'The Dangerous Gift' is the fourteenth book in the New York Times bestselling series Wings of Fire and the
fourth book in the third arc. The main protagonist is Snowfall, although
there are multiple points-of-view featured in the book. The book was
released on March 2nd, 2021.[1] Additionally, the B\&N Exclusive
Edition of the book came with a poster of Jerboa and young Jerboa
III.[2]

The Dangerous Gift is preceded by The Poison Jungle (book)|The Poison
Jungle and is followed by The Flames of Hope.

## Summary

A wall can't protect them anymore …

Snowfall didn't expect to be queen of the IceWings at such a young age,
but now that she is, she's going to be the best queen ever. All she has
to do is keep her tribe within IceWing territory, where it's safe —
while keeping every other tribe out, where they belong.

It's a perfect and simple plan, backed up by the Great Ice Cliff|Ice
Cliff wall and every bit of IceWing magic Snowfall can gather. Perfect,
that is, until a storm of unidentified dragons flies in from the ocean,
looking for asylum.

The foreigners are completely strange and, Snowfall is certain, utterly
untrustworthy. But as she escorts the miserable new tribes out of her
Ice Kingdom|kingdom, the young queen is forced to reconsider her plan.
Maybe she can only keep her tribe safe … if she's willing to risk
everything.

## Quote on Back of Hardcover

"The Pantala|lost continent isn't real!" Snowfall cried.

"Unless it is real, and we're about to get hundreds of visitors to prove
it!" Lynx was nearly dancing on her claws. Snowfall wanted to drop a
mountain on her.

"What if they have extra-murdery superpowers we've never even thought
of?"

"We can't worry about that until it actually happens," Lynx said.

"Yes, we can!" Snowfall cried. "I'm worrying about it right now!"

## Dedication

For Benjamin — welcome to the family!

And for the Pyrrhia-Pantala AU, with hugs and awe for all your amazing
dragons.

## Plot

### Prologue

The prologue is set a few days after the LeafWings and some of the
SilkWings fled Pantala. Swordtail woke up and remembered the events of
the past day, along with how the two armies at the river had burned the
Poison Jungle and how he had been looking for Cricket while under the
control of the othermind, but was unable to find her. He saw Blue asleep
and as soon as he went to wake him up, the othermind took over
Swordtail's mind again, intentionally thwarting his attempt to reunite
with his friend. Knowing it cannot read his thoughts, he retains hope
that Cricket and Sundew found their way over to the Distant Kingdoms and
found Luna, and will come back to rescue him and Blue.

### Part One: Blizzards and Buried Magic

Snowfall hears about a group of dragons flying towards her kingdom. She
demands the scout who reported the sighting to her if he is sure that it
is not NightWings and he responds that no black dragons have been
spotted. She ponders about numerous possibilities, such as if
Darkstalker is not gone after all and if it is a group of RainWings
flying towards them. After telling the scout to look again, Tundra shows
up and informs Snowfall that it is time to rearrange the names on the
gift of order. Snowfall thinks about her experiences of being queen and,
after what she lost in order to get it, finds it to be her least
favorite thing in the world. She mentions how she thought the gift of
order was a good thing for the kingdom, but she realized that it is more
an act of twisted revenge rather than a gift at all and hates how she
has to move names every single night. Snowfall puts on her crown and
moves a couple names around, such as Hailstorm and Permafrost. Tundra
questions how little she reordered the names and Snowfall orders her to
go away, wanting to move on to dealing with the mysterious dragons as
soon as possible. She remembers how Tundra and Narwhal used to be
second-in-command to Glacier and that Tundra hates having to bow to her
niece. Snowfall then hears a noise in the courtyard and realizes that
someone is watching her.

