“I gave it to them,” Sundew said defiantly. “Of course I did. So what?”

Blue sat down and clutched his head. “When?” he cried. “How did you even have any?”

“I gathered some when you first came out of your cocoon,” Sundew said. “Don’t you remember? I put it in a stone jar. I wasn’t sneaky about it.”

“But you were with us from then until we escaped Jewel Hive,” Cricket said. “Weren’t you? I thought you didn’t see your parents in all that time.”

“I saw them the night after I got Blue’s flamesilk,” Sundew said. “While you were all asleep in the carpet stall outside the Glitterbazaar. I got up early and met them to give them my report — and the flamesilk, as they’d requested — and to ask for more time, as you requested, which they said no to again — and then came back and rejoined you before you woke up.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Swordtail demanded.

“I don’t report to you,” Sundew pointed out. “Belladonna was my mission commander.”

“Not that you follow my orders very well either,” Belladonna observed.

“I can’t believe this,” Cricket said to Sundew. “I keep thinking you … but then I keep being wrong.”

Their expressions gave Sundew a squiggly feeling that she wanted to stab and stab and stab until it was dead. “How can you possibly be surprised?” she asked. “Where did you think they got the fire to burn down Bloodworm Hive?”

“I didn’t think it was from me,” Blue said. He buried his face in his talons. Cricket sat down next to him and spread one of her wings over him. “You took such a little bit.”

“You only need a little bit of flamesilk if you have the right materials,” Belladonna said briskly. “Although of course more is better. Which is why you’re going to be so useful for the rest of the war.”

Blue shuddered. “No way,” he said. “I don’t want to be useful for killing anyone!”

Belladonna’s look was almost pitying. Sundew could almost see a dragon in there who felt guilty about what she wanted to do, and who maybe understood why Blue didn’t want to do it. But that dragon was never going to be the one everyone else saw.

“You can’t imagine we’d let a weapon like yours fall into our talons and not use it,” Sundew’s mother said. “Try to think of what we’re doing as ‘freeing your tribe’ rather than ‘killing the other one.’ Does that help?”

“No!” Blue cried.

“If you want his cooperation,” Sundew interjected, “you’re going to have to take care of his friends. Safe harbor for both SilkWings and both HiveWings. And I do mean safe — no mysterious leaves in their food, no fire ants in their beds. If you want the flamesilk to help you, you have to take care of them just as well as you take care of him.”

“But, Sundew —” Blue started, then yelped as Swordtail trod on his foot.

“What she said,” Swordtail talked over him. “Exactly that, especially the no fire ants, please.”

Belladonna sat back on her haunches and regarded them with narrowed eyes for a long moment. “Hmmm,” she said. “Very clever, Sundew.”

Sundew managed by the skin of her teeth not to say “Really?” in an excited little dragonet voice. She’d outwitted her mother! It was just like she’d said to Blue; he had to realize he had the power here, and together they could use it. They just had to be smart. And maybe he wouldn’t want to use his flamesilk at first, but she could convince him … or figure out a way to use it that he wouldn’t have a problem with.

“Yes,” Belladonna said, flicking her tail and shooting Sundew an approving look. “Bringing us hostages to leverage in case the flamesilk was reluctant. Very, very clever. I knew we’d raised a smart little warrior.”

Sundew’s jaw dropped. That wasn’t — she hadn’t — that was not how this was supposed to go! Cricket and Bumblebee weren’t leverage! There were even minutes when she liked Swordtail, every once in a while. She certainly hadn’t meant to turn them over to her mother as hostages.

And maybe Belladonna knew that. Maybe the betrayed look on Cricket’s face was exactly the reaction she’d been hoping for. Or maybe her mother really did think Sundew had tricked all these dragons into walking into her claws.

Either way, Belladonna saw them as her prisoners now.

Sundew’s rage pulsed under her scales. She wanted to flay something. She wanted to upend all her pouches over Belladonna’s head and let the insects devour her. She wanted to scream and tear down the barrier and let the jungle come surging in.

“I meant what I said,” she hissed. “Anyone who harms these dragons will answer to me. That includes you, Belladonna.”

“All right, dear,” her mother said dismissively. WHICH WAS THE WORST. Sundew was going to STRAIGHT UP STAB HER just for that tone of voice, never mind everything else. Belladonna turned and waved one talon at Wolfsbane. “Let’s put them all in Pokeweed’s nest. He’ll be hiding out with Hemlock for who knows how long.”

“We’ll take Bryony’s, too,” Sundew said. She knew which nests were free; she knew which dragons had been sent to burn the Hive. And she wasn’t going to let Belladonna pen up Cricket and the others in one tiny place. It didn’t have to feel like prison, even if it kind of was.

