The Key (52 page)

‘Err, Nessa …’ She points.

Vanessa looks down. She is floating a couple of centimetres above the ground.

‘Oops,’ she says. ‘That’s new.’

She lands again, the soles of her shoes touching down softly on the tarmac. And she feels thrilled, in the middle of everything else, because she remembers flying in her dreams.

She looks back at Evelina.

‘Would you like to come to my place tonight and I’ll explain everything to you? I must go and find the others now, and tell them about this.’

‘
We
,’ Evelina tells her. ‘
We
must go and find the others.’

‘Evelina …’

‘
What?
’

Vanessa realises that she doesn’t even want to try and stop her. ‘Let’s go,’ she says.

On the way back to the school, they catch a glimpse of Liam. He is being carried out on a stretcher and looks embarrassed by all the fuss.

The changing room is empty. Vanessa takes her mobile from the locker. There’s a text from Michelle to say that she had to go but Vanessa
must
phone her and tell her what happened. There are seven missed calls from Anna-Karin and three texts saying that Vanessa has to come along to the fairground because something has happened.

That’s an understatement, Vanessa thinks. She pulls her sweater on and waits while Evelina clears out her locker.

‘Fuck, I’m starving!’ Evelina pulls a bar of chocolate from her bag. ‘I’m so hungry it hurts.’

‘At first, it was like that for us, too,’ Vanessa says. ‘It’s the magic—’

The changing-room door opens and Lollo runs in with her whistle bouncing against her chest.

‘For heaven’s sake, what happened in there?’ she asks. ‘You must tell me exactly. And if Tommy doesn’t listen to me this time, I’ll go straight to the
Engelsfors Herald
.’

‘I don’t know what happened,’ Vanessa says. She starts pulling Evelina towards the exit. ‘Everything was shaking.’

‘Yes, that’s exactly it.’ Evelina says, before gobbling up the last of the chocolate. ‘It was like a small earthquake. Or something.’

Lollo calls after them, but they run upstairs together. As they emerge outside, the ambulance is driving away with Liam. Groups of pupils are standing about and talking excitedly.

Vanessa and Evelina push through the crowd. As they get outside the gates, they see Rickard and Gustaf. The self-appointed sidekicks of the Chosen Ones.

‘What are you doing here?’ Vanessa asks. She carries on walking with Evelina.

The boys follow them.

‘We were nearby and saw the ambulance going towards the school,’ Gustaf says.

‘The guy on the stretcher said there’s a ghost in the gym,’ Rickard adds.

Vanessa sighs. Stops and checks that nobody else is close enough to hear her.

‘It was magic,’ she says quietly. She doesn’t want to make a big thing of it, since Evelina hasn’t heard about the apocalypse. Not yet.

‘What’s this?’ Evelina asks. ‘Do these guys know too? Are they also witches?’

Gustaf and Rickard look baffled. And then all three of them stare at Vanessa.

She has no resistance left. What does it matter? All the old rules have ceased to be valid. If they want to be part of this so badly, they might as well be part of it all the way.

‘Whatever,’ she says. ‘Come on. I’ll explain everything while we walk. Just as well it’s quite a way to Kärrgruvan.’

‘To where?’ Evelina asks. She looks confused.

Vanessa sighs again.

‘Like I said. I’ll explain.’

Minoo walks under the arched portal bearing the name
KÄRRGRUVAN
, then past the old ticket booth with a board nailed across the hatch.

Someone stands near the dance pavilion.

Nicolaus.

He turns towards her and, suddenly, the memory of the night of the blood-red moon is so strong that she has to stop. Two years have passed since then. In comparison with the centuries that Nicolaus has lived through, two years are nothing. But, to her, they feel like a lifetime.

‘Good day,’ says Nicolaus.

‘Hi.’

They walk together up the few steps to the dance floor. The fox is curled up on the floor. Anna-Karin is on her way.

Minoo sits down on the stage. Nicolaus goes over to the railing and looks out over the park. A gust of wind stirs up a cloud of dust from the gravelled yard.

‘What are you thinking about?’ Minoo asks.

‘I’m trying to remember … but everything looks so different now and it was such a long time ago … I don’t know where I …’

He stops speaking and turns to Minoo. His eyes are shining with tears. She understands.

‘You wonder where you buried Matilda,’ she says.

Nicolaus only nods.

‘I can help you to remember.’

