The Key (60 page)

Anna-Karin looks at her, jaw clenched.

‘Promise!’

‘All right,’ Anna-Karin agrees.

Linnéa nods. She looks very tired again.

Minoo realises how much she’d like to be in the courtroom and how bad she will feel about not being there. What Walter said isn’t true. It wouldn’t be ‘just to sit’.

Suddenly, she longs to be back with the others. She so much wishes that she has been wrong.

She releases a wisp of the black smoke.

She hasn’t only studied the Council’s circle. On the few occasions she has been with the Chosen Ones, she has studied them as well. And now she confirms her observations. While the members of the Council’s circle have become stronger, the Chosen Ones have not. On the contrary, they even seem to have weakened.

It doesn’t matter that they’re her friends. That she even loves them. She can’t ignore the facts.

‘What’s the matter, Minoo?’ Anna-Karin asks.

Instantly, Minoo pulls the smoke back. She tells them that she has a chance to look over Adriana’s room tomorrow, but withholds everything about Viktor and Clara.

Linnéa reacts exactly as expected.

‘You must go for the box,’ she says.

The box.

If Minoo finds it tomorrow, she will examine it and tell the other Chosen Ones what she has seen. But that will be the last thing she does for them. They won’t understand, but she can’t ignore what she has observed. She knows that deep inside her.

The Council’s circle is the strongest. They are the ones who must close the portal. And she must hand the skull and the cross over to Walter.

‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ Anna-Karin says, and goes downstairs.

Minoo looks at Linnéa and wonders if they ought to talk about the row in Kärrgruvan. But it seems so unimportant now.

‘I heard about the caves,’ she says instead. ‘Such a shame that you didn’t find anything.’

‘Yeah,’ Linnéa says. ‘It was pretty much a waste of time.’

She looks sad.

‘I really wanted to be in court with you tomorrow, I want you to know that,’ Minoo tells her.

‘I know,’ Linnéa replies. ‘I wish you could’ve.’

She sounds as if she genuinely means it. Minoo wishes that they could stay together in this moment and escape all the looming betrayals.

* * *

Anna-Karin watches the kettle. The burbling noise of simmering water gets louder.

Linnéa is right. She shouldn’t have to worry about Anna-Karin tomorrow.

Which is why Anna-Karin will do it without telling her.

She’ll do it not only for Linnéa’s sake, but for her own. And Elias’s. She wants to act on behalf of all those who have been tormented by Erik and Robin, year after year and day after day. Now there is hope of exposing them and making sure that they’re punished. Anna-Karin can’t let this opportunity pass.

Alexander will surely sense the magic. She would be deceiving herself if she thought otherwise. But he will not use his own magic in the courtroom. That would mean breaking the council’s rules. Any consequences will come afterwards. And she will be ready for him.

Time to oppose the Council, once and for all. The Chosen Ones are powerful witches; they are not helpless. Together, they will find a way to gain victory over the Council again.

The kettle vibrates as the water starts boiling.

Anna-Karin taps in a number on her mobile.

Vanessa opens the chest of drawers in the hall, finds a pair of thick socks and pulls them on. When she and Evelina came home from the caves, she fell asleep under double duvets. Despite that, and a long hot shower, the raw, chilly damp remains in her bones.

She goes into the kitchen, sits down at the table and pulls the hood up on her bulky grey hoodie.

‘Why are you hiding inside that thing?’ Mum asks.

‘I think I’m catching a cold.’

The water is running in the bathroom where Evelina is having a shower.

It had felt absurd having to pretend to Gustaf that they hadn’t found anything today. As soon as he and Rickard left the tunnels, Vanessa and Evelina went to have a look at the cave that seemed to be an anteroom to the portal. Vanessa felt panic rising when she saw the signs of the elements and the glowing circles. She panicked because they don’t know what to do next. And because they’re supposed to keep all this a secret from Minoo.

Vanessa wishes she could feel as convinced as the others that the Council’s circle shouldn’t close the portal. She can’t get away from the possibility that Minoo might be right. Minoo is the only one with a direct link to the guardians. And the only one who knows the witches in both circles and has observed their magic.

Mum pours boiling water into the teapot. The fragrant scent of vanilla and flowers fills the kitchen. She sits down and pushes the jar of honey towards Vanessa.

‘It’s terrific against a cold,’ she says. ‘Boosts the immune system. I’ll buy you some echinacea as well.’

