Moon’s eyes flew open and her bewildered gaze met Winter’s.

Pyrite???

What does she have to do with Hailstorm?

Did she do something to him? Does she know where he is?

If she does, we have to get to her first.

Winter started to scramble to his feet, but Moon pushed him back down with her wing, pointing up at the ledge.

A moment later, a dragon leaped off it and spiraled up into the sky, banking toward the valley. Winter only caught a glimpse of his scales as the firelight flickered over them, but he was sure of what he saw.

Scarlet’s ally was a NightWing.

“Who is that?” he demanded.

“I have no idea,” Moon whispered back. “But if he’s a NightWing, maybe that’s why I can’t hear him think. Maybe he’s been trained to shield from mind readers or something.”

“We have to get to Pyrite before he does,” Qibli whispered from Moon’s other side.

He was right. They didn’t have time for the mystery of a NightWing who worked for a deposed SkyWing queen. Winter slid out from under Moon’s wing and started crawling back down the mountainside as fast as he could, looking for a spot where he could take off without Scarlet seeing him. Pebbles bounced past him as Qibli and Moon followed.

“Now,” Moon breathed suddenly. She launched herself off the mountain and Winter hurtled after her. He arrowed down toward their camp, his eyes fixed on that small flicker of firelight.

“The NightWing won’t go straight there,” Qibli panted behind him. “He’ll want to sneak up and take Pyrite while the rest of us are sleeping. He’ll land and approach the camp quietly. We’ll get there first.”

“Only if you shut up and fly,” Winter growled.

Qibli didn’t say another word as they shot down the cliffs and over the trees. Winter plunged through the leaves and landed with a skidding crash beside Kinkajou.

“Yikes!” the RainWing yelped, leaping to her feet.

For a wild, breathless moment Winter thought Pyrite was gone. But then she sat up on the other side of the fire, rubbing her face.

“What’s all the noise?” she mumbled.

“Yeah, really,” Kinkajou said, flaring the ruff behind her ears. “Is someone on fire? Why are you smashing around waking up perfectly happy sleeping dragons? YEEP!” she cried as Moon and Qibli came thudding down behind Winter, trailing broken branches, with leaves and twigs caught in their wings and tails.

“You!” Winter leaped over the fire and bowled Pyrite to the ground. She screamed, flapped her wings at him, and tried to wriggle away, but he leaned all his weight on her back and pinned her down with his deadly IceWing claws. Even though she was bigger than him, she stopped resisting quickly. Her talons twitched in the grass and she twisted her neck to look back at him.

“This is mean,” she protested.

“What do you know about my brother?” he demanded.

“Nothing at all,” she said. “Now can I get up?”

“You know something,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. “He’s an IceWing named Hailstorm. A couple of years older than me. The bravest dragon in Pyrrhia. Scarlet’s prisoner for the last two years.” He shook her roughly. “You know where he is!”

“All right, all right!” she whined. “But you don’t have to attack me; I would have told you if you just asked! Queen Scarlet’s prisoners are kept in an arena in the Sky Palace. I can draw you a map of the place if you want. I don’t think there are any IceWings there anymore, though. And Ruby traded back almost all the prisoners of war.”

Frustration surged through Winter and he dug his claws in just a little, making Pyrite wince. Across the fire, Kinkajou was watching them with wide, bewildered eyes.

“Don’t toy with me, SkyWing,” Winter hissed. “Scarlet needs you in order to kill Hailstorm. So why is that? Where is he? Did you use your magic on him?”

“What magic?” Pyrite protested. “I don’t have any magic! I never did anything special for Queen Scarlet!”

“Winter, I think she’s telling the truth,” Moon said. She had her front talons pressed to her head and an expression of pain scrawled across her face. “She has no idea what you’re talking about.”

“What she said!” Pyrite yelped. “No idea!”

“She’s blocking you somehow,” Winter said furiously. “She is magic, I can feel it.” With the SkyWing pinioned below him, the muscle-wringing sensation of powerful animus magic was beating through him stronger than ever. He glared down at the dragon and spotted the necklace tangled around her neck. “Maybe with her necklace — maybe she enchanted it to hide her mind from you.” He reached for the chain.

“Don’t touch that!” roared Pyrite, surging to her feet and throwing him off with sudden powerful violence.

Winter was flung straight into the fire. The burning embers sizzled against his scales and back talons, and he leaped away with a howl of pain.

It took a moment for his head to clear, but when it did he saw two shapes grappling through the smoke of the scattered fire. Qibli’s tail was poised like a scorpion’s as he wrestled Pyrite. Her arms were longer than his and her claws slashed at his underbelly while her wings beat him away from her. The SkyWing’s teeth were bared and her face was a grimace of fury and determination.

