diff --git a/iterator.go b/iterator.go
index b3e1f3be39..280d9237b9 100644
--- a/iterator.go
+++ b/iterator.go
@@ -210,6 +210,16 @@ type iteratorRangeKeyState struct {
 	buf []byte
 }
 
+// isEphemeralPosition returns true iff the current iterator position is
+// ephemeral, and won't be visited during subsequent relative positioning
+// operations.
+//
+// The iterator position resulting from a SeekGE or SeekPrefixGE that lands on a
+// straddling range key without a coincident point key is such a position.
+func (i *Iterator) isEphemeralPosition() bool {
+	return i.rangeKey != nil && i.rangeKey.rangeKeyOnly && !i.equal(i.rangeKey.start, i.key)
+}
+
 type lastPositioningOpKind int8
 
 const (
@@ -1269,8 +1279,24 @@ func (i *Iterator) PrevWithLimit(limit []byte) IterValidityState {
 		// Already at the right place.
 	}
 	if i.pos == iterPosCurForward || i.pos == iterPosNext || i.pos == iterPosCurForwardPaused {
-		stepAgain := i.pos == iterPosNext
 		// Switching direction.
+		stepAgain := i.pos == iterPosNext
+
+		// Synthetic range key markers are a special case. Consider SeekGE(b)
+		// which finds a range key [a, c). To ensure the user observes the range
+		// key, the Iterator pauses at Key() = b. The iterator must advance the
+		// internal iterator to see if there's also a coincident point key at
+		// 'b', leaving the iterator at iterPosNext if there's not.
+		//
+		// This is a problem: Synthetic range key markers are only interleaved
+		// during the original seek. A subsequent Prev() of i.iter will not move
+		// back onto the synthetic range key marker. In this case where the
+		// previous iterator position was a synthetic range key start boundary,
+		// we must not step a second time.
+		if i.isEphemeralPosition() {
+			stepAgain = false
+		}
+
 		// We set i.iterValidityState to IterExhausted here to force the calls
 		// to prevUserKey to save the current key i.iter is pointing at in
 		// order to determine when the prev user-key is reached.
diff --git a/testdata/rangekeys b/testdata/rangekeys
index c80678d43a..98eb0bce45 100644
--- a/testdata/rangekeys
+++ b/testdata/rangekeys
@@ -571,3 +571,28 @@ c: (c, .)
 cat: (., [cat-e) @3=bax)
 d: (d, [cat-e) @3=bax)
 .
+
+# Test Prev-ing back over a synthetic range key marker. Synthetic range-key
+# markers (the keys interleaved at 'c' during a SeekGE(c) when there's a
+# straddling range key) are ephemeral, and Prev-ing back must move back the
+# appropriate number of times.
+
+reset
+----
+
+batch
+set a a
+range-key-set b e @1 foo
+----
+wrote 2 keys
+
+combined-iter
+seek-ge b
+prev
+seek-ge c
+prev
+----
+b: (., [b-e) @1=foo)
+a: (a, .)
+c: (., [b-e) @1=foo)
+b: (., [b-e) @1=foo)