The light in the ceiling fizzes, goes out, and comes on again. Their Alsatian, Frasse, who is lying under the table, moans a little in his sleep. Vanessa can’t wait for the tea to infuse, she needs warming up from inside. She spoons honey into her mug and pours tea on top.

‘I had almost forgotten how Evelina loves to shower,’ Mum says.

Vanessa smiles a little wearily and Mum laughs.

‘Do you remember when Nicke “fixed” the shower?’

She shakes her head and laughs again, but somehow looks sad at the same time. Vanessa suspects that they are both thinking about when Vanessa moved out to live with Wille and Sirpa. She and her mother didn’t speak for several months. Vanessa learnt later that Mum had phoned Sirpa daily to ask if her daughter was all right.

She simply can’t get her head round everything that’s happened since then. How many changes there have been. How much
she
has changed. And Mum, too.

‘You know, Nessa,’ Mum says, twirling a teaspoon round and round. ‘There are times when it’s hard to comprehend that you are almost a grown-up. Soon, you’ll move out, perhaps even leave Engelsfors and … you know, I’m so glad that we’re getting on so well now. That the difficult times are behind us.’

‘I was thinking of that, too.’

Mum smiles at her and seems almost embarrassed. She puts the teaspoon down.

‘Have you talked to Linnéa lately?’ she asks.

‘No.’

‘Maybe things will be easier for you once this dreadful trial is over.’

‘Mum, it’s over between us.’

Vanessa’s mobile rings in the pocket of her hoodie. It’s Anna-Karin.

‘I have to take this,’ she says, getting up.

She answers in her room. And stops in the middle of the floor. She feels as if a black hole is opening up to swallow her while Anna-Karin tells her what has happened.

‘Vanessa, are you still there?’

Vanessa looks at herself in the mirror and meets her own shocked eyes.

‘Yes, I am.’

‘Linnéa made me promise not to do anything to Robin,’ Anna-Karin whispers. ‘She said the risk was too great. But if one of us had been in trouble, Linnéa wouldn’t have given a shit for the Council and its threats. She would’ve done whatever she could anyway. Isn’t that right?’

‘Yes, that’s exactly what she would’ve done,’ Vanessa says.

It’s the truth and she can’t believe that Linnéa doesn’t see it.

‘But you mustn’t act on your own,’ Vanessa continues. ‘I’ll help you.’

‘That’s why I phoned,’ Anna-Karin says, sounding relieved. ‘I don’t know how strong my magic will be in Västerås.’

Evelina comes in, wrapped in Vanessa’s old dressing gown, and starts to dress.

‘If you hadn’t asked me, I’d never have forgiven you,’ Vanessa says.

Evelina looks inquisitive.

‘We won’t tell anyone, will we?’ Anna-Karin asks.

‘I must tell Evelina,’ Vanessa says, and Evelina looks even more curious. ‘How is Linnéa?’

‘Better,’ Anna-Karin says.

In her mind, Vanessa has a clear picture of Linnéa. She knows precisely how brave she’ll pretend to be. And how frightened she is. All Vanessa’s anger towards her suddenly feels meaningless. She only feels love. She must see Linnéa, must hold her in her arms.

‘I’m coming over,’ she says.

‘No, you mustn’t,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘She didn’t even want me to phone you …’

Vanessa ends the call and pockets the mobile.

‘What’s up?’ Evelina asks.

Vanessa tells her and, while she talks, she becomes even more certain. She must go to Linnéa. This instant.

‘I’m off to Minoo’s,’ she says.

‘No, Nessa. It’s a bad idea.’

‘But I have to.’

Evelina shakes her head. Then she goes to the door and stands in front of it.

‘Move over,’ Vanessa says. ‘Linnéa needs me.’

‘I’m sure she does, but tonight you must let her decide.’

‘No. I don’t want to.’

It is a Melvin-style argument.
Don’t want to
. And, just like Melvin, she would like to lie down on the floor and scream and cry and hit out and kick the floor.

‘I’ve got to get out of here,’ Vanessa says.

‘Fine,’ Evelina says. ‘We’ll walk. Anywhere, but
not
to see Linnéa.’

They walk through Engelsfors.

Frasse pulls at his lead, nosy and eager to pee on every bush, lamppost, electrical box and fence.

Above them, the moon glows and the stars glitter in a clear sky.

