Far away from the warm, honeysuckle-scented Garden of Stars, the air turned black. In the deepest pit of Shadow-Reach, the ground was shaking.

  Tigerstar was not purring anymore. He was let out a roar so loud it shattered the nearby obsidian rocks into dust.

  "KITTENS!" he bellowed, his massive scarred paws shredding a dead tree trunk as if it were dry grass. "Tiny, milk-breathed, fluff-eared KITTENS outsmarted MY Vow?!"

  A shadowy cat scurried forward, trembling. "Master... the stardust... it was too strong. The kits' love transformed the Amber Claw. It turned into a flower. A star-flower."

  Tigerstar’s amber eyes flared like twin explosions. He turned and swiped at the air, his claws leaving jagged red gashes in the mist. "A flower?! I am the Terror of the Forest! I am the Shadow of the Vow! I do not get defeated by GARDENING!"

  He paced the edge of the abyss, his tail lashing like a trapped snake. He looked toward the bright, distant glow of the Star-Garden.

  "They think they’ve won," he hissed, his voice dropping to a terrifying, low growl. "They think they can give my Dark Forest a zero-star review and just live happily ever after? They have no idea what I have waiting in the deep shadows of Book 2."

  He reached into the dark earth and pulled out a new object. It wasn't an Amber Claw. It was a Black Star-Shard, colder and darker than anything the kits had seen before.

  "Let them play in their garden for now," Tigerstar whispered, a cruel, jagged smile spreading across his face. "In Book 2, the Stardust won't just fade... it will burn. And this time, I’m not coming for their nursery. I’m coming for their destiny."