She orders the dragon to show themselves, preparing to use her
frostbreath on them. Lynx appears from the tree of light and Snowfall
asks if she was spying on her, being surprised when Lynx jokingly
confirms that she was. Lynx says that she is worried about her and
mentions how the only dragons Snowfall talks to nowadays are "old,
bossy, and kind of mean." Snowfall brags about how she has been prepared
for being queen her whole life and Lynx says that she did not expect her
to be queen for at least a couple decades. A flashback is then shown
with then-queen Glacier on her deathbed as a result of the IceWing
plague|plague, with Snowfall, Crystal, and Mink beside her. Glacier
stresses how she does not want a succession war like the SandWings have
and makes her daughters promise to not challenge each other for the
throne and to support whoever she chooses to be queen. After all three
of them do so, she names Snowfall as the next queen. Crystal leaves the
kingdom the next morning afterwards, leaving Snowfall to wonder if she
is plotting against her. Lynx suggests that Snowfall should take a break
and she rejects it, yelling that her sister is going into hiding to kill
her and the "evil" mysterious dragons will likely arrive by tomorrow,
and ponders if Crystal and the mystery dragons are working together, or
if queens Coral and Glory are working together to take her down. Lynx
tries to reason with her, asking why anybody would want another war so
soon after the War of SandWing Succession, but Snowfall continues to be
paranoid. She then tells Lynx that the unidentified dragons are coming
from the western ocean and Lynx realizes that they might be from the
lost continent. She proposes a plan to Snowfall: they will fly to the
coast to meet them and find out who they are and what they intend to do.
Snowfall reluctantly agrees and decides to head to the Forbidden
Treasury to see if any animus gifts can help her.

She sees Mink chatting with some of her guards as she was walking
towards the vault. She gives Snowfall a gift, a mink carved from a tiny
block of ice, and asks if she can come into the royal chambers,
stuttering that she slept with her mother when she had trouble sleeping.
Agreeing to her request, Snowfall stresses to the guards that nobody is
allowed in the room for tonight and pushes her bed aside, revealing a
hole underneath it, leading to the vault. She tells Mink to never tell
anybody else about it and they look around the area. Snowfall spots a
small tiara, the gift of strength, and takes it, wearing it on her head.
Refusing the gift of compromise when she sees it, she spots an opal ring
on one of the alcoves, the carved words saying that it is the gift of
vision. Assuming that it would improve her eyesight, she slips the ring
onto her talon. Passing by a piece of the gift of understanding,
Snowfall sees a set of pale silver wristbands with diamonds and is
certain that it will give the invading dragons an unwelcome surprise
upon reading the inscription.

She sets off towards the coast at dawn, accompanied by Lynx and five
guards. Lynx wonders if Snowfall got any sleep and she admits that she
did not, lying that she was busy with both the treasury and trying in
vain to have Mink not sleep in her bed. She reveals that her items are
animus-touched, causing Lynx to remind her that the Forbidden Treasury
is named that way for a reason, which Snowfall ignores. Asking the queen
if she can understand and control the items she is wearing, Snowfall
assures her that she can, leaving out that the gift of vision is not
working the way she assumed. Snowfall then shows Lynx the weapons she
has on her, leaving out some of the other hidden weapons on her in case
Lynx was working against her, and asks her about one of the outer
villages. Lynx mentions that her estate overlooks Among-The-Evergreens
and how she has not been back there in a while when one of the guards
spots the mystery dragons up ahead. When Snowfall sees them, she starts
to panic and says that they are going to kill her, but Lynx manages to
calm her down. The group flies to a cliff and watch the mysterious
dragons land on the beach below them. Snowfall recalls the Battle of
Jade Mountain and how she learned from the empathy spell that the
IceWings doubted her ability to rule, and that the NightWings do not
believe that she is a serious threat, remembering it as the worst day of
her life. Snowfall and her guards approach the exhausted refugees and
Queen Hazel introduces herself and the two tribes, pleading for help,
but Snowfall refuses and orders them to leave her kingdom. She hears a
scream and pulls her knives to prepare herself, but it turns out to be
Bumblebee, who cries upon seeing her threatening gesture and runs back
to Cricket. The IceWing queen continues to demand that they leave as
Tsunami, Turtle, and more of the LeafWings and SilkWings arrive. When
Cricket mentions that HiveWings are descendants of Clearsight, Snowfall,
seething with rage, smashes the diamonds on her wristbands together
three times, and reveals that she had brought her entire army with her,
using the gift of stealth to conceal their presence.

