And here's the prologue!


Prologue

"Well, Brambleclaw?"

Brambleclaw looked, horrified, at his leader. Firestar lay gasping in his own blood, claws digging into the ground. The fox traps' wire was wrapped tightly around his neck, tearing at fur and flesh. Firestar's green eyes looked up at Brambleclaw – there was no begging in his eyes, only a calm realization that his life rested in the paws of the son of his greatest enemy.

I trust you, they said.

It was the most important thing to Brambleclaw – being trusted. Not just by his Clan – but by his leader, the cat that had mentored him and taught him everything he knew. The cat that had made him deputy not two sunrises before. The cat that had feared him for looking like his father, who feared what he may become.

Hawkfrost stood haughtily, confidently, just beside Firestar. His white chest and paws were tinged pink with Firestar's blood. His ice-blue, chilling, eyes bored into Brambleclaw's very core.

My brother, or my leader.

It's an easy choice, Tigerstar whispered into his ear. He felt his father's pelt brush against his own. If he looked left, he would see Tigerstar's powerful outline. Firestar's eyes never left Brambleclaw's, but the young tom knew that Firestar realized Tigerstar was there, too. Kill him; become leader of ThunderClan. Do what you were born to do.

"Well?" Hawkfrost demanded.

Brambleclaw broke Firestar's gaze to look down at his paws. Did he want Firestar's blood on them? Did he want to go that far to be leader of ThunderClan, an ambition that had gripped his heart since the moment he had become a warrior?

No.

He wanted to serve as Firestar's deputy – he wanted to learn everything the flame-colored hero knew about leading ThunderClan. Young kits often yearned to be like their fathers – Brambleclaw's father had been a murderer and traitor.

No, he wanted to be like Firestar – the cat who had been a better father to him than Tigerstar had ever been.

"No," Brambleclaw growled.

Traitor! Tigerstar yowled in his ear.

"Fool!" Hawkfrost hissed. Bristling, the tabby tom spat, "We knew you were a traitor! Tigerstar knew that you cared more for this kittypet fool than power!"

Hawkfrost leaped at him, but Brambleclaw slipped beneath his brother to slide towards Firestar. He remembered how Squirrelflight had freed Berrykit's tail from a fox trap, and he began digging frantically at the trap's anchor point – a sharp wooden stick driven deep into the ground.

Dirt clotted between his claws, flying everywhere around him as Firestar's eyes, full of relief, gazed up at him. "Don't worry," Brambleclaw panted. "You'll be out soon!"

The wind was knocked from Brambleclaw as he was pushed aside by Hawkfrost's strong shoulders. His brother pinned him, raining blows like a storm. Brambleclaw felt claws, long and hooked, dig into his belly and he twisted, trying to squirm away.

He managed to slam a paw into Hawkfrost's face, spraying mud and dirt into his brother's eyes. Hawkfrost hissed in fury and pain, his eyes tightly shut against the soil. Brambleclaw twisted himself back to his paws, ignoring the pains in his belly, and leaped for the stick that held Firestar's life in its grasp.

Hawkfrost caught him by the haunches in his claws. He dragged Brambleclaw to the ground and nearly trampled him to stand beside the fox trap. "If you're too mouse-hearted to do it, then I will!" he seethed, the whites of his eyes reddened by dirt and sod.

"Never!" Brambleclaw spat.

Hawkfrost reached for the stick, to tighten the thin wire around Firestar's neck, but Brambleclaw bowled him over before it could happen. He dug his claws into his brother's pelt, feeling skin break and blood flow against his paws.

The two fought furiously, rolling to and fro along the stony shore of the lake, their lashing tails drenched and spraying water as they tossed and turned in their furious debate of claws and teeth. Brambleclaw dodged a fatal blow to his throat and landed a blow on Hawkfrost's shoulder, tearing flesh.

Hawkfrost howled in pain and pressed down on Brambleclaw, forcing his spine into the stony shoreline. Brambleclaw gasped in pain and forced himself to roll over, placing Hawkfrost beneath him. He pressed his brother's face into the stones, grief tearing at his heart.

It didn't have to be this way! He was screaming inside. We could have been friends! We could have been brothers!

A flash of gray caught his eye. The setting sun turned his pelt red as Ashfur slipped from the bracken and towards Firestar. Brambleclaw felt a flash of hope in his chest. The backup he had told Birchpaw to bring had come!

But his hopes sank like the sun when Ashfur paused at the trap. His hopes turned to horror as he saw Ashfur press the stick further into the earth, burying it once more. His hopes were utterly swept away as Ashfur tightened the Twoleg wire around Firestar's neck.

Firestar's pained screeches were all Brambleclaw could hear – high to low and then high again, with brief periods of silence in between that seemed to last longer and longer each time.

"Fox-dung!" screeched a cat.

A dark ginger streak rocketed from the brush. Squirrelflight!

Firestar's daughter crashed into Ashfur and sent the gray-flecked tom spiraling towards the ShadowClan border. Claws flashing, she howled with fury as she lunged at her former friend. Firestar lay there, gasping for air, for breath, for life – his blood pooling around him. Brambleclaw had lost count of how many lives the flame-colored hero had lost, but it was clear he didn't have much else in him.

Leafpool, Squirrelflight's sister, rushed from the underbrush. Her amber eyes were wide as she took in the scene, but she immediately began to work on Firestar. Her claws worked furiously and dirt began to fly as she tried picking up where Brambleclaw left off.