Even if this whole place feels like a prison to me sometimes.

From the moment she’d stepped back into the village, Sundew’s claws had been twitching. She was so close to where she really wanted to be. She’d been gone for so long and she’d managed to focus on the mission for all that time … but now all she wanted to do was blast a hole in the barrier and run to her dragon.

She touched the pouch with the jade frog in it. Not much longer. Don’t make a stupid mistake now, with everyone watching.

“Get them settled and come report to me,” Belladonna said to Sundew. “I particularly want a full explanation of that thing.” She flicked one claw at Bumblebee.

“We’ll get the feast ready,” Wolfsbane said, hurrying to where Mandrake had dropped the panther.

Bumblebee grabbed Sundew’s ear and whispered, “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?” into it.

“Yes, come on, we’ll find you something.” Sundew turned toward the food stores.

“Wait,” Swordtail said, jumping forward. “Sundew, ask about Luna.”

Sundew was pretty sure her tribe hadn’t found Luna; if they had captured another, more willing flamesilk already, they wouldn’t be reacting this way to Blue. But she had promised to ask. She lifted her chin and looked up into her mother’s sharp green eyes.

“Has anyone seen another SilkWing? She was blown out to sea several days ago — we wondered if she came ashore in the jungle.”

Belladonna turned to look at one of her lieutenants, who shook her head. “Those are the first SilkWings I’ve ever seen,” Byblis said, pointing at Blue and Swordtail. “We haven’t run into any strange dragons in our territory.” She started to say something else, hesitated, and then shook her head again. “No. We haven’t brought anyone unusual into our village.”

There was a very slight, barely perceptible emphasis on our.

Sundew heard it, and she knew what that meant, and that the smart thing to do would be to wait and get answers her own way later. But unfortunately, Cricket heard it, too, and she pounced.

“Did you say ‘our village’? What does that mean?” she asked. “What were you going to say?”

Byblis shifted on her talons, stirring the leaf mulch under her claws. “Nothing,” she said. “No confirmed reports. Only rumors. I don’t bring every silly rumor back to our commander.” She bowed her head toward Belladonna.

“Rumors of what?” Swordtail nudged Sundew’s side. “Make them tell us, Sundew!”

“I must admit I’m curious as well,” Belladonna said archly. “I give you permission to share, Byblis.”

“Well … all right.” The other LeafWing looked very uncomfortable. Byblis was one of Belladonna’s most loyal dragons. She was in Sundew’s earliest memories, following her mother’s orders, watching over Sundew, making sure all the rules were followed. Byblis needed rules. She liked everything to fit into squares. She never set foot outside the barrier unless she was on a specific mission, and then she came right back. Sharing an unsubstantiated rumor without evidence to back it up must have felt like rubbing nettles on her palms to her.

“A few of the guards on patrol mentioned that there was … increased activity … over there,” she said. “More noise, voices raised. Agitated trees. The ones with leafspeak said there was a whisper of something new, but you know how plants can be; they often don’t know what they don’t know. We believe we noted slightly more prey being caught. Nothing definite, mind you. But … potentially consistent with the possibility of one or more strange dragons perhaps having arrived … there.”

“Where?” Swordtail cried. “What are you talking about?!”

“Are you saying there’s another village in the jungle?” Cricket said, glancing at Sundew. “Who lives there? More LeafWings?”

Belladonna snorted. “They don’t deserve to be called LeafWings. We are the LeafWings! We’re the ones who are still fighting for our future! We’re not giving up on our tribe and rolling over like pillbugs! LeafWings. Pah.” She stabbed her claws into the ground, dragged out a flailing earthworm, and sliced it into pieces.

“Mother has a bit of a complex about the other tribe,” Sundew explained.

“We call them SapWings,” Byblis added. “By order of the commander.”

“My order was to never speak of them,” Belladonna hissed. “They might as well not exist, for all the use they are to us.” She scrabbled up the dirt and reburied the carved-up earthworm bits.

“But Luna might be there!” Swordtail asked. “We should go ask! Sundew, can we go ask?”

“No one is going anywhere,” Belladonna commanded. Sundew frowned at her, and perhaps something in her look got through. “Tonight, I mean,” Belladonna added, a little reluctantly. “It’s too dark for anyone to wander around in the jungle, especially brainless outsiders who can’t wait to get eaten. I will consider sending them a message in the morning. If everyone behaves.” For some reason, she looked at Sundew. Sundew gave her a matching glare.

