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But when she stepped inside the house, Karina aiting, her face pale with fury She seized Nadya, tore the rabbit from her hands, and shoved her into her roo while, she pounded at the door, shouting to be let free But as there to hear her?

Finally, ith hunger and frustration, she let her tears corowling of her empty stomach She missed Havel She missed her mother All she’d had to eat was a piece of turnip at breakfast, and she knew that if Karina hadn’t taken the hare from her, she would have torn it open and eaten it raw

Later, she heard the door to the house bang open, heard her father’s unsteady footsteps coers at her door Before she could answer she heard Karina’s voice, crooning, crooning Silence, the rustle of fabric, a thuainst the wall Nadya clutched her pillow to her ears, trying to drown out their pants and moans, sure that Karina knew she could hear and that this was some kind of punishment She buried her head beneath the covers, but could not escape that shaht at the dance: I arn you just this once Go Go Go

The next day, Nadya’s father did not rise until after noon When he entered the kitchen and Nadya handed hi across the floor Karina stood at the basin, face pinched,to Anton’s," Maxi him not to leave her, but even in her own head, the plea sounded foolish In the next one

This time, when Karina took hold of her and said, "Go check the traps," Nadya did not argue

She had braved the woods once and she would do it again This time, she would clean and cook the rabbit herself and return hoh to face Karina with or without her father’s help

Hope made her stubborn, and when the first flurries of snow fell, Nadya pushed on,froan to fade that she realized she could no longer make out Havel’s white stonesnow and turned in a slow circle, searching for son that would lead her back to the path The trees were black slashes of shadow The ground rose and fell in soft, billowing drifts The light had gone dull and diffused There was no way of knohich way hoht be All around her there was silence, broken only by the howl of the rising wind and her own rough breathing, as the woods slid into darkness

And then she srant cloud so dense with scent it singed the edges of her nostrils: burning sugar

Nadya’s breath carew, her ht of the rabbit, plucked fro whites of its eyes Soainst her in the dark Nadya did not pause to think; she ran

She crashed blindly through the wood, branches slashing at her cheeks, her feet tangling in snow-laden brambles, unsure if she heard her own clu with crowded teeth and long white fingers that clutched at the he through the trees ahead, for one delirious ht she’d so, she saw that the hut silhouetted before her was all wrong It was lean and crooked, with lights that glowed in everyNo one in her village would ever waste candles that way

The hut see to welco snapped behind her She bolted for the hut’s painted door

Nadya rattled the handle, a lantern swaying above her

"Helpopen She slipped inside, sla it behind her Was that a thump she heard? The frustrated scrabble of paws? It was hard to tell over the hoarse sobs wheezing from her chest She stood with her forehead pressed to the door, waiting for her heart to stop ha, and only then, when she could take a full breath, did she turn

The rooolden, like the inside of a currant bun, thick with the sleamed like new, cheerfully painted with leaves and flowers, aniht it hurt her eyes to look at it after the dull gray surfaces of Duva

At the far wall, a woth of the room Twenty different pots boiled atop it, so over The oven beneath had two hinged iron doors that opened frothwise in it Or at least a child