It was a small mirror, but strangely enough her whole body passed smoothly through it.

She looked around and realized she was back in the grand foyer of the castle.

Her heart was pounding, her arms and legs still covered in goosebumps. The top buttons on her shirt were ripped open.

The Wolf Queen was standing in front of her.

She was holding a small hand mirror, the size of the one Aki had just passed through. And it was shining, in rainbow colours.

‘Wolf Queen!’

Aki’s breathing was still ragged. Why had she made her mother’s mirror shine? She’d allowed her to come here, even when an adult had been around.

‘I had to step in. Because you were in a tight spot,’ the Wolf Queen said.

Aki knew the Wolf Queen had seen everything. The Wolf Queen cocked her head – not in her usual sneering way, but in the manner of a small girl.

‘You mean, you’d rather I didn’t help you?’

‘No.’ Aki shook her head. Over and over. ‘Not at all. Thank you, thank you, thank you.’

Now the tears came, flowing down her cheeks. Her body started to tremble. She reached out to hold the Wolf Queen’s hand. The Wolf Queen didn’t refuse it.

It was warm, and smooth, and tiny. Holding it made Aki feel as if she too could be pure and beautiful.

‘Can’t I … live here properly?’ Aki asked, shoulders heaving.

Her grandmother’s face misted over in the distance.

‘That’s completely impossible.’

The Wolf Queen had resumed her customary arrogance.

Aki gritted her teeth.

‘But I don’t want to go back …’

Spending every moment trying to avoid her stepfather, her friends, her school – she hated all of it.

I was always the best player on the volleyball team, she thought, and it irritated me to see the other girls just standing there. ‘Stop being so spaced out!’ I used to shout. Perhaps I overdid it a bit. We’d gather the younger, less experienced girls, and we older ones would surround them and demand they tell us exactly what the hell they thought they were doing.

Every club used to do it, and it wasn’t as if I was the only one, yet before I knew it those kids, and everyone else, were telling me they wouldn’t put up with my attitude.

My presence was destroying the volleyball team.

They told me I was a bully.

That wasn’t what I intended, and yet it turned out I was the one they wanted out. There was nothing for it but to leave the team.

‘That’s completely impossible,’ the Wolf Queen said again.

But she seemed to be keeping something back. She didn’t shake off Aki’s hand, but instead held it tightly. Which made Aki very happy.

AKI WAS CROUCHED ON THE SOFA in the Game Room.

And then – Kokoro walked in. She gazed at Aki as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She was staring at Aki’s school uniform.