Did Willowshine look . . . too peaceful?
He looked closer. Is she breathing?
An icicle of fear stabbed through his blood, and he opened his jaws to warn the other cats. But before he could speak, a high-pitched yowl rang out, seeming to echo across the water.
A shapeless mist began to rise from Willowshine’s still body, slowly forming into a translucent image of the medicine cat. The spirit cat looked ather inert body with horror. The heart-wrenching yowl was coming from her.
She’s dead! And her spirit is stranded! As Rootspring glanced to and fro in rising panic, he realized that no other cat could see or hear her—not even his father, Tree.
“Willowshine?” he gasped. But the spirit didn’t respond, and only moved closer to her body, over which Mothwing was crouched.
The older medicine cat suddenly looked up, alarm in her amber eyes. “She’s not breathing—something’s wrong! We’ve got to bring her back—now!” she meowed urgently.
“I knew that this was a mistake!” Jayfeather muttered, as he hurried to Willowshine’s side.
“It’s too late,” Rootspring murmured. Willowshine was already dead, buteven her spirit seemed not to understand that.

The Place of No Stars, Chapter 6