the thorn tunnel. Jayfeather raced after her, his belly fur brushing the ground as he broke out into the forest. The scents of more cats greeted him as the rest of the Gathering patrol returned to the camp.

“Jayfeather, what’s wrong?” Lionblaze called out. He turned and bounded along beside him. “What’s happening?” he gasped.

“It’s Hollyleaf,” Jayfeather panted. “We’ve got to catch her.”

Hollyleaf was heading deep into the forest, crashing through bracken and brambles as if she had suddenly lost her sight.

“Hollyleaf, come back!” Lionblaze yowled. “We need to talk!”

But Hollyleaf didn’t slacken her pace. Briefly she burst out onto the old Twoleg path that led past the abandoned den, then veered into the undergrowth again.

“I know where she’s going!” Jayfeather panted, feeling a chill run through him. “The old tunnels…”

“But she can’t!” Lionblaze sounded terrified. “Hollyleaf, stop!”

Racing around a bramble thicket, Jayfeather and Lionblaze came face-to-face with their sister; she had halted just inside the mouth of a tunnel halfway up the ridge, above the abandoned Twoleg nest. It wasn’t one Jayfeather had used before; there was a stale scent of fox, overlaid with the smell of water and stone drifting from the darkness behind her.

Jayfeather tried to speak calmly. “Hollyleaf, you’ve got to listen to us.”

Hollyleaf didn’t seem to hear. “I’m sorry,” she meowed softly. “I was only trying to do what was best. I couldn’t let Ashfur live! For all our sakes! You understand that, don’t you?”

Jayfeather caught his breath. Beside him, he heard Lionblaze gasp, “You killed Ashfur?”

If Hollyleaf replied, Jayfeather didn’t hear it. Hating his power more than he ever had before, he had reached out to his sister’s memories. She was stalking Ashfur along the WindClan border stream, treading lightly, avoiding boulders where her claws might scrape or ferns that would brush against her fur. Ashfur, intent on hunting, never noticed she was there. Hollyleaf followed him like a shadow until they came to a place where the bank was steep and slippery, and the stream was a foaming snake far below. She pounced on him from a rock, gripping his shoulders with her forepaws and twisting her head around to sink her teeth into his throat. Inside the red mist that clouded her senses, Ashfur was nothing but prey, something that had to be killed to protect the warrior code and the future of her Clan.