The Circle (29 page)

Now she’s sipping it but the caffeine isn’t kicking in. When she reaches the fairground she’s so tired she could lie down on the dance floor and go to sleep. And maybe she would have, if Linnéa hadn’t already been there. She looks even more tired than Minoo, sitting on the stage, writing in her diary. She’s wearing a dark blue down jacket that is several sizes too big and a far cry from her usual style.

Minoo walks up the steps into the pavilion. Linnéa doesn’t look up.

‘Hi,’ Minoo says.

‘Hi.’ Linnéa carries on writing.

Minoo drinks her coffee, forcing herself not to start babbling. Instead she leans quietly against the railing.

Not that it’s ever quiet inside Minoo’s head: to-do lists, obligations, possible and impossible scenarios play out constantly. And there’s always a stupid remark she made or some embarrassing thing she did to obsess about. Sometimes
she
contemplates embarrassing things she did a hundred years ago and is overwhelmed by shame. Like when she and her cousin Shirin were pretending that their Barbie and Ken dolls were having sex and Aunt Bahar came in. Shirin had said immediately it had been Minoo’s idea. Which it had. Bahar had laughed, but Minoo still wants to crawl under a stone every time she thinks of it.

Linnéa giggles suddenly.

‘What is it?’ Minoo asks.

‘You looked funny, that’s all.’

Minoo smiles hesitantly.

‘Is that coffee?’ Linnéa asks.

‘Do you want a sip?’ She walks over to Linnéa, who takes the mug and gulps. ‘Oops. I think I took the last of it,’ she says, smiling weakly.

‘That’s okay,’ Minoo answers.

Linnéa stuffs her notepad in one of her oversized jacket’s pockets. ‘This group’s starting to have a few too many people I hate. I don’t know how I’ll be able to listen to that woman without strangling her.’

Minoo doesn’t know how to respond.

The days after the meeting in the principal’s office have in some ways been the nicest for a long time. Finally they have someone to show them the way. She hasn’t had to brood over demons, and instead has been able to focus on doing her homework and pining for Max.

Minoo knows that Linnéa thinks the principal let Elias and Rebecka die, but she herself is not so sure. There must be reasons they don’t know about. She can’t believe that
anyone
would let two people die without intervening just because some rules have to be followed.

She wants to give the principal a chance. There is no alternative and she’s longing for knowledge. And she’s hoping that the principal will discover that Minoo, too, has a power.

‘Do you think you have a power you don’t know about?’ she asks Linnéa.

Linnéa meets her gaze. ‘Why? Do you?’

‘No