“We can’t go anywhere. We’re trapped.” Lionblaze’s
voice was calm. Flame reflected from his golden pelt and
shone in his eyes. “Squirrelflight!” he called. “Are you
there? Help us!”
As he spoke a branch edged with flames crashed down
from one of the bushes; Hollyleaf dragged Jayfeather out of
its path just in time. The littermates huddled together at the
very edge of the cliff.
“I’m here!” Squirrelflight’s voice was high-pitched with
terror. “I’m going to push a branch through to you. You can
run along it to escape before it catches fire.”
“Right. We’ll be ready,” Lionblaze replied.
Hollyleaf felt a jolt of gratitude for her brother’s courage.
Without him, she was certain she would have panicked,
trapped between the fire and the long drop into the camp.
But they would stick together, the three of them, protected
by the prophecy as they had always been.
Hollyleaf could hear the sound of something heavy being
dragged through the undergrowth beyond the flames. Her
burst of confidence blew away like ash.
“She’ll never manage it,” she muttered to Lionblaze.
“What about her wound? She’s not strong enough.”
“Squirrelflight will always do what she has to,” Lionblaze
replied.
Small tongues of flame were creeping through the grass
now; rain hissed down on them, leaving the ground
blackened and smoking, but there were always more flames,
and the acrid scent of burning filled the air. A blazing leaf
floated down onto Jayfeather’s pelt; Lionblaze knocked it off
with one paw, adding the reek of scorched fur to the smoke
filled air.
Beyond the red-and-orange flames, Hollyleaf caught a
glimpse of Squirrelflight, struggling to drag a branch up to
the fire. Already she looked exhausted. Lionblaze’s muscles
tensed as if he was going to try leaping over the bush to
help her.
“No!” Hollyleaf choked out. “It’s too far.”
Before Lionblaze could argue, another shape burst
through the billowing smoke to stand beside Squirrelflight.
His eyes glared; his gray fur was matted together and stuck
with bits of burnt leaf and twig. Confused by the smoke and
flames, Hollyleaf almost thought she was seeing one of her
warrior ancestors, until she recognized Ashfur.
Squirrelflight dropped the branch. “Help me push it into
the fire!” she yowled.
Grabbing the branch in strong jaws, Ashfur thrust it past
the wall of flame and into the ever-narrowing patch of
ground where Hollyleaf and her brothers huddled. But
Hollyleaf didn’t feel any sense of relief. There was a look in
Ashfur’s eyes that she didn’t understand: the look of a cat
who had just spotted an unexpected juicy bit of prey.
The branch made a bridge through the flames, but Ashfur
stood at the other end of it, blocking the way to safety.
Lionblaze nudged Jayfeather to his paws; Hollyleaf took a
step toward the branch, then paused. She felt a cold weight
in her belly when she looked into Ashfur’s glittering blue
eyes.
“Ashfur, get out of the way.” Squirrelflight’s voice was
puzzled. “Let them get out!”
“Brambleclaw isn’t here to look after them now,” Ashfur
sneered.
Hollyleaf felt her fur beginning to rise. What did Ashfur
mean?
Lionblaze’s golden pelt was bristling, too. “What have
you done with my father?” he howled through the flame.
Ashfur looked at him pityingly; his eyes were twin points
of fire amid the burning forest. “Why would I waste my time
with Brambleclaw?”
The main branch was too solid to catch fire easily, but the
leaves on it had shriveled and the twigs were beginning to
smoke. Hollyleaf realized that they didn’t have much time
before their bridge to safety would be ablaze.
Squirrelflight staggered up to Ashfur. Hollyleaf had never
seen her mother so angry. Her fur bristled with fury; she
looked like a warrior of TigerClan. Yet it was obvious that the
climb to the top of the cliff, followed by her struggle with the
branch, had weakened her, and she was exhausted.
“Your quarrel with Brambleclaw has to stop,” she hissed.
“Too many moons have passed. You have to accept that I’m
Brambleclaw’s mate, not yours. You can’t keep trying to
punish Brambleclaw for something that was always meant to
be.”
Ashfur’s ears flicked up in surprise. “I have no quarrel
with Brambleclaw.”
Hollyleaf exchanged a shocked glance with Lionblaze.
“That’s not how it looks to me,” he muttered.
“I couldn’t care less about Brambleclaw,” Ashfur
continued. “It’s not his fault he fell for a faithless she-cat.”
Faithless? A growl began to build in Hollyleaf’s throat,
but then she stopped and watched the cats on the other side
of the blazing branches. Something ominous was taking
place in front of her, and even with flame roaring around
them she felt a sudden chill. She shrank closer to Lionblaze
and Jayfeather, whose head was up, his sightless eyes
intent, as if he could see the confrontation between his
mother and Ashfur.