Intimidated by the army, Hazel relents and agrees to leave her kingdom.
Tsunami insults Snowfall and decides to lead the refugees south to the
SandWing kingdom, where Moonwatcher and Luna are. Realizing that the
route would lead them to the Great Ice Cliff, Lynx warns Hazel and
decides that she and Snowfall will escort them safely across, with
Snowfall electing to bring ten of her guards. After putting Ivory in
charge of the IceWing kingdom, Snowfall flies with everyone to the
southern border and she privately considers it to be the happiest day of
her rule since she is not rearranging the names on the wall. She and
Hazel talk to each other about being queen, the IceWings and LeafWings,
and Hazel mentions the breath of evil. Snowfall presses and asks if it
is Darkstalker and Hazel clarifies that it is a plant. She advises Hazel
to watch her back and not trust anyone as a queen, and the refugees
reach the far side of the tundra where Jerboa III's hut|Jerboa's hut is.
Sundew reunites with Luna and tells her what happened to her friends
back on Pantala. After Snowfall talks to Jerboa, Moonwatcher introduces
herself and says that her vision is showing only the beginning, much to
Snowfall's annoyance. Jerboa decides to let the refugees stay for a bit
and Qibli proposes taking them to Sanctuary where they will be safe.
Relieved that she will not have to attend to the gift of order for a
little longer, Snowfall decides to keep going with them. Night falls and
she notices that she cannot remove the ring on her talon. Giving up and
believing that it will come off with palm oil, she falls asleep.

She falls asleep and has a dream that she is Atala. She does not tell
anyone about it. A short while later, after interrogating Lappet about
SilkWings and LeafWings, she discovers that the ring of vision was the
one behind her visions, and she attempted to get it off by hitting the
ring onto a nearby rock. This failed, resulting in her talon feeling
bruised and sore.

Lynx demands Snowfall to tell her what is wrong, and she tells Lynx
about the gift of vision, leading to an argument where Lynx warns her
about how her paranoia and mistrust of other dragons will lead to her
downfall before angrily storming away, convincing Snowfall to keep her
problems to herself. She later asks Luna to use her flamesilk on the
ring, but nothing happens other than Snowfall's wrist hurting.

They reach Sanctuary, and Snowfall sees an IceWing running away from
her. She uses the gift of stealth to catch her, and finds her long-lost
sister, Crystal.

### Part Two: Sanctuary and Scavengers

Snowfall asks Crystal what she is doing here, and Gharial attacks
Snowfall, thinking she is going to hurt Crystal. She counters with the
gift of strength, and severely injures him. Crystal sorts things out
with Snowfall, and she realizes Crystal is not plotting against her.
Snowfall, Hazel, and the Pantalan refugees fly over to Sanctuary after
hearing Moon's prophecy about Pantala. Tsunami invited the queens from
each tribe to a meeting in Sanctuary. As Queen Thorn arrives with Qibli,
Snowfall lapses into another vision, and this time she is Blue and Queen
Wasp, from back on Pantala. Blue is forced to round up all the SilkWings
in Cicada Hive so they can be contained until a new batch of the breath
of evil is ready, while Wasp is furious that SilkWings keep disappearing
from the Hives, so she stations soldiers in Cicada Hive, Blue included,
to finally catch whoever is warning the SilkWings. Once the vision is
over, she and Queen Thorn went for a long flight and they came back to
the town square, where Tsunami and Sundew are arguing. As the other
queens begin to arrive, Snowfall falls into yet another vision, ordering
Winter and Qibli to take her away before she is seen.

This time she is Bryony, hiding in Pantala's caverns. When she wakes up,
Snowfall is told by Winter to guard the scavenger sanctuary, as the only
scavenger currently in there is Daffodil, nicknamed Pumpkin by Winter,
who is constantly trying to escape. As she is guarding the sanctuary,
she notices an odd-colored SkyWing talking to some bushes. This dragon,
who turns out to be Sky, tries to get Snowfall's attention, distracting
her while Wren frees Daffodil from the sanctuary, by cutting/digging a
hole through the fence.

When Snowfall discovers Daffodil is missing, she chases after Sky, using
the gift of stealth. When she catches up to him, she meets Wren, and is
completely taken by surprise when Wren begins to speak to Snowfall.
During this conversation, Snowfall falls into another vision, thinking
that scavengers absolutely cannot be sentient, and this time she is
Raven, a scavenger that lives on Pantala, the vision taking place in the
abyss. After, Snowfall requires a little time to remember that she is a
dragon, and understands Daffodil. Snowfall later convinces Wren to speak
with Winter. After this, Snowfall convinces Wren to go to Pantala as a
representative if Snowfall can convince the other queens to make eating
humans illegal. The queens agree, and prepare to send the representatives to go to Pantala: Sky, Tsunami, Bullfrog,
Pineapple, Moonwatcher, Qibli, Lynx, Luna, Cricket, Sundew, and Wren.