‘Thank you,’ he replies quietly. ‘Another time.’

Minoo looks at the fox, who observes them both with his amber eyes. She wonders if Anna-Karin is looking through them just now as well; if she is listening through the fox’s ears.

‘I have been thinking about when you met Matilda in the dream,’ Nicolaus says. ‘Specifically, what she said about the guardians making her give up her powers.’

Minoo realises that it was only yesterday that Nicolaus learnt
why
Matilda let her powers go. After all these centuries, he finally knows.

‘Do you think the guardians knew what would happen?’ he wonders. ‘Did they know what it would cost her, once the Council had found out what she had done?’

‘I don’t think so, listening to Matilda. They probably didn’t know.’

Nicolaus nods, a distant look on his face.

‘But if the guardians knew …’ he goes on. ‘The fate of the world was at stake. The world balanced against my daughter’s life. The world against Elias’s life. Against Rebecka’s. Against Ida’s.’

The wind is whispering in the trees around Kärrgruvan.

‘Every day, people die. Every moment,’ he continues quietly. ‘Right now, someone passes away quietly in his sleep. Right now, someone bleeds to death in childbirth. Right now, someone is hit by a bullet. Lives are taken all the time. If you must choose between sacrificing one human being and letting the world go under …’ He stands in silence, his hands resting on the railing. ‘I know that you’re trying to be rational. But, Minoo … The guardians themselves will say that they’re not all-knowing and all-seeing. Which means that they gamble with people’s lives. One life is a small matter. And yet it is everything.’

What Nicolaus is saying both frightens her and makes her furious.

‘What are you trying to say?’ she asks. ‘That the situation isn’t black and white? That the guardians aren’t good through and through? Or entirely trustworthy? I know that already. But eventually one reaches a point at which one must stop messing around and decide what to believe in.’

Nicolaus looks thoughtfully at her.

‘Maybe so,’ he says. ‘But some things
must
be difficult. They are
supposed
to be difficult. If we switch off our doubts and our emotions and excuse ourselves by insisting that we are acting rationally … that is when we make some of our most dangerous decisions.’

‘You do not agree with the opposite argument, then?’ Minoo says. ‘That to allow yourself to be ruled entirely by your emotions is dangerous?’

‘Yes, I do.’ Nicolaus looks towards the park entrance, where Linnéa is coming towards them. ‘I do indeed.’

Linnéa’s boots clump up the steps and across the wooden dance floor. She only mumbles a reply to Nicolaus’s greeting, then leans against the railing and lights a cigarette.

Seeing what kind of mood Linnéa is in, Minoo wishes that she didn’t have to tell her about Olivia now. But Olivia used to be Linnéa’s friend, and that’s why she will probably go for Linnéa first of all.

‘I must tell you something.’ Minoo turns to her. ‘Olivia has been held by the Council. Until now. She has escaped.’

She waits for Linnéa to speak. She doesn’t.

‘I expect she’ll be on her way here then,’ Nicolaus says.

‘So do I,’ Minoo agrees.

The fox runs along to the edge of the stage and barks once. Minoo looks at the entrance and sees Anna-Karin. The knees on her jeans have large, dirty patches.

‘Sorry I’m late,’ she says breathlessly when she walks up the steps. ‘It was further than I thought, somehow. But I heard what you said about Olivia. Well, the fox heard.’

Minoo glances at Linnéa again. She still seems utterly unmoved. Blows out a cloud of smoke.

‘Linnéa?’ Minoo asks.

‘Honestly, I really don’t want to talk about this,’ Linnéa says.

Minoo exchanges a quick glance with Anna-Karin, who sits down next to her on the stage. She hopes Vanessa will be here soon so they can talk it through and she can finally go home.

* * *

Linnéa lights her fourth cigarette, even though she feels slightly sick, and even though she can’t afford a new pack. She tries to avoid looking at Nicolaus, who has gone to sit next to Anna-Karin, and tries even harder to avoid looking at Minoo and Anna-Karin, who are both nervously fiddling with their mobiles. Only the fox seems relaxed. He is lying at Anna-Karin’s feet, snoozing, his eyes half shut.

Linnéa drags on her cigarette and waits for what happened with Dad to really sink in. She expects it will hit her like a sledgehammer some time soon.

She wants nothing more in the world than to see Vanessa come walking down the gravelled track, to see her smile and realise that all is well again and all the problems out of the way. That Vanessa has forgiven and forgotten all the unforgivable things Linnéa said yesterday.

