//Un//marked

// chapter 33 //

The trainees arrived in camp breathing hard from their run. The cold air stung Dewpaw's lungs as it rushed in and out but, for some reason, he had never felt more alive. He slid his gaze sideways at Lightpaw and Beetlepaw, who seemed more determined than ever to prove themselves. He hoped, with some anxiety, that his support of them wouldn't be the rebels' downfall.

His fur rose as he stepped into the camp and witnessed the scene before him. Sprucetail looked three times her usual size, her eyes filled with rage and her lip curled in a snarl. Before her, trembling, lay a dark tabby tom.

"We took you in," she snarled. "You fought me to get our acceptance and have us let you stay. You were an integral part of our camp, a hunter for when we needed feeding and a fighter when we needed more cats to help our trainees. And you repay us with this?"

The mewling sounds coming out of Killian were unlike anything Dewpaw had ever heard before. He had had his suspicions about the tom, especially after overhearing him speaking to Gannet, but seeing the tom reduced to a cowardly shivering mass still came as a surprise.

Across the camp, Gannet seemed just as confused. Cinderblossom's eyes were narrowed with a mixture of hurt and scorn, Beaver's tail resting across her shoulders to comfort her. Bronco watched the proceedings with a grim face; Nightchaser lay with his head on his paws, watching at the proceedings with mild curiosity.

"How long have you been spying on us?" Sprucetail hissed.

"I haven't been for at least two moons now, I swear," Killian mewled pitifully.

The she-cat whisked her tail angrily. "I didn't ask you how long you haven't been spying on us. I asked you how long you were."

"I came to you as a spy," Killian said quietly. "But I haven't been for moons now, I swear it!"

Dewpaw thought back to the night Killian first joined them, the night Dewpaw had been backed against a fence with a dog staring him straight in the eyes, waiting for its killing blow. Had Killian saved him only to win the rebels' trust? If not for Killian's mission, would that dog have killed Dewpaw?

And the stories Killian told him about his crippled littermate – had they been real? Or was his every interaction with the tom a lie?

Dewpaw remembered seeing the tabby at the border on his hunting trips, but never had he thought to question him about his motives. He had been too preoccupied with Killian getting closer than he was comfortable with to Cinderblossom.

And the last time he'd seen Killian at the border was the same day Nightchaser came into camp injured, not even a half moon prior...

"He's lying," Dewpaw said before he could stop himself.

The trainees looked at each other, having been the only ones to hear him.

"He's lying," Dewpaw said again, louder. This time, Sprucetail looked up.

"I saw him at the border while I was hunting on the same day Nightchaser killed Reedpaw," Dewpaw said.

"I was hunting." Killian's amber eyes bore into Dewpaw and the trainee's fur grew hot with the hatred in them.

"I saw him at the border only a moon ago too," Beaver said, stepping forward. "He looked to be biding his time, holding a mouse down by its tail and playing with it instead of killing it."

"I've seen him there too," Condor said.

"I, too," Indigo added.

Killian looked frightened once more as Sprucetail drew herself up again.