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“Lay still, little bitch, or it’ll be worse.” He plopped on top of me, making the metal springs of the bed whine.

He smelled of sweat, tobacco, wool of his suit, and the cologne that made me gag. The thin mattress sank under his weight, pressing me into the trap under his heavy body.

Panic blinded me. Whatever he’d meant by “worse” couldn’t be any worse than this.

He leaned back to open the zipper of his pants, and I used the chance to scramble from under him. I fell to the floor, hitting my knees, then crawled between the beds to the main aisle.

“You stupid bitch.” He stomped after me. The menace in his voice left no doubt that I was not getting away.

Finally finding my voice, I screamed for help. Only no help came. Someone must be awake in the bedroom, but the girls didn’t dare intervene. What could they do against him, anyway?

Helplessness amplified my terror. Every fear I’d ever felt snowballed, rolling over me and threatening to crush. Slamming the bedroom door open, I ran out onto the landing.

The sister was rushing up the stairs, her shape blurry without my glasses. The moment she spotted Mihail Pavlovitch behind me, she stopped in her tracks.

“Go back to your bed, Ira,” she said in a hollow voice. “And keep quiet.”

“If it happens, just lay back and enjoy,”the “wise” advice I’d heard before rang through my head.

Only I always knew it wasn’t about any actual enjoyment.

It was about resignation, giving up when there was no more hope. When one lost all control over her body, the only thing left to do was to separate her heart and soul from it. To save the little she still could.

Except, I wasn’t there yet. I could still fight.

Run.

Do something.

The sister was blocking the stairs. I turned on my heel, but he was right behind me, reaching for me. I lurched aside to evade him, tripped, and fell against the massive mirror on the wall. My chest and both hands hit the cold smooth surface.

Panic shook me. There was nowhere to run. I wished the glass would melt like ice and the darkness behind it would take me.

“Fucking skunk,” he hissed behind me, grabbing my hair. Yanking my head back, he slammed my face into the mirror.

The glass was supposed to break under that blow. The shards were supposed to hurt me, cutting my skin and disfiguring me for life if I survived. Blood was supposed to splash over the mirror and the wall.

But none of it happened. The hard surface suddenly felt soft. The shadows from inside the mirror reached out. Two arms embraced me, pulling me in.

The beautiful face of the woman with silver eyes was right above me, guiding me like a full moon on a dark night.

A voice sounded, soothing and kind, “Come to me, child. Here, you’ll be safe.”

Chapter 2

Ari

10 years later.

Drawing in a long breath of warm early-summer air, I turned my face up to the afternoon sunshine. Summer had been slow to come to Rorrim Queendom this year, but it seemed finally here.

Gem caught up with me, lining her horse up stirrup to stirrup with my mare Revlis.

“Nice day, isn’t it?” Gem said, opening all the buttons in the front of her dress.

I’d done the same already, unbuttoning my light cotton dress down past my bra to help me keep cool. We rode side by side along a wide paved road out of Egami, the capital city of Rorrim, in the world behind the mirror that I had accidentally discovered ten years ago and never looked back.

“Thanks for dragging me out of the palace today, Gem.”