Thunderstar ran, Lightning Tail beside him. His heart was pounding and his sore paws ached as he pushed himself harder. The land here was flat and open, with no trees to climb, but if they could make it back up the hill toward home, they would be able to climb out of the dogs’ reach. It seemed so far, though. Thunderstar stretched his legs, panting, willing himself to run faster.

A dog cut him off, growling. Thunderstar swerved and tried to run past it, and saw Lightning Tail dodge after him. But there was another dog blocking their path. Thunderstar doubled back, only to see yet another dog behind him. The four dogs were approaching from four different directions, drool dripping from their mouths as they herded the cats closer together.

We’re trapped between them like rabbits, Thunderstar thought, panicked. The gaps between the dogs weren’t large enough for them to run through. He and Lightning Tail had worked together to fight dogs in the past, but all their practiced maneuvers assumed there’d only be one dog after them, or at most two.

“What do we do?” Lightning Tail asked, his eyes wide. Yowling a challenge, he swiped his claws at one of the dogs. It fell back for a moment, but another dog darted in from the side immediately, its jaws open wide.

“Dogs are dumb, right?” Thunderstar panted. “Let’s see if we can trick them. When I run, you run the other way, up the hill.”

“Okay,” Lightning Tail agreed, and both cats hesitated for a moment, back to back. The dogs moved in closer still, baring their huge teeth.

Thunderstar bolted forward. The dogs, barking, surged toward him. I hope Lightning Tail makes it, he thought. He just needed to get the dogs to move toward him, so he and Lightning Tail would be able to get through the gap they left behind. The next part of Thunderstar’s plan would be trickier.

Twisting himself so quickly that his front paws left the ground, Thunderstar doubled back. With luck, he’d be able to follow Lightning Tail’s path before the dogs could close the gap and catch up with him.

Lightning Tail had made it out of the circle of dogs, Thunderstar saw with relief. His deputy was streaking toward the hill, already some distance away. Thunderstar put on speed, rushing past the dogs as they charged at him.

I’m going to make it! Thunderstar was getting closer to the hill.

A sharp pain shot through his tail, and he was jerked suddenly backward, his paws scrabbling against the earth. His feint had cost him too much time, he realized, and now the lead dog had an agonizing grip on his tail.

He struggled, trying to turn and swipe at the dog’s eyes, but he was yanked off his paws and fell heavily to the ground.

Another dog closed in and a second set of teeth pierced his pelt, tearing into Thunderstar’s shoulder. Dark spots floated across his vision. Weakly, he struggled. I have to get free! I have to get home, to Violet Dawn and my kits.

Dimly, he saw a black shape racing toward him. Lightning Tail. No, he thought. Save yourself! Don’t come back for me.

But Lightning Tail was already there. In a flurry of claws, he flew at the muzzle of the larger dog biting Thunderstar. The dog dropped Thunderstar to the ground and turned to face the new threat.

With a fresh burst of energy, Thunderstar struggled to his paws and fought beside his deputy, slashing at the dogs’ eyes and noses. A dog gnawed at his leg, snarling, shaking him. Thunderstar pulled away, feeling his flesh tear, and spotted an opening between the dogs. “Run,” he gasped. “Lightning Tail, run!”

Together, they sped through the gap and ran and ran and ran. Thunderstar felt like his paws were barely touching the ground. He had never run so fast, without even paying attention to where he was going. The only thing he cared about was getting far away from those terrible dogs.

Finally, Thunderstar and Lightning Tail halted at the foot of a huge oak. They were among trees again, and the dogs had been left behind or had given up.

As soon as he stopped running, Thunderstar began to shake. Black spots filled his vision again, and he blinked them away. He had forgotten his pain in the surge of panic as they ran, but now every bit of his body hurt. He sank to the ground, and Lightning Tail collapsed beside him.

“Thank you,” Thunderstar said hoarsely. “You saved me. You shouldn’t have come back for me, but I’m grateful.” He licked his friend’s shoulder.

“I couldn’t leave you. That’s not what a Clan cat does.” Lightning Tail’s green eyes were distant and half closed, and Thunderstar realized he was wounded, blood welling from his side. Lightning Tail had been bitten, too.

There’s too much blood. It’s coming too fast, Thunderstar thought. It was a distant thought, as if he were drifting away, but he felt terribly, terribly sorry. Why should Lightning Tail get hurt helping him? Thunderstar was the leader. It was his duty to protect all the cats of his Clan.

He tried to shift closer to Lightning Tail, so that he could curl around him and try to stop the steady gush of blood, but he couldn’t move. Thunderstar became aware that warm liquid was running down his own legs, that it must be his own blood drenching the ground below them, too.

It was a great effort to speak. “Are we dying?” he whispered.

It felt like a long time before Lightning Tail answered, and his voice was weak and strained. “StarClan gave you nine lives, remember? You’ll go on, for the Clan.”

Thunderstar remembered now. He had been told that Windstar had been hurt, badly. Her medicine cat, her daughter Moth Flight, had taken her to the Moonstone. There, StarClan had healed her and given her nine lives, so that she could lead and protect her Clan. He had traveled to the Moonstone himself, with Cloud Spots, and cats from StarClan—dead cats he had known and loved, including his almost-forgotten mother and his beloved mentor Gray Wing—had appeared and each given him a life.

But he had not seen Windstar die and come back to life. He had believed what StarClan told him, but he had never seen a cat come back from the dead.

“I don’t know if it’s true,” he mumbled. “I hope it is, but I don’t know for sure.” His heart ached. “If I die and I don’t come back, Violet Dawn will be alone.” I’ll never meet my kits.

