A savage gust of wind whipped down from the north, scattering dragons right and left.

“What are you doing?” Moon whispered.

“Calling a storm,” Qibli answered. “A big one.” The air felt as if it was crackling around his claws. He felt stronger this time, more sure. He could sense heavy clouds in the distance, to the north. He just had to reach for them and pull them over Jade Mountain. They would come looming down, a third army crashing the war.

Then the rain would fall and the lightning would flash and thunder would roll over the battle and the dragons would all …

The dragons would …

His gaze fixed on the sky, he felt more than saw Moon crumpling beside him, her talons clutching her head as she cried out with pain. A flash of white and orange in his peripheral vision was Kinkajou darting forward to catch her friend, shouting “Moon! Moon, are you all right?”

Thunder.

Jade Mountain will fall beneath thunder and ice.

No oh no oh no …

It’s ME.

He jerked his talons back in toward his chest, dread surging through him.

I’m the one who brings the thunder. If I do this, I make Jade Mountain fall.

The sky was already darkening, early evening stars blotted out by the incoming clouds. Qibli stumbled backward off the rock. Go back! he thought desperately at the storm. Go away! I don’t want you! I didn’t mean it!

He clawed at the bracelets, stabbing the tiny clasp over and over again until one snapped open and clanked to the ground, and then the other.

“Tell the storm to go away,” he cried, shoving the bracelets at Anemone. “Make it leave! Quick!”

“Why?” she asked. “I think a storm is a good idea.” She caught the bracelets, blinking at the panic on his face.

“No!” he shouted over the rising wind. “The storm is the thunder in the prophecy! That’s what brings down the mountain!” He pointed to the trembling peaks overhead, the ice, the cracks, the avalanches ready to fall on the turn of a dagger. “Can you stop it?”

The SeaWing princess nodded, finally understanding. She slid the bracelets onto her own wrists and curled her claws in, murmuring to herself.

Qibli ran over to Starflight and Fatespeaker. “We have to get the students out!” he called. “I’m worried about the mountain!”

“Isn’t it safer inside than trying to fly through a war?” Fatespeaker shouted. Her claws dug into the ground as the wind tried to batter her off the ledge.

“Not right now,” Qibli said, shielding them with his wings so they could hear each other. “Is there another way out, on the other side of the mountain?”

“Through Stonemover’s cave,” Starflight suggested.

“Flame is still in there,” Fatespeaker reminded him. “Trapped. Angry.”

“And possibly doomed unless we get him out,” Qibli said. He tipped an earring out of his pouch and pressed it into Starflight’s talons. “Offer him this. Tell him it’ll free him from Darkstalker’s spells, including the stone cuffs. That means his face will go back to the way it was. But if Darkstalker cast any secret spells on his mind, he’ll be freed from those as well. That’s a trade I would gladly take.”

He hesitated. “I don’t know how to free Stonemover from the wall, though,” he said. “I think he has to choose that for himself, if he wants to escape.”

Starflight spread one wing instinctively toward Fatespeaker and she lifted hers to rest underneath it so she could lead him into the school.

“You’ll get to safety, too?” Starflight said to Qibli. “You and the others?”

“Especially the SeaWing princess,” Fatespeaker said with a slight eye roll. “We’ll be in all sorts of trouble if a single one of her scales is harmed.”

“Don’t worry about us,” Qibli said.

Starflight let out a small laugh. “You make that quite impossible,” he said.

“Oh, and take this, just in case,” Qibli said, giving Starflight the map from the strange NightWing in the palace library. “This is where Tsunami is — she’s a prisoner in the rainforest. She’s safe, but she needs rescuing. And tell her no revenge! Her captor sent us to let her out.”

“Rescuing Tsunami? That’ll be fun,” Fatespeaker said.

Qibli watched the two of them run into the mountain. Fear shivered along his spine and out to the tips of his wings. He hoped everyone would get to safety. He hoped the school would survive. After everything that had already happened here, if it all ended in an avalanche and devastation, what hope would there ever be for a school like this again? Would any of the tribes be willing to send their dragonets to a second grand experiment? Wouldn’t they blame Sunny and Clay and the others, no matter who survived … or didn’t?