Many of the stars are dead, extinguished millions of years ago. Vanessa thinks about the demons’ earlier experiments on other worlds. Experiments that have all ended the same way.

Complete extinction of all living things on the planet. In a dead world, nothing is left to offend the demons’ sense of order
.

In the empty, dark shop windows of long-since bankrupt shops, Vanessa can see her own and Evelina’s images. Ghosts in a ghost town. Nobody has moved into Anna-Karin’s old flat. There is no light on in any of the windows in the building. And the old centre for Positive Engelsfors is still abandoned.

Suddenly, Vanessa’s arm is forced back. The tug is so strong it feels as if her arm is about to be twisted out of its socket. She turns and stares at Frasse, who has stopped cold at the wall of a house and is sniffing it noisily.

‘Come on, how interesting can it be?’ Vanessa sighs.

Right now, she detests him. It’s like all her frustration focuses on his block-headed doggyness.

‘Please, you take him for a while,’ she says. She hands the lead to Evelina.

Evelina is right, she knows that. She has already texted Anna-Karin to say she won’t come tonight. But she must get in touch with Linnéa.

She makes a few attempts at texting, but it’s difficult to express everything she wants to say. In the end, she just sticks to the basic truth.

ANNA-KARIN TOLD ME. I’M HERE IF YOU NEED ME
.

Vanessa puts the mobile away and takes over the lead. She glances at Evelina. Her best friend.

Perhaps everything would have worked out differently if only Linnéa also had friends to talk to. Friends who would have told her at times that she behaved like an idiot.

‘Do you think she’ll answer?’ Evelina asks.

‘No, she won’t, which might be just as well,’ Vanessa says. ‘It was stupid of us to get together in the first place.’

She doesn’t mean it, of course. Nothing will ever make her regret Linnéa. She will never stop loving her, even if she can’t be with her.

The window of what used to be Café Monique is covered in graffiti – mostly swastikas and spraying cocks. Where there once was an outdoor part of the café, a man in blue overalls stands, involved in a lively discussion with himself. He slaps himself, first once, then again. Frasse whines. Vanessa and Evelina speed up. But the man doesn’t notice them; he is immersed in the drama inside his head.

‘Do you mind if we walk for a little longer?’ Vanessa asks. ‘It would be good if Mum was asleep when we get back.’

They leave the centre of town behind them and walk on.

Now and then, Vanessa checks her mobile in case she has somehow missed a text or a call, even though it is set to maximum volume.

‘Please, say something, anything, to make me think about something else,’ she says.

‘Okay,’ Evelina says. ‘I think Rickard is really hot.’

Vanessa sniggers a little. ‘I never thought he’d be your type.’

‘But there’s something really sexy about him. Terrific body, for a start.’

‘And when did you just happen to notice?’

‘Once when he pulled his sweater off and his T-shirt came up with it. He has a six-pack. You can see all the lines, you know.’

Vanessa laughs, a little too loudly, just because it feels so good to laugh. They have reached the fence surrounding the yard of Engelsfors senior school.

Frasse starts growling.

‘Now what’s your problem?’ Vanessa asks.

‘Shit … Nessa, look.’ Evelina points to the sky.

Vanessa looks. And catches her breath.

The sky above the school undulates and glows in an intense shade of green, as if painted with sweeping strokes of a giant paintbrush dipped in a shining, phosphorescent colour.

Northern lights.

The pattern of light is like a fan with the school at its centre.

Vanessa and Evelina walk through the gates and stop in the schoolyard.

The green veils in the sky are drifting and billowing.

Vanessa feels every hair on her body standing on end. It’s the sensation you get when you walk across a carpet-covered floor until your body is so charged with static electricity that, when you touch something, you know you will get a shock and it will
hurt
.

‘Don’t northern lights have something to do with electricity?’ Vanessa says. ‘Like, magnetic particles in the air?’

‘I’ll check,’ Evelina says, opening her mobile. ‘Shit, there’s no signal.’

Vanessa looks at her phone.

‘I’m not connected either,’ she says, thinking that this is no coincidence. ‘It must be the metal element that’s gone live.’

She remembers the cave under the school and thinks that the sign for metal must be lit up now. Only three elemental signs to go.

When darkness falls I will open
.

‘Are you sure that you want to be in on all this?’ Vanessa asks. ‘I mean, closing the portal with us, even though we have no clue how to do it?’