He felt his deputy’s tail fall across his back. “I believe it’s true,” Lightning Tail said quietly. “You’ve been the best leader I could have asked for, the strongest cat I know. StarClan will save you.”

The world was growing dim before Thunderstar’s eyes. “If I was a good leader,” he whispered, “it’s only because I had you to rely on. I could never have formed ThunderClan without you.”

There was no answer from Lightning Tail. The world was being eaten up by a thick gray nothingness, like fog. Thunderstar blinked slowly, and shadows crept in, the gray replaced by darkness.

When Thunderstar blinked his eyes open again, he found himself in a sunny clearing. Birds were singing overhead, and the air was rich with prey-scent. Leaves rustled in the trees around him. He struggled to his feet and stretched experimentally. Nothing hurt.

Fur brushed against his, and he realized Lightning Tail was beside him. The two cats looked at each other, their eyes wide.

“How did we get here?” Thunderstar wondered. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know, but it’s nice, isn’t it?” Lightning Tail said. He flicked his tail and turned around, sniffing the air. “No dogs.”

“We have to figure out how to get to ThunderClan from here,” Thunderstar said, then hesitated. “No, we still need to get rid of those dogs. We’ll have to go back.” His heart sank at the idea.

“Yes, Thunderstar, you have to go back,” a quiet voice mewed from behind them.

Thunderstar spun around. A sleek dark gray tom had emerged from the forest and was watching them with calm golden eyes.

“Gray Wing!” Thunderstar gasped. Joy shot through his pelt. It was his foster father, the cat who had raised him. And he was no misty silver spirit cat, but as solid and real as he had ever been. Thunderstar rushed toward him and rubbed his cheek against Gray Wing’s. Lightning Tail, who had known Gray Wing all his life, who had been taught to hunt by the older cat when he was just a kit, ran toward him, too, touching his nose to Gray Wing’s in greeting.

“What’s going on?” Thunderstar said. “Where are we?”

Gray Wing flicked his tail. “Don’t you know?”

An idea occurred to Thunderstar, but he pushed it away. It wasn’t possible.

But Gray Wing was dead. Thunderstar had seen him die, gasping for breath as the illness he had fought for so long finally claimed him.

“You seem well,” he said tentatively, ignoring Gray Wing’s question for now. “You’re not sick anymore?”

Gray Wing’s whiskers twitched in amusement. “No cat is sick here,” he said. “And prey never runs short, and there are no dangers to guard against.”

Lightning Tail sat down abruptly, as if his legs had given out under him. “We’re in StarClan? We’re dead, then.”

Gray Wing tilted his head thoughtfully. “Yes,” he said. “And no. Lightning Tail, you can join StarClan now. Hunt with us, walk with your friends in a forest where there is nothing to fear. Your parents, Jackdaw’s Cry and Hawk Swoop, are here, and they will be so glad to see you.”

Lightning Tail’s eyes glistened with emotion. Thunderstar knew how Lightning Tail had mourned his parents, killed in the first battle between the cats before the Clans were formed.

Gray Wing went on. “But Thunderstar, you have to go back. Your next life is about to begin.”

“What?” Thunderstar burst out. “I get to be alive again, and Lightning Tail has to stay dead? That’s not fair! He only died because he saved me.” A new thought struck him. “And he didn’t have to, did he? I would have come back to life?”

Gray Wing shook his head. “If you hadn’t escaped those dogs, they could have killed you again and again. Lightning Tail truly did save you.” He looked at the black cat proudly. “And there is nothing more important than protecting the cats you love.”

Lightning Tail stepped toward Thunderstar, his green eyes shining. “StarClan gave you nine lives for a reason. ThunderClan needs its leader. You must go on. You’ll be a good father to your kits and keep looking after your Clan.”

“But I can’t do it without you,” Thunderstar pleaded. Lightning Tail had been beside him every step of the way, since they were kits together. “You’re my deputy. You’re the only one I can trust to help me lead.”

“I expect I’ll be watching over you from StarClan,” Lightning Tail replied, glancing at Gray Wing, who nodded. “And you’ll find the right cat to be your new deputy. But I will always be right beside you, Thunderstar.”

Thunderstar opened his mouth to protest again, but it was too late. He felt as if he was rushing forward, even though he wasn’t moving. The pleasant sunny clearing whirled dizzyingly around him, and then everything went dark.

Thunderstar blinked his eyes open. He felt groggy, as if he was waking from a deep sleep, and refreshed, as if it had been the best sleep of his life. It was almost dark, evening sliding into night. Where was he?

Memories began to come back to him: the dogs, the chase. He climbed to his feet. Nothing hurt now. Had he died? Had StarClan brought him back? As soon as he thought it, he knew, with a deep certainty, that it was true. He almost purred with excitement.

Then the last of his memories fell into place, and he froze, horrified. The dogs caught us both. Lightning Tail. Where is Lightning Tail?

Looking around, he saw Lightning Tail on the ground to his right, a bit farther away than he remembered. Is he alive? He whispered his friend’s name, approaching slowly.

Lightning Tail wasn’t breathing. Thunderstar nosed gently at his face, but he was cold and stiff. Already, he smelled wrong.

A great pain shot through Thunderstar’s chest. It wasn’t fair. He was alive but brave Lightning Tail was dead.

Night had fallen, and it was dark, except for the light of the half-moon above them. Thunderstar lay down beside the body of his deputy, their fur touching. Tonight, he would not sleep. He would not leave Lightning Tail alone, not yet. He would keep his Clanmate company for one last night. He would hold vigil and watch over his friend.