He dashed back to Moon and Kinkajou, who were huddled together with Turtle against the fat raindrops that were starting to fall. Anemone stood beside them, waving her talons at the clouds.

Moon looked up at him, the wind whipping her wings and tail back. She had a really odd expression on her face, as if the agony of the prophecy vision had suddenly popped and meerkats had come cartwheeling out of the cracked mountain instead of death.

“What is it?” Qibli asked her. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I caught a glimpse of a new vision, I think, but a strange one.” She shook her head. “It was a dragon, someone I’ve never seen before.”

“What was he doing? Joining the battle? Was he a SandWing?” Qibli narrowed his eyes at the sky, wondering if Vulture was up there somewhere … or if not, where he was and what evil he was plotting.

“No, he was — he was picking strawberries,” Moon said.

Qibli stared at her for a moment.

“Evil strawberries?” he asked finally.

“I don’t think so,” she said with a hint of a smile. “I know, it was strange. Probably not worth mentioning.”

But he knew it must have felt important to her. He’d spend more time puzzling over it later … if they had a later.

“I think we should move away from Jade Mountain,” he said. “Just in case.”

“No need,” Anemone said, tossing her head triumphantly. “I’m winning. Off you go, storm clouds.” She flicked her wings at the sky.

She was right. The raindrops were slowing and the wind was dying down. Glimmers of starlight were visible through the thinning clouds. The sun was almost down now, rendering many of the NightWings impossible to see, but Qibli could still make out the vast shape of Darkstalker, lifting his head to scent the air.

Does he sense the storm retreating? Does he know I stopped myself from using the bracelets? Did he know that was part of the prophecy?

Is that what he saw in my future in the library — me bringing down Jade Mountain? Is that what he wanted me to do?

He didn’t think I’d be able to stop myself. He also didn’t know Anemone would be here.

“We still have to stop the fighting,” Moon said. She reached into the pouch around her neck and drew out the skyfire. The rock looked more than ever like a piece of a fallen star, winking enigmatically in her talons. “If I put this down, I can reach Darkstalker’s mind. I’ll try to talk him into ending the battle.” She sighed. “It seems kind of fitting that this started with us talking in our minds, and maybe that’s how it’ll end, too.”

“But there are so many dragons here,” Qibli said, catching her talon and closing her claws around the rock. “Angry dragons, violent dragons, injured and dying dragons. Won’t it be overwhelming? Won’t it hurt you, to have all their minds flooding into yours right now?”

“Maybe,” she said, “but it’s what I have to do.” She tugged herself out of his grip and carefully placed the skyfire on top of the jagged tooth of a boulder beside her.

Qibli could see the tension whiplashing through her muscles as the thoughts of hundreds of warring dragons clashed and clawed at one another inside her head. Moon slowly sank to the ground, her wings spreading around her like a carpet of fallen leaves, her palms pressed against her eyes.

I hope she comes out of this still thinking there’s good in other dragons.

I wonder if she’s right, or if she sees us that way because that’s how she is.

I wonder if those dragons up there would fight like this if they could read each other’s minds. If everyone could feel what she’s feeling — if they understood all the other dragons around them — would they still be able to kill each other?

A tremor shivered through his wings.

What if that’s the way to peace?

What if the way to change other dragons isn’t a spell that forces them to like you or makes them do what you want?

What if it’s opening them up to other minds and letting them decide for themselves?

“I have an idea,” he said to Turtle, who jumped slightly.

“Oh, good,” said Turtle. “Because I don’t have any, apart from stand here and try not to die.”

“It’s another spell,” Qibli said. “One that Darkstalker won’t be able to counteract, I hope, at least not right away.”

“We want the IceWings to win, don’t we?” Anemone interjected. “What if we give all of THEM superstrength! That would make it fair, at least.”

“No, no,” Qibli said. “We don’t want to make the war worse. We want to end it, for good, forever, with no more dragons dying.” He put one talon on Turtle’s shoulder. “Can you do one more spell?”

“Yes,” Turtle said solidly. “Or more. Whatever you need.”

“No,” Anemone jumped in. “I should do it. Darkstalker can’t see me in his future. He won’t see it coming if I’m the one to cast it.” She shot a look at Turtle and then down at her feet. “Besides, there’s still hope for Turtle’s soul. We shouldn’t waste it.”

