Ivan is back in Zorya a hero, or so it should feel. The Firebird is caged, his village is saved, and his brothers finally see him as something more than the dimwit who tends the horses. But victory has a cost. On the other side of the portal, in a world of yoga studios and talking horses, Lisa is waiting. And the magic mirror that connects them is a poor substitute for the real thing.

Before Ivan can find his way back to her, Zorya has other plans. A new quest pulls him deep into the heart of the kingdom, into the shadow of Gorynych, a fire-breathing dragon with a stranglehold on the tsar's court, a taste for power, and eyes on the portal itself. Ivan's only ally is Grayson, a gray wolf who carries secrets of his own.

But the greatest danger isn't the dragon. It's the growing distance between two people who belong to different worlds, and the question neither of them can answer: how long can love survive across the impossible divide?