“I know you think I’ve never forgiven Brambleclaw for
stealing you from me, but you’re wrong, and so is every cat
that thinks so. My quarrel is with you, Squirrelflight.”
Ashfur’s voice shook with rage. “It always has been.”
Horrified, Hollyleaf took a step back and felt her hind
paws begin to slip on the edge of the cliff. Her head spun as
lightning stabbed out and thunder drowned all other
sounds, even the roaring fire. For a heartbeat she dangled
over empty air, and she let out a strangled yowl.
Then she felt firm teeth meet in her scruff; blinking against
the smoke, she realized that Lionblaze was hauling her back
to safety. But there was no safety: only the hungry flames,
and Ashfur blocking the end of the branch with fury in his
eyes. Fiery sparks floated down on all three young cats,
scorching their fur, and flames licked the underside of the
branch; fear flooded afresh through Hollyleaf when she saw
that it was already beginning to smolder.
Ashfur has to let us get out! But Hollyleaf couldn’t find
any words to plead with him. What was happening here
didn’t have anything to do with them, even if they died
because of it.
“All this was moons ago.” Squirrelflight sounded puzzled.
“Ashfur, I had no idea you were still upset.”
“Upset?” Ashfur echoed. “I’m not upset. You have no
idea how much pain I’m in. It’s like being cut open every
day, bleeding onto the stones. I can’t understand how any
of you failed to see the blood. . . .”
His eyes clouded and his voice took on a wild, distant
tone, as if he could see the blood spilling out of him now,
sizzling on the burning ground. Terror burst through
Hollyleaf and she pressed closer to her brothers. This cat
was more dangerous than the storm or the fire, or the fall
lurking perilously close to her hind paws.
Desperately she tried to step onto the end of the branch.
At once Ashfur rounded on her, fully conscious again, his
teeth bared in a snarl.
“Stay there!” Turning to face Squirrelflight but keeping
one paw on the branch, he hissed, “I can’t believe you
didn’t know how much you hurt me. You are the blind one,
not Jayfeather. Who do you think sent Firestar the message
to go down to the lake, where the fox trap was? I wanted him
to die, to take your father away so you’d know the real
meaning of pain.”
Hollyleaf’s shocked gaze met Lionblaze’s. “He tried to kill
Firestar?” she gasped. “He’s mad!”
Determination glittered in Lionblaze’s eyes, and he
bunched his muscles for a giant leap. “I’m going to fight
him.”
“No!” Hollyleaf fastened her teeth in his shoulder fur.
“You can’t!” Her words were muffled now. “He’ll just push
you into the fire.” >>>

>>> “Brambleclaw saved Firestar then,” Ashfur went on to
Squirrelflight. “But he’s not here now. He’s not here—but
your kits are.”
Squirrelflight’s eyes blazed. For a heartbeat Hollyleaf
thought she was going to pounce on the gray warrior, but
she knew that exhausted and in pain, her mother would have
no chance. Squirrelflight seemed to realize it, too. She drew
herself up, head high; she was trembling, but her voice was
clear and brave.
“Enough, Ashfur. Your quarrel is with me. These young
cats have done nothing to hurt you. Do what you like with
me, but let them out of the fire.”
“You don’t understand.” Ashfur looked at her as if he was
seeing her for the first time; his voice was puzzled and
petulant. “This is the only way to make you feel the same
pain that you caused me. You tore my heart out when you
chose Brambleclaw over me. Anything I did to you would
never hurt as much. But your kits . . .” He looked through
the flames at Hollyleaf and her brothers, his eyes narrowing
to dark blue slits. “If you watch them die, then you’ll know
the pain I felt.”
The flames crackled threateningly closer; Hollyleaf felt as
if the heat was about to sear her pelt into ashes. She edged
backward, only to feel the edge of the hollow give way
under her hind paws. The three of them were pressed tightly
together, so close that if one of them lost their balance, all
three would be dragged off the cliff. Hollyleaf couldn’t
control the trembling that shook her whole body as her
glance flickered between the cliff and the fire.
Jayfeather was crouched close to the ground, looking
tinier than ever with his pelt slicked flat by the rain.
Lionblaze’s claws were unsheathed, glinting as the lightning
flashed out again, but the tension in his haunches didn’t
come from preparing to leap at Ashfur; it came from the
effort of keeping himself on the top of the cliff.
Squirrelflight raised her head, her gaze locked on Ashfur’s
crazed eyes. “Kill them, then,” she meowed. “You won’t hurt
me that way.”
Ashfur opened his jaws to reply, but said nothing.
Hollyleaf and her brothers stared at their mother. What was
Squirrelflight saying?
Squirrelflight took a step away from them, and glanced
carelessly over her shoulder. Her green eyes were fiercer
than Hollyleaf had ever seen them, with an expression she
couldn’t read.
“If you really want to hurt me, you’ll have to find a better
way than that,” Squirrelflight snarled. “They are not my
kits.”