((AN: This first chapter is taken directly from chapter 22 and 23 of Long Shadows. It is in Jayfeather's perspective, but once in the next chapters it will be from Squirrelflight's perspective.))
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."
The noise of the storm andthe fire faded and the only sound Jayfeather could hear was the blood roaring in his ears. He shook his head, straining to hear what Squirrelflight and Ashfur said next, cursing the blindness that hid their expressions from him.
"You're lying." Ashfur's voice was choked with disbelief.
"No, I'm not." Squirrelflight spoke softly, but her intensity pierced through the crackle of the f lames. "Did you see me give birth? Did I nurse them? Stay in the nursery until they were apprenticed? No."
"But—I" Ashfur began, then fell silent. Jayfeather could almost hear the paws of memory racing through his mind.
"I fooled all of you, even Brambleclaw," Squirrelf light went on scornfully. "They are not mine."
"And no cat in the Clan knows?" Ashfur's disbelief was changing to uncertainty.
"No. They're all as blind as you are to the truth."
Jayfeather sensed a shift in Ashfur's thoughts, reaching out toward power once more. "What do you think will happen when I tell them?" he challenged. "Will your Clanmates let you stay in ThunderClan, knowing you have lied to them—to Firestar, to your sister, to Brambleclaw?"
"You'll tell them?" Squirrelflight's voice was sharp with pain.
"Do you really think I won't? I can still make you lose what you love most. Brambleclaw will want nothing to do with you. You were a fool to think I would keep your secret. But you have always been a fool, Squirrelflight. I'll let these cats— whomever they belong to—live. But your suffering has only just begun."
There was a rustling in the undergrowth, and Ashfur's scent faded as he stalked away.
"Jayfeather, here's the branch." Lionblaze's voice was tense. Jayfeather felt his brother's teeth sink into his scruff and lift him bodily until his paws felt the rough bark of the branch underneath them. Lionblaze kept hold of him until he had got his balance. "Straight ahead," he ordered. "Hurry." Jayfeather forced his paws to move, trusting Lionblaze as he stumbled forward with the heat and roaring of the fire on either side. He let out a hiss as pain stabbed one of his pads, as if he had trodden on a burning twig. Then the worst of the heat died away behind him, and he half fell, half leaped off the branch. The ground beneath his paws was hot, but not burning. He was safe!
Heartbeats later he heard Hollyleaf and Lionblaze leap down beside him.
Thunder rumbled above them, but now it was farther off, as if the storm was moving away. Mercifully rain began to fall again, hissing onto the flames. The wind was dying down; there would be no more danger from falling trees. Jayfeather heard yowls from down in the hollow, as if the cats were returning to the camp, and had spotted the cats on the top of the cliff. But he and his littermates ignored them.
"Squirrelflight?" Hollyleaf 's voice quivered; Jayfeather could sense her disbelief warring with fear. "That's not true, is it? We are your kits, aren't we?"
