“You’re leaving now?” Moon asked, dismayed.

“I have to get him back to the Ice Kingdom,” Winter said, glancing over at Hailstorm. His brother was sitting at the base of the greenhouse tower, with his wings folded close around him and his face hidden. “I feel like he won’t be safe until he’s with our tribe again. And then he’ll remember he’s really an IceWing … I hope.”

“But Kinkajou …” Moon started, then trailed off.

“There’s nothing I can do for her,” Winter pointed out. “Right? We’re just waiting until she wakes up?”

Moon looked down at her claws, leaving the “if she wakes up” unsaid.

“None of you can come with us to the Ice Kingdom anyway,” Winter said. “You should go back to Jade Mountain.”

“No way,” Qibli said, and Moon glanced up at him in surprise. “We have to find the lost city of night. Remember the thunder and ice? Earth shaking, ground being scorched, all of that? I don’t know about you, but I’m in favor of that prophecy not coming true. Now that we’ve found Hailstorm, I say it’s time to get on top of the whole saving-the-world thing.”

“That’s what I was going to do!” Moon cried. “I’ve been having these awful nightmares every night — I mean, worse than ever. I’ve got to figure out the prophecy … but I wasn’t sure if anyone would want to come with me.”

“Um, me,” Qibli said, waving a wing at himself as though that was as obvious as the sun. “Sign me up.”

Moon turned hopeful eyes toward Winter. “Maybe after you take Hailstorm home?” she asked. “Then you could come back and we could all look for the lost city of night together.”

He wanted to say yes. He wasn’t even sure which reason was strongest. Was it because he believed the world needed saving? Because he wanted to protect Jade Mountain?

Or because he couldn’t stand the idea of Moon and Qibli searching Pyrrhia, alone, together?

“I … I can’t,” he said.

Ah, that was why: because he hadn’t wanted to watch her face do this, this crumbling into disappointment.

But there were fifty thousand reasons why he couldn’t say yes — reasons like Moon’s safety if Winter’s parents found out about her; reasons like needing to prove his loyalty to the IceWings and struggle back into the rankings. Reasons like his own sanity.

“I can’t,” he said again. All at once he was aware of Hailstorm standing behind him, listening. Hailstorm’s blue eyes, watching Winter’s next move. “Listen, get this into your head. I’m an IceWing.” He hated that it came out sounding almost like a question. He wasn’t like Hailstorm; he knew who he was.

“I’m an IceWing,” he said again, firmly. “That means I belong in the Ice Kingdom with my own tribe. I should never have gone to Jade Mountain. This prophecy, if it’s even real, has nothing to do with me, and I should have nothing to do with you.”

“But,” Moon said, “I thought —” She reached toward him, her dark eyes puzzled and hurt.

“What, that we were friends?” Winter spat, shoving her talons away. “We can’t be friends.” We can’t be anything. We can never, never be what I dream of us being. “You’re my sworn enemy, NightWing. I never asked for you to follow me around.”

“Hey,” Qibli said. He sounded genuinely angry. “Don’t talk to her like that. She helped you find your brother and she risked her life to do it. What is wrong with you?”

“It’s all right,” Moon said, brushing Qibli’s wing with her own. Her eyes flickered to Hailstorm, close behind Winter. “He’s striking first, that’s all. Winter, I believe that you’re one of the best, bravest, truest dragons in Pyrrhia. I’ll never be your enemy, no matter what you say. But go ahead and leave, if that’s what you want.”

It’s not what I want. His chest felt as if it might burst, spilling shattered ice everywhere. It’s how things have to be.

“We’ll wait for you,” Qibli said. “Right here, in case you change your mind and realize that stopping a big world-destroying prophecy is what you were hatched to do.”

“Don’t bother,” Winter said, hoping his cold snarl was still as intimidating as he’d once been able to make it.

“One week,” Moon said, glancing at Qibli for confirmation. “We can wait one week, and then we’re leaving.”

“Then you’re idiots! I don’t care!” Winter nearly shouted. Why did it have to be so impossible? How could they still even want to be his friends when he was pushing them away so hard? “Three moons! Leave me alone!”

He turned to Hailstorm. “Let’s go.”

As he spread his wings and leaped into the sky, Qibli called, “Don’t be a stranger.”

And he thought he heard Moon say, “We’ll miss you.”

Hailstorm soared into the lead, his wings glittering silver-and-white with reflections of rose from the setting sun ahead of them. He grinned over his shoulder at his little brother — the first happy expression Winter had seen from him all day.

Winter forced himself to look forward. He would not look back at the garden, at the black and pale yellow dragons watching him go.

He would not admit to himself that he would miss them, too.

He would ice over the hole in his chest, the way he’d cleared out the Pyrite memories.

Ahead were his parents and Queen Glacier, and he would need to be perfect again before he faced them.

The Ice Kingdom was waiting for him.