Dangling wet vines smacked against Sunny’s snout as she flew up into the treetops. She remembered what she’d learned from the RainWings about rainforest flying and kept her wings tucked close. She couldn’t use her tail to swing from the trees like they did, but she was small enough to maneuver through narrow gaps and swerve quickly.

But the three NightWings were right behind her, roaring angrily.

I should lead them back to the tunnels and the others. Glory needs to know that they’re not loyal — she needs to lock them up and keep an eye on them.

For how long? Sunny wondered. Forever? They’ll never be trustworthy; they’ll always be plotting to overthrow her. What do you do with dragons like that?

One of her wings hit a branch as she flew past and a family of monkeys went leaping off into the trees, howling and chattering with alarm. She twisted to glance back and saw a bolt of fire engulf one of the monkeys as the NightWings attacked them, thinking it was her.

They won’t be foolish enough to follow me all the way back, Sunny realized, even if I can keep ahead of them for that long. They won’t let themselves be caught.

What will they do instead?

She narrowly missed knocking herself out with a giant tree branch, ducking to avoid it at the last second.

The same plan, just without me. They’ll go to Burn and tell her we’re here in the rainforest — where her army can find us easily.

I need to hide. I need to think.

She curled into a ball and threw herself into one of the dragonfruit trees, where the leaves were huge and overlapped one another like scales. Her momentum nearly carried her out the other side, but she was able to fling her talons out and hook onto the trunk, slamming her body into it. She froze in place, clinging to the rough bark, hoping the NightWings had lost sight of her in the dark.

“By all the moons, Strongwings!” Fierceteeth swore from somewhere to Sunny’s left. “How could you let her escape?”

“Sorry,” his voice mumbled.

“She’s gone,” said Preyhunter. “We’ll never find her now — not without running the risk of a RainWing spotting us.”

“Let’s get out of here,” said Strongwings. “Before she brings back reinforcements.”

“Talons and tails!” Fierceteeth hissed. “We needed her!”

“We still have useful information for the next SandWing queen,” said Preyhunter. “They all want to know where the dragonets are. If we hurry, we’ll be the only ones selling that information, and we don’t need the SandWing as proof. We’re NightWings; everyone believes us.”

“Makes sense. Let’s go,” Strongwings said.

And with a flurry of wingbeats, the dragons headed for the dark open sky above the trees.

Sunny’s claws were trembling with the effort to stay still. She took a deep breath.

If I go back and tell the others, we can follow them.

But by the time they listen to me — if they listen to me at all — the NightWings will be long gone.

Sunny was used to the way her friends talked over her all the time. If she really wanted to be heard, she usually had to get Clay’s attention and have him make her suggestions for her. Which wasn’t fair — she had good ideas! — but her friends never expected her to have anything useful to say. They also didn’t trust her to keep secrets; they hadn’t even told her about it when they were all planning to escape their guardians. All they wanted was for her to be cheerful and supportive and agree with everything they wanted to do.

Would Glory even listen if Sunny tried to tell her about the rogue NightWings? Wouldn’t she be too busy? What if she just rolled her eyes at Sunny, the way she often did?

“I don’t want to be ‘distracted’ from worrying about the prophecy,” Sunny muttered. “I want to do something.”

Like stopping the NightWings. I could follow them right now. I might be the only dragon who can stop them before they tell Burn where we are.

Maybe if I do, my friends will see that I can do important things, and then maybe they’ll listen to me about the prophecy.

She thought guiltily of Starflight and what he would think when he finally woke up and realized she wasn’t there, taking care of him.

Then she thought of what her friends had said about her in the Obsidian Mirror, and she thought about Morrowseer’s smug, evil face, and she thought of all the dragons in Pyrrhia waiting for the dragonets of destiny to save them.

I’m doing this. Even if I have to fulfill the prophecy alone, I will.

Sunny clambered up through the branches and lifted off, following the black dragons into the night sky.

*  *  *

It was easier to follow the NightWings than Sunny would have expected. Her sharp eyes could catch the movement of their small, silver underwing scales flashing against the sky, and they weren’t making much effort to be quiet, either. Or maybe loud and flappy was how NightWings always flew.

They also were slower than Sunny and got tired more quickly, so she had to be careful not to pass them accidentally, especially during their frequent rest stops.

The sun was rising behind them when they reached the far edge of the rainforest, where the jungle shifted into sparser forest and more marshes, the outskirts of MudWing territory.

The Claws of the Clouds mountains stood out sharply up ahead in the growing light, like a line of jagged, broken teeth. Most of the mountains in the southern part of the range were not as tall as the ones in the north, where the SkyWings lived.

But there was one exception: Jade Mountain.

The tallest mountain on the continent was easy to spot, and not just for its towering size. Sunny remembered the picture on the map of Pyrrhia they’d had underground. In reality, the two crags at the top looked even more like sharp fangs sticking up into the air. One of the scrolls had said that from certain approaches, the tip of the mountain looked exactly like the head of a snake, lunging out of the ground to attack the clouds.

Jade Mountain. Sunny frowned. Someone had said something recently about Jade Mountain. Something she needed to remember. What was it?

Nothing came to her as the sun slowly lit up the mountain’s fangs.

Sunny had been worrying all night about how she would hide from the NightWings in the daylight. They didn’t seem to be watching behind them, but it would be hard to miss her golden scales once the sun was reflecting off them. She wished she had Glory’s camouflage scales. Really, any of her friends’ skills would be helpful, instead of her own total lack of powers.

But as the sky grew pinker and brighter and then started shading from gray to blue, the three NightWings flew lower, their wings drooping, until finally they landed beside a small river.

Sunny kept her distance, choosing the tallest tree she could find and tucking herself among the branches, close to the trunk. She fixed her eyes on where the NightWings had gone down and pricked her ears. She could hear their distant muttering, with Fierceteeth the most distinct. It sounded as if they were planning to sleep for as much of the day as they could and then fly on at dusk.

They’ve been breathing volcanic ash and living on dying, rotting scraps, probably for their whole lives, Sunny thought. No wonder they’re not exactly in great shape.

After a while, the trees stopped rustling and the dragon voices fell silent. A few minutes later, one of them — Sunny guessed Strongwings — started snoring like a herd of congested hippos.

Now what do I do? Sunny wondered. This was a perfect opportunity to wreck their plans, if she could figure out how. Could I fly to the RainWing village and get back with reinforcements before they wake up?

No. It would take me all day just to get someone to pay attention to me. I can do this myself. I have to.

What would Tsunami do? Would she go down there and kill them?

I don’t think I could do that — even if I could do that.

Sunny sighed. A breeze whispered through the trees, curling under her wings as if inviting her to fly. Yesterday I wouldn’t have worried about what was going to happen next with Fierceteeth and the others. I’d be able to follow them knowing for sure that whatever I did would turn out all right.

She hated Morrowseer for making her feel this way — this awful doubting feeling. He’d planted this worry, which she’d never had before, that maybe things wouldn’t be all right. That in fact she could die, and the war might go on endlessly, and perhaps there wasn’t a happy ending all planned out by the universe.

She had to stop thinking about Morrowseer and the prophecy. It was like stabbing icicle-sharp claws between her scales every time she pictured the haughty black dragon sneering about his great lies.

Stupid NightWings and their deceitful all-knowing high-and-mighty —

Sunny sat up so fast she nearly fell off her tree branch.

All-knowing.

There was one thing she could do to slow the NightWings down.

She could steal the Obsidian Mirror.