WHEN I GOT OUTSIDE, the wind was so strong it made me stumble sideways. It stole my breath and tried to rip the sheet away from me. But I regained my balance and staggered on into the darkness. If I lost myself thoroughly enough in the undergrowth, maybe the truth wouldn’t find me.

The wind made the long grass ripple: it felt like I was running through the surf, out into the ocean. The storm had already stripped the last of the leaves from the trees, turning them into dark-boned skeletons. They creaked and groaned in agony as their branches were bent further and further, finally snapping and pinwheeling across the ground.

I raced into the glasshouse. It was sheltered, there, but the howl was replaced by a high-pitched whistle as the wind tried to force its way in through a thousand tiny cracks. It reminded me of Maxsim’s drill and I pressed my hand protectively against my cheek as my tooth started throbbing again.

I pulled the sheet tighter around me for warmth as I walked down towards the far end of the glasshouse. I didn’t have a plan. I just wanted to hide, to put off the inevitable for as long as possible—

The door opened. “Christina!” Konstantin’s voice.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t face him. I pushed on into the shadows. I heard him cursing, trying to close the door, but the wind kept sucking it out of his hand and he gave up. “Christina!”

I kept moving, but then I reached the glass wall at the end of the room and the moonlight lit me up. I heard him run forward as he saw me and I had no choice: I turned around.

I hadn’t realized that I’d started crying but I could feel the hot tears running down my cheeks. “Why?” I blurted. “Why... now? Just when we were—”

He sighed, exasperated. But not at me, at himself. “That’s not what we are, Christina. You and me, we’ve never been that. Both of us just forgot, for a while.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair and I glimpsed the scar on his forehead. “You always understood before!”

I shook my head. “Well I don’t understand now.”

The wind rose outside, the whistling rising in pitch and then dropping as it changed direction. Konstantin looked up, worried. “Please, Christina! It’s dangerous in here.”

Christina. The name cut me to the core. I wasn’t the woman he thought I was. It wasn’t me he’d fallen in love with, it was her. I shook my head, my eyes swimming with tears.

“Golub,” he pleaded. “Please!”

And I softened. I took a step towards him. And—

The sheet suddenly lifted and the dusty soil on the floor rushed around my feet as the wind suddenly sucked the air out of the glasshouse. The door flew all the way open, straining on its hinges. And then just as abruptly, the wind changed and the door slammed closed with a bang that shook the whole structure.

The first pane popped loose from the roof a few feet to my left. I saw it fall in slow motion, shining bright in the moonlight and perfectly flat until it smacked into a table and shattered, spraying shards of glass at waist height. I screamed as something stabbed into my hip but more panes were already falling. Some fell flat, some swung down and dangled for a second before slicing down like falling swords. Some fell from the roof, some from high up on the walls. The door slam had started a chain reaction: as one pane fell, the change in weight made the ancient metalwork bend and flex, releasing more panes. Glass was falling all around me and exploding into vicious, deadly shards, the echoing crash of it almost continuous. I bent low, trying to protect my face—

Konstantin slammed into me and bore me to the ground on my back, hunkering down over me to protect me. Pane after pane smashed on his broad back and shoulders, but he didn’t seem to care. At last the rain of glass began to slow... and finally, it stopped.

He gingerly turned and looked up at the ceiling. Most of the glass was gone, but one pane was dangling from its frame overhead. He winced as it slipped free and fell, edge-on. But it was on our side, it would miss us—

I glanced down and my insides went cold. It would miss him, but somehow, in the chaos, one of my legs had wound up kicked out to the side. I frantically started to pull it back—

The pane of glass sliced deep into my thigh and the sheet bloomed red with blood.