But she knows it won’t be like that.

The real question is, how bad will it be?

Already, she sees the abyss opening. And now it seems that Olivia is on her way back to Engelsfors to kill them all, and take their souls and their powers.

Linnéa feels Vanessa’s energy coming closer. She straightens up and looks towards the entrance. And can hardly take in what she sees.

Vanessa isn’t alone. That Gustaf and Rickard have come along maybe isn’t so strange, but …

‘Why is she bringing Evelina?’ Minoo asks.

Linnéa’s heart is beating hard now. She wants to know what this means. Now.

‘I don’t get it. How can the whole town
forget
that this place exists?’ she hears Evelina say as they cross the open space next to the pavilion.

‘Hi, everyone!’ Vanessa calls out. ‘I should’ve called and warned you, but I had such a lot of things to tell Evelina on the way. She’s also a witch by the way.’

Her voice sounds light and happy. And Linnéa understands how good it must feel to finally be able to tell the real story. Perhaps what went on yesterday doesn’t matter any more; perhaps she isn’t angry any more.

Then Vanessa meets her eyes.

And she has obviously forgotten nothing.

* * *

Minoo watches the quartet stepping up to the dance floor. That Gustaf is here seems so unreal to her that she can hardly take in what Vanessa has been saying.

Vanessa stops in the middle of the floor, with Evelina next to her, while Gustaf and Rickard sit down next to Minoo.

‘Hi,’ Gustaf says. Their knees touch lightly.

That fleeting touch is enough to make her feel faint all over, rather like earlier today when she looked at Viktor. The difference is that, this time, the feeling is her own.

‘Hi, Gustaf.’

‘How did you make this discovery?’ Nicolaus asks Vanessa. ‘How did you find out that Evelina is a witch?’

‘The fire element went crazy in the gym,’ Vanessa says. ‘I’m sure it was the first portent. And that was when Evelina’s powers kicked in. Telekinesis.’

Just like Rebecka, Minoo thinks.

Almost two years have passed since Rebecka sat here and told Minoo how she wished she could tell Gustaf the truth about herself and the others.

Now he knows.

Now he sits here himself.

That is what Rebecka wished for and Minoo is the one who gets to experience it. It is so unfair. And yet, at the same time, she is so happy that he is here.

‘But … the sun went dark only yesterday,’ Anna-Karin asks. ‘How can the first portent manifest itself already?’

‘If the apocalypse keeps advancing at this pace, we must be ready to close the portal in five days,’ Vanessa says.

‘It will take longer,’ Minoo tells her.

Everyone looks at her.

‘How do you know that?’ Linnéa asks. ‘Did
Walter
say so?’

Minoo is determined not to get angry. She doesn’t want to give Linnéa the satisfaction. Especially not in front of Gustaf, Rickard and Evelina.

‘No. It’s just what I think.’

She can’t explain how she can feel so certain. It’s the same kind of feeling as when she stood in front of Elias’s and Rebecka’s graves in the cemetery and
knew
that they were where they should be.

‘Sorry, but I just have to ask,’ Evelina says. She points at Nicolaus. ‘You used to be the school caretaker, didn’t you? And that’s not a dog, right? It’s a
fox
?’

‘Yes, he was the caretaker and, yes, that’s a fox and, yes, there’s still quite a lot I must tell you about,’ Vanessa says.

‘It’s probably just as well I don’t get told everything in one go,’ Evelina reflects. ‘My brain is close to meltdown.’

She looks at the others.

‘I don’t think I’ve got my head round this apocalypse thing yet. But we’re witches … we’re like … superheroes. Isn’t that pretty fucking awesome? You must have done so much cool stuff!’

Minoo feels caught out, somehow. She wonders if the others feel the same. For Evelina is right, in a way. But in this group, they have never talked about magic as something positive because, right from the beginning, it has always been linked to the end of the world and other dangers. It makes her think about what Walter said in the manor house earlier today.

‘Like, right before we went here, Vanessa started to float!’ Evelina continues.

‘Yeah,’ Vanessa smiles. ‘That
was
cool.’

‘Maybe you won’t think it quite so cool that Olivia has escaped and is on her way,’ Linnéa says.

Total silence. Vanessa stares at Linnéa, who puffs on her cigarette and refuses to look at anyone.