Qibli cleared the leaves from a patch of dirt with his tail. He used his claw to write out the spell, erasing and rewriting it until it was the way he wanted it.

While he was working on it, Turtle bumped his shoulder against Anemone’s and ducked his head to meet her eyes.

“It’s not too late for your soul,” he said to her. “You’re here now, with us. You’re on the right side, doing the right thing. You’re not evil.”

“Maybe a tiny bit evil,” Kinkajou muttered.

“I’m here because I want to destroy Darkstalker,” Anemone said. “That doesn’t exactly make me the most heroic dragon in the world. Come on, sea snail, aren’t you done yet?” she said to Qibli.

He nodded down at the spell. “That’s it,” he said. “I think. I hope it’ll work.”

“Can we trust her?” Kinkajou asked. “What if she randomly decides to make all the IceWings fall in love with Winter or something?”

“You are so ungrateful,” Anemone said huffily. “I was just trying to do something nice for my brother because of his enormous crush on you. I was trying to make your love lives a little happier. And all I get for it is whine whine whine.”

“You don’t get to decide who I’m in love with!” Kinkajou cried, her scales rippling scarlet and lavender.

“Could we have this fight later?” Qibli asked.

“Yes, pipe down,” Anemone said to Kinkajou, who bared her teeth furiously. “I’m saving the world right now. Although this spell is super weird, SandWing.”

“Just do it, please, Anemone, or let me,” said Turtle.

“I need a thing to enchant,” she said.

Qibli felt in his pouch and took out his library card from school. “Here, might as well use this,” he said.

Anemone held it up gingerly in one talon and leaned over to read what Qibli had written in the dirt.

“I enchant this object to connect the minds of all the dragons in the battle overhead for the space of a hundred dragon heartbeats,” she said aloud, “so that they feel what every other dragon is feeling as completely as they feel their own emotions, and know exactly whose feelings they’re experiencing. When that time is up, they will return to normal, and at that moment I enchant this object to instantly transport all the IceWings to the main palace of the Ice Kingdom and all the NightWings to the Great Diamond in the Night Kingdom, safe and unharmed.”

Anemone’s eyes flicked up to her brother for a moment. “And while we’re at it,” she added, “I also enchant this object to take the love spell off Kinkajou, so she can feel whatever incredibly special feelings she wants to feel about absolutely anyone and stops annoying me about it.”

Turtle gave her a wordless, grateful smile. Kinkajou just looked startled.

Qibli tipped his head back to watch the fighting dragons. Something was rippling through them. It took a few moments to sink in, but he could see the attacks faltering, the claws pulling back, the confusion on every face.

He felt Moon rise to her feet beside him, her expression suddenly clear and peaceful. She took a breath and words spilled out of her, just like the time she’d spoken the Jade Mountain prophecy, but spinning and tumbling faster and free like cactus blossoms in the wind.

“I see her dragonets, waiting in fear back in the Night Kingdom. I feel her terror that she’ll never see them again. She’s fighting to protect them. She thinks I want to kill them and she has to kill me first.

“I see his mother, dying of the plague that Darkstalker sent. He loved her as much as I loved my mother. He wants to stop us before we kill any more of his family.

“I see years of hunger and fear; I see a volcano seething with danger; I see the endless struggle for survival and the constant worry that his beloved tribe would die out forever. I see hope arrive in the form of a dragon who promises everything, who promises all the glory and power the tribe used to have in a place of safety and beauty. I see him fighting to protect it because he needs that hope.

“I see her in an IceWing nursery, listening to the ancient tales of Darkstalker and the NightWings with wide, frightened eyes. I see her nightmares, I hear the stories that run through the tribe about how many IceWings Darkstalker killed even after his supposed death. I see her study the scrolls about NightWings, wondering when they will take the animus gift they stole, break through the Great Ice Cliff, and wipe out the entire IceWing tribe because they hate them and have always hated them.

“But you hated us first.

“You hated us first.

“You want to kill us all.

“You want to kill us all.

“I’m afraid of you.

“I’m afraid of you.

“I’m afraid, and that is why I fight.”

Silence fell. The hundred heartbeats were up.

The NightWings and IceWings faced one another for a long moment.

And then they all vanished from the sky.