“Luna’s a flamesilk, too!” Swordtail said quickly. “She’s way more likely to help you than Blue is! If the SapWings have her, you should definitely try to get her back here!”

Belladonna rubbed her chin. “Hmmm,” she said. “An interesting point, butterfly dragon. I will include that in my considerations.” She turned to go back into the meeting house in a definitive, this-conversation-is-over kind of way.

As soon as she was gone, Bumblebee tugged on Sundew’s ear again. “EEEEEEEEM,” she said vehemently.

The food nets were full to overflowing, most likely in preparation for the feast. Sundew walked Bumblebee over to them and let her pick out a mango, then a piece of dried capybara, then a bowl of river snails (which Bumblebee took one bite of and promptly flung at Sundew’s face), and then another mango, and then she had to wrestle the dragonet away from the food and drag her back to the others.

“HrrrmbleGRRR,” Bumblebee growled. She flopped onto Sundew’s shoulder and set her tiny teeth into a piece of capybara, which Sundew suspected was a second strip the dragonet had smuggled away somehow.

Blue and Cricket and Swordtail had fallen silent as she came up to them. They were all looking at her as if they weren’t quite sure whether she was Sundew, the dragon who’d been helping them and protecting them and saving their butts for the last several days, or a dragonet-eating crocodile instead.

“The nests are this way,” Sundew said, stomping past them. She didn’t have to explain herself. She was a LeafWing! Besides, they were her prisoners when she met them. They should be grateful that now at least they were valuable prisoners.

And she’d helped with their problems, too, hadn’t she? She’d helped save Blue’s sister, even though it made Belladonna grumpy. It certainly wasn’t Sundew’s fault that Blue had immediately lost her again. Sundew had also helped Swordtail find the Chrysalis, and she’d helped with Cricket’s starry-eyed “let’s save the tribes with truth! and flyers!” plan. She’d done all kinds of dangerous nonsense for these outsiders! How dare they be all aghast that she was still a LeafWing, loyal to her tribe, at heart?

I don’t need them to like me. I don’t need anyone to like me except one dragon.

“Here,” she said, stopping at Pokeweed’s nest. It was a ramshackle assortment of branches woven into a sort of egg shape. Sundew wasn’t even sure if it would keep out the rain. Pokeweed was a big dragon who didn’t care much about his own physical comfort. He lived to destroy HiveWings; that was all. But at least his nest was big enough to fit two sleeping dragons comfortably.

“Blue and Swordtail can take this one,” Sundew said. “Cricket and Bumblebee in that one.” She pointed to Bryony’s nest, which was close by, and much tidier than Pokeweed’s. The two of them were near the outer edges of the village, along a path lined with nests that led to the meeting house.

“What about you?” Blue asked. “Aren’t you going to stay with us?”

Sundew squinted at him. Hadn’t he just been giving her an “oh, you’re a monster” face?

Maybe I misread it. That was Cricket’s expression … but maybe Blue’s was just sad face, and I mistook it for hating-me face?

“I have my own nest,” she said, flicking her tail toward the woven sphere where she slept. She’d been so thrilled when she turned two and Belladonna and Hemlock had given her permission to move out of theirs and build her own. It had taken her a while to notice that no other dragonets left their families before the age of five. But she didn’t dwell on that. After all, she saw plenty of her parents all day long during training and lessons. She liked the peace and quiet of being completely alone at night.

I do like it. Besides, it’s much easier to sneak out of the village this way.

“Of course,” Blue said.

“How will we remember which ones are for us?” Cricket asked, pacing around the cluster of nests. “They all look the same.”

Sundew scrunched her eyebrows quizzically. They looked nothing the same. The branches came from different plants or were woven in different ways and …

She took a deep breath. Help one more time, and then I can leave them to Belladonna if I want to.

Sundew reached into the ground with her leafspeak. She found a tendril and followed it back, calling roots to her, until a vine curled through the soft dark earth and climbed up, weaving around the doorway of Bryony’s nest. Purple morning glories burst from the buds as it settled in place.

“There,” she said. “Think you can figure it out now?”

“Thank you,” Blue said.

“So cool,” Swordtail breathed.

“Sundew —” Cricket started.

“I have to go report to Belladonna.” Sundew disentangled Bumblebee from her neck and passed her into Cricket’s talons. The dragonet protested sleepily, breathing capybara breath into Sundew’s snout, but it didn’t take long before she was curled up in Cricket’s arms with her eyes closed.

“It’s just … aren’t you our friend?” Cricket asked. “There’s so much you didn’t tell us, like about the flamesilk or the other village or the secret plans to burn the Hives or the dragon you’re going to marry …”

“Maybe not everything is your business!” Sundew flared. “Maybe you don’t need the answer to every question in the world. Maybe I was a little busy helping you investigate Queen Wasp and burning down greenhouses and keeping you alive!”