Winter’s burns were sending fiery bolts of pain along all the nerves in his body, but he staggered forward to help Qibli.

And then Kinkajou shrieked, and a black dragon was suddenly there, appearing from the shadows. He pounced on Kinkajou, striking her three times with swift brutality and then slamming her out of the way with a powerful blow from his tail. The little RainWing was thrown into a tree trunk with a sickening crack. She crumpled to the ground, her scales fading to white.

“Kinkajou!” Moon cried. The black dragon turned on her and she roared a jet of blazing fire straight at his face. He reared back, covering his eyes, and she leaped at him, slashing furiously at his wings and neck. A bright gash of red appeared along his throat and he roared, seizing Moon’s talons. Blisters were starting to bubble along the edges of his mouth and nose and he kept shaking his head as though it was hard to see, but he was strong and huge, and he flung Moon to the ground with ease.

Winter didn’t remember choosing, although there must have been a moment when his head said, “Go after Pyrite; she’s the key to finding Hailstorm,” while his heart shouted, “No, help Moon!” But as far as he could tell, there was no conscious thought involved. He was just there, barreling into the NightWing before the monster could stamp his sharp talons down on Moon’s neck.

The two of them rolled across the clearing, black and white scales clashing, both of them roaring at full blast. Winter felt metal tangle and clatter around his claws; the NightWing was wearing a mess of dark jewelry and things that felt like compact iron boxes on chains as they smacked into Winter’s jaws and knuckles.

He ducked his head as the NightWing shot a burst of flames past his ear. The ice was rising in his throat. He twisted to bring his mouth up to the NightWing’s face and hissed frostbreath straight into the dragon’s eyes.

The NightWing slammed his eyes shut at the last second, but ice immediately began spreading across his snout, sealing his eyelids in place and melting into the burns Moon had given him.

The black dragon’s bellow of agony was like nothing Winter had ever heard before. He threw Winter off him and bolted into the sky. For a moment Winter could see him, weaving and dipping from side to side as he tried to fly without sight. And then the NightWing’s black scales vanished into the dark and the heavy storm clouds.

At some point it had started to rain, scattered fat droplets that plopped into the dying fire with dragonlike hisses. The raindrops were soothing on Winter’s burns as he dragged himself back to Moon.

She was crouched beside Kinkajou, shaking the little RainWing gently.

“Please be all right,” Moon whispered. “Kinkajou. Please wake up.” Her voice snagged into a sob. “I can’t hear her. I can’t hear anything from her mind at all.”

“She’s just unconscious,” Winter said, but he wasn’t sure. The dragonet looked as if she’d been dropped from a great height, crumpled and still.

“He went for her first,” Moon said. “Did you see that? He could have attacked any of us, but he started with Kinkajou on purpose. Why would anyone do that? Why target a tiny RainWing, the smallest of us?” She straightened one of Kinkajou’s crooked wings and smoothed it back into place.

“Maybe he was worried about her venom,” Winter said. “Scarlet has probably talked about RainWing venom quite a lot, given her experience.”

Moon lifted and dropped her wings with a doubtful expression. Her eyes never left Kinkajou’s pale face.

Winter turned and saw, finally, what should have been his first thought: Qibli had subdued Pyrite and was standing over her on the other side of the clearing, his venomous tail suspended over the midpoint of her spine.

Winter limped over and looked down at the traitorous SkyWing.

“That NightWing could come back with Scarlet any minute,” Qibli warned him. “We should get out of here as fast as we can.”

Winter nodded. He reached for Pyrite’s necklace.

“No,” Pyrite said with a hysterical edge to her voice. “Please. I’m not supposed to take it off ever. It’s life or death. I need to wear it. Please leave it alone. Don’t take it. Don’t —”

He ripped it off her neck, yanking three times before the chain finally snapped.

The SkyWing let out a cry of despair. Winter felt the pouch crinkle between his claws; whatever was inside was very light and crunched like a talonful of snow.

He was about to open the pouch when Pyrite’s scales began to slide off.

At least, that was Winter’s first impression. It looked almost as though she was melting and growing and snapping into place at the same time. Her snout narrowed and lengthened. The orange color bled swiftly out of each scale. Sharp spikes shoved up through the skin all along her back and at the tip of her tail.

Qibli leaped off her with a shout of surprise.

It was over in a matter of seconds.

The dragon who was no longer Pyrite arched his back, unfolded his long white wings, and opened eyes as blue as the arctic sky. He coughed and stared around him in utter bewilderment. His gaze landed on Winter and Qibli.

“Winter?” he said in a shaky, hoarse voice.

Winter stared up at him, his talons rooted to the earth, his wings prickling with fear. He was too shocked to speak.

“Holy snakes,” said Qibli. “Is that — are you —?”

Pyrite was gone. Standing in her place … was Hailstorm.