Hawkfrost brought his attention back to the battle at hand by grasping Brambleclaw's throat in his jaws and bringing his head down to the stones. Brambleclaw bounced off of his brother, his head ringing like a thousand birds singing in his ears. The world shifted and shook around him as Hawkfrost pushed him off.

"You see, Brambleclaw?" he hissed into his brother's ear. "You've lost. It wasn't worth it to betray us."

Brambleclaw watched, powerless, as Hawkfrost sauntered over to Leafpool. It took hardly any effort for Hawkfrost to knock Leafpool away – she landed in the brush like a limp kitten, her eyes full of shock and terror.

"Firestar watched and did nothing as that kittypet ripped all the lives from Tigerstar," Hawkfrost crowed, standing over Firestar's ragged flame-colored form as if the haggard tom's body were some sort of trophy. "He stood there and watched – and now you'll all stand here and watch as the great Firestar meets his end by the claws of his enemy's son, and the future ruler of the whole forest!"

Hawkfrost tightened the fitting around Firestar's neck. The flame-colored tom let out a pained howl and his every limb shook with effort, straining and grasping at any scrap of life left in him. The ground was hewn with claw marks - Firestar's frantic clawing at the ground would be cemented into ThunderClan territory forever.

"No!" Squirrelflight screeched. She was beneath Ashfur's paws, held tightly by the gray tom. His eyes were blank, soulless, and smooth as stone as he watched Firestar struggle. Squirrelflight was wriggling and twisting, her eyes wide with fear and pain and sorrow.

Firestar's limbs gave one last jerk, and then he lay still forevermore.

No… Brambleclaw gasped. No…

Hawkfrost's cackling, cold laughter rose over the silence like the cawing of a crow in the early morning. He place a triumphant paw on Firestar's body and tossed him aside, his ice-blue eyes gleaming with stark satisfaction.

"You monster," whimpered Leafpool. She struggled to her paws. "How… how could you?"

Hawkfrost ignored her. He was glaring at Brambleclaw. "This could have all been painless, brother, had you only done as Tigerstar and I planned," he meowed.

Brambleclaw, head spinning, forced himself to his paws. They slipped on the stones only briefly, but he soon found his footing. He stared his brother in the eye. "I would never have done it," he declared. "I could never be like you!"

"Soon you will see," Hawkfrost meowed. "Soon you will see just how pointless it is to resist. I will be Hawkstar – leader of the new and improved TigerClan; and we will rule the forest, brother, with or without you."

"Let me go you fox-heart!" Squirrelflight begged, her voice raised in desperation.

"No," Hawkfrost replied, coldly.

Ashfur only looked at Hawkfrost. His eyes flashed briefly, but returned to their cold stare. "I did as you asked, Hawkfrost," he meowed. "She's no threat now. Let her go."

You're the one holding her, Ashfur, Brambleclaw thought. How much of a hold do they have over you now? Look at what you have done!

"She's more use to us as she is," Hawkfrost declared. "Trapped – a prisoner."

"Let her go!" Brambleclaw snarled. He took a step, but dizziness overtook him. He shook his head of it and growled, "Let her mourn her father – whom you murdered!"

"No," Hawkfrost said again. "I think I'll keep her."

"You can't!" Leafpool gasped.

"I can," Hawkfrost snarled, "and I will." He looked at Brambleclaw and added, "Her safety will depend on just how often you plan on meddling in my affairs, Brambleclaw. You too, you weak little medicine cat."

"StarClan curse you!" Leafpool spat, her ears back. Brambleclaw had never seen her so heartbroken, or so furious. Not even when she was separated from Crowfeather, or when she had lost Cinderpelt.

"Let them try," Hawkfrost hissed. "I am protected by a force far stronger than StarClan."

He padded towards Ashfur and flicked his tail. Ashfur bent down and grasped Squirrelflight's scruff in his jaws. He began to drag her towards the ShadowClan border, but Squirrelflight fought for every step.

"Keep it up," Hawkfrost encouraged. "I'll tear a whisker out for every scratch you put on Ashfur – two, if you manage to hit me."

Squirrelflight spat.

"You won't get away with this, Hawkfrost," Brambleclaw declared. "I'll find you, and I will stop you."

"Not if you want your precious Squirrelflight to come back to you in one piece," Hawkfrost replied.

"It doesn't matter what happens to me, Brambleclaw!" Squirrelflight gasped. "I still love you – I always will."

"I love you, too," Brambleclaw called back. Rage crept beneath his pelt – but he saved it for another time, another place. A time and a place where he might rip out Hawkfrost's eyeballs with his own claws, and then remove a few choice parts of Ashfur, too.

He watched then disappear across the ShadowClan border, into the pine trees and the sparse bushes. His eyes followed them hungrily as they dragged his love around the lake, and even when he could no longer actually see them, he stared across the orange-red waters as if he could spot Hawkfrost's shape amongst the blurred landscape.

"Squirrelflight…" Leafpool whispered. "Sister… what will I do without you?"

She was shaking as she padded up to Brambleclaw. Leafpool had been looking unusually well-fed lately, and for a moment Brambleclaw realized that she really did need Squirrelflight's help – not just for the comfort of having a sister, but for some cat – any cat – to come to her defense when the time came.

"Before there is peace," she whispered, "blood will spill blood, and the lake will run red." She looked to Brambleclaw and insisted, "You must stop him."

"I will," Brambleclaw declared. "With every fiber of my being, Leafpool – I promise I will not stop fighting him."

The sun set behind the trees and the lake in a flash of fire, a fire that burned brighter and stronger than anything that Brambleclaw had ever seen before, or would ever see again.