### Part Three: Walls of Ice

The night before Snowfall returned to the Ice Kingdom, she had no
visions. She woke up some time past dawn, and she sees Lynx and Crystal.
Snowfall realized that Crystal was trying to hide her nervousness by
looking bored. She tells Crystal that she will not have her killed if
she returned to the Ice Kingdom unless Crystal was coming to steal the
throne. Crystal replies, saying she has no interest in taking the
throne. Snowfall then adds that Crystal has permission to marry Gharial.
Snowfall then starts talking about the council with the other queens and
has a small talk. They say goodbye and leave for the Ice Kingdom. As
Snowfall flies towards the Great Ice Cliff, she thinks about what would
happen if the othermind landed in the Ice Kingdom, and about how the
IceWings would need connections to the other tribes. She then uses the
tiara of strength to break a hole in the cliff.

At night, Snowfall asks the ring again to show her what happened to
animus magic. She enters Jerboa I's mind, discovers how she dies, and
enters Jerboa III's. She then sees that Jerboa III broke animus magic
before Luna arrived due to her fear of being forced to use magic by
other dragons.

When she returns to the IceWing palace she sees that her aunt and uncle
had put the IceWing crown on Mink and dubbed her queen in her absence.
They discover that the crown Mink is wearing is enchanted by Diamond to
make the wearer hate NightWings. She orders Ivory to destroy the crown.
She takes Mink to the gift of order. At the gift of order, Snowfall asks
Mink if she knows what what the gift of order is. Mink replies that the
dragons above her are better than her and that she is better than the
dragons below. Snowfall replies that Mink was correct, but it did not
make sense, as Mink might do a math test better than the dragonet below
her, but he might make a better ice sculpture. Mink is shocked at this
and Snowfall quickly says that it is a maybe, and Mink calls out to the
dragonet below her, Polar Bear, that she still loves him anyway.
Snowfall contemplates whether she should have explained later, and
smashes her fist into the gift of order. Tundra shrieks and charges
Snowfall, but Snowfall batted her away and continued destroying the
wall. Once she finished, Tundra was staring at the rubble as if it might
come back, and Lynx was separating Tundra from Snowfall to keep her from
charging at Snowfall again, then Tundra fainted, and had to be taken to
her room while she recovered. Snowfall went to bed, and dreamed about
herself in the forbidden treasury, with an animus IceWing named Opal.
After her chat with Opal, she slipped into her mother's mind, and sees
herself, realizing that her mother did not just choose her to be queen
just because she could not have chosen Crystal or Mink. When she wakes
up the next morning, she sees that the ring has vanished. She looks out
the window and thinks of the stealth team, and that Lynx is flying to
Jerboa's beach to meet them, and hopes they can stop Wasp and the breath
of evil. She also hopes that she sees Wren, Sky, Sundew, Cricket, and
the other dragons again.

### Epilogue

Raven is seen going to the abyss to give Vole some food. It is said that
she and Mole are the only ones who dared approach him, since he has
tossed others into the pit before. Vole asks if she can hear the
whispers, and she responds that she cannot understand what it is saying.
He suddenly becomes strange and ominous, saying that it is growing and
it will soon need a dragon. She attempts to ask for details, but he
remains vague, telling her to bring Sundew|the dragon to the pit to save
the village or everyone she knows will die.

## Mistakes

  - On the English cover, the gift of vision is completely blue,[3]
    but in the book, it is described to be a milky pink-gold-white-green
    opal set into the center of it.
  - On the English cover, several of the dragons coming from Pantala
    have bat-shaped wings,[4] when only Tsunami and Turtle should.
  - Lynx refers to scrolls as books, when at this point, Pyrrhia should
    have no knowledge of books, which originated in Pantala.
  - When Luna uses flamesilk to break off the SilkWings' armbands, she
    only burns one side, and the armbands come off. However, she would
    have to burn the other side as well.
  - The term finger is used instead of claw.
  - Moon mentioned that "Sanctuary is technically on the border of
    SandWing and SkyWing territory, so [Thorn] should know that
    they're there." However, Sanctuary is located in the Sky Kingdom;
    the city on the border of the Kingdom of Sand and the Sky Kingdom is
    Possibility.