The transition was like stepping into a pool of liquid ice. One moment, Branchkit felt the brittle glass of the nursery beneath his paws; the next, he was falling through a void of blue-purple mist.

  When they finally hit the ground, it wasn't moss that greeted them. it was ash.

  "Where are we?" Maplekit whispered, her voice trembling. Her orange spots, usually so bright, looked dull and gray in the sickly light of the Place of No Stars.

  "We're behind the border," Ravenkit hissed, his fur standing on end. "The real one. The one Mom was too scared to talk about."

  The forest around them was a nightmare version of ThunderClan. The trees were blackened skeletons, their branches reaching down like jagged claws. There was no sun, no moon—only a swirling vortex of bruised clouds that never moved. And it was cold. A bone-chilling, unnatural frost that turned their breath into thick, ghostly plumes.

  "Look," Branchkit commanded, pointing his trembling paw toward the mist.

  The shadows weren't staying still. They were coiling, stretching, and knitting together until they took the shape of cats—but they had no faces, only glowing, hollow eyes.

  "Lillyclaw's spawn..." the shadows whispered, the sound like dead leaves skittering on stone. "The Tiger wants his blood back. The Tiger is hungry."

  "Stay back!" Branchkit yowled, stepping in front of his siblings. His tiny claws were unsheathed, glinting with a spark of Spottedleaf’s stardust.

  "We aren't 'spawn'!" Maplekit chirped, though her legs were shaking. "We're Warriors of ThunderClan! And we're leaving!"

  The shadows laughed—a cold, wheezing sound. They began to circle, closing in. Every step they took left a trail of frost on the ground. The kits were backed up against a wall of towering black thorns that smelled of old blood and broken promises.

  "Maplekit, the puzzle!" Branchkit shouted as they spotted a glint of light in the center of the clearing. "The Mirror of Four Towns! It’s the only way to break the circle!"

  But as they ran toward the stone table, a massive weight crashed down from the trees above. The ground shook. The mist parted to reveal a pair of amber eyes so large they looked like twin moons of fire.

  It wasn't a shadow. It was him.

  Tigerstar loomed over them, his scarred shoulders blocking out the sky. "You think a few sparks of stardust can stop a Vow written in blood?" he purred, his voice vibrating through the kits' very bones. "Your mother stole you from the darkness. I am simply here to bring you home."

  The kits stood their ground, four tiny paws against the greatest villain the forest had ever known. The Battle for the Stardust had truly begun.