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“It sounded like a gunshot,” someone hisses.

“They’re executing us now?” Celeste wails, rounding on me. “You said we were only going to be eliminated.”

“Don’t blame Lilia for what’s going on in there,” Olivia says. “She’s trying to help us help ourselves. If Alejandra is…” She stumbles over the worddead. “If something has happened to Alejandra, then it’s no one’s fault but those assholes’.”

Celeste dissolves into sobs, and she backs away from us, slides down the wall and falls into a wretched heap. I watch her helplessly, wishing I knew what to say to comfort her.

A few minutes later, Nicoletta is dragged into the judging room. I crane my neck to see around the door, hating the thought that I might see bloodstains on the floor, but I need to know what’s going on. I catch sight of Konstantin and his hard gaze meets mine for a moment before the door slams in my face.

Olivia looks pale and clammy like she might faint. I draw her to one side and we sit down on the carpet together.

“Do you really think they’re killing us in there?” she whispers.

Anything’s possible, but I don’t say that. “They want us alive. Konstantin wants to toy with us and turn a profit once he’s finished here. Dead women can’t make him any money.”

She seizes my hand and holds on tight. “I have to get home, Lilia. Ihaveto.”

“You will. You’ll be all right.”

Taking a shaky breath, she goes on, “It’s not me I’m worried about. Before I came to Italy, Mum was given four months to live. I told her I wouldn’t leave her side, but she insisted I keep working. She reasoned it was only for a few days and then I’d be home to tell her all about Milan and show her the photos of me on the catwalk. She wanted to be proud of me in her final days. I can’t imagine what she’s going through right now.”

My stomach plummets through the floor and a lump forms in my throat. Each and every one of these women have friends and family who are worrying themselves sick over their whereabouts.

Tears slip down her cheeks. “The worst thing is, this is not the first time this has happened to Mum. My big sister went missing two years ago. Just disappeared like she vanished into thin air. We never found out what happened to her.”

I stare at Olivia in shock. That something like this could happen to both daughters is terrible. Her mother must be distraught. “You’re going to get home to your family, I promise you that.”

Olivia nods quickly, blinking fast. “Yeah. We’re going to do it, Lilia. Screw these men, I believe in you.”

I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight.

“What about you?” she asks. “Who’s worrying about you, your father?”

“No one. And especially not him.”

We watch as the door opens and the next woman is dragged into the room.

“You have to tell me if there’s someone you love,” Olivia tells me. “They have to know what happened to you if…if…”

If I’m killed. I think about my grandmother. My mother’s mom. I even open my mouth to tell her aboutBabulyabut it’s too dangerous for Olivia. She might go looking for her and that will put her on a crash course with my father. Even though it makes my heart ache thatBabulyawill never know why I disappeared, I shake my head. “There’s no one. I have no one.”

“I’m sorry, Lilia. That’s really sad.”

We sit in silence while Daiyu and then Marija are summoned into the judging room, and I can tell we’re both wondering which one of us has it worse. That someone’s desperately missing Olivia, or that no one’s missing me.

There are no more gunshots, but it’s agony not knowing what’s going on in the judging room. I watch one woman disappear into that room after the next, a sick feeling growing in my belly. Will the men be covered in blood when I enter the room? Will I ever see these women alive again?

Finally, it’s my turn, and I walk in with my head held high and my shoulders back, determined to face whatever horrors await me like aPakhan’sdaughter should. Elyah is standing in the middle of the room holding a gun with a hard, hostile expression in his pale blue eyes. The scent of gunpowder hangs in the air.

Konstantin is settled back in his winged chair, a smile playing around his lips as he watches me search the room with my eyes for any clues about what happened to the other women. There are no bloodstains on the carpet. No blood on the men.

Elyah points to the hard wooden chair beside him. “Sit.”

I stay where I am. “What did you do to Alejandra? Did you hurt her?”

The fair-haired man towers over me, his expression cruel and gloating. He pushes the release on the barrel and swings it open, revealing an empty chamber. The bullet that was discharged while Alejandra was in the room. Digging in his pocket, he takes out another bullet and loads it into the cylinder, flips it closed, and spins it.

“I told you to sit. You are answering our questions, not the other way around.”

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