“It’s not her fault, Cricket,” Blue said, leaning against the HiveWing’s side. His shimmering blue-purple scales were dimmer in the green light that filtered through the dome, but his flamesilk glowed like fireflies under the scales on his wrists. “She was trying to help by bringing us here. She’s been working on her tribe’s plan her whole life — she’s only known us for a few days. It makes sense that she didn’t tell us everything. And you know she didn’t want them to burn Bloodworm Hive.”

“Do I know that?” Cricket asked. “Sundew, can you protect Blue if he doesn’t want them to use his flamesilk anymore?”

“Of course I can!” Sundew shouted, and they all jumped back. “By all the trees! It’s like you cannot keep straight in your heads who are the good guys and who are the bad guys here! When it is very obvious! ARGH AT YOU!” She whirled and flung herself at the path toward the meeting house.

As she stormed off, she heard Swordtail say, “She’s right. I have no idea if her mom is the good guy or the bad guy or what right now.”

Sundew did not let herself think, Neither do I.

She did not let herself worry about who was honest with her and whom she would rescue from a burning Hive and whether being manipulative was normal for a mom and a leader and what was going to happen next to Blue and his friends.

She gave her report. She showed Belladonna the length of vine from Wasp’s greenhouse. Belladonna recognized it from the days they’d spent hiding there, but neither she nor any of the dragons she summoned knew what it was either.

Sundew also explained what they’d learned about Wasp’s mind control, just as she’d promised Cricket she would. And as she’d predicted, Belladonna didn’t care. The entire HiveWing tribe was still trapped in Wasp’s power. It didn’t matter how they got that way. They still had to be defeated, every last one of them, and the only decision left to make, according to Belladonna, was which Hive to burn next.

After giving her report, Sundew stopped by the weapons storehouse, where Mandrake, as usual, was sorting and taking care of the hazardous insect collection. He was always happiest in here, tending to the bullet ants and venomous centipedes.

Sundew took off her empty pouches and reorganized her weaponry and supplies between the rest of the leafy bags, then resettled them around herself.

“Do you want to restock?” Mandrake asked. He gestured at the wall of neatly labeled boxes. “More sleep lilies? Or smoke leaves?”

“Not tonight,” Sundew said. “Maybe tomorrow.” She was too tired to plan a new set of weapons, and she didn’t know what the next threat would be anyway.

Sundew sat through the feast, but she didn’t feel like eating panther or dancing with Mandrake or smiling at any of the dragons who came to congratulate her on a successful mission. As glowing night blooms lit the village, she watched her fellow LeafWings sidle up to Blue and Swordtail, testing out questions, slowly letting them in. She saw Cricket try to join the conversations, and she saw all the LeafWings turn away from her with their wings curled and teeth clenched. She saw the looks they gave Bumblebee as the little HiveWing dragonet ate everything she could reach, and she saw how Bumblebee seemed to sense it and grow smaller, staying close to the shelter of Cricket’s wings.

Don’t make every problem your problem, Sundew. Not right now. Just get to midnight, and deal with everything else tomorrow.

And then, finally, finally, the feast ended. The LeafWings started crawling into their nests. Two dragons took up their posts outside the village entrance. Blue paused in front of Sundew as they headed down the path to the nests.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay with us tonight?” he asked.

She shook her head. She wanted to be with someone who made her feel more like herself, not dragons who made her feel like an untrustworthy snake. Swordtail waved from the doorway of Pokeweed’s nest, and she nodded back.

She climbed into her own nest and watched through the branches as the village went quiet.

Finally, finally, finally the time came.

Almost midnight.

Time to go.

Sundew slipped out of her nest and padded stealthily to the far side of the barrier from the entrance. The plants here knew her very well. They’d been trained to grow in a way that looked impenetrable to anyone else, but as she approached, they sensed her and leaned away from one another, bending and twining until there was a hole in the barrier just big enough for a small LeafWing.

She hopped through and let it close behind her. The jungle night was noisier than the day, between the insects and night-prowling predators, the declarations of the frogs and the skittering clouds of bats overhead. She used her leafspeak to clear the way, warning off the dragon-traps and sundews. She knew this route by heart, better even than she knew the names of her fellow LeafWings.

Soon she was at the pond. Dark water rippled in front of her, reflecting slivers of light from the three moons.

Sundew set the small jade frog on the boulder in the center of the pond, climbed the nearest safe tree, took a deep breath, and curled herself on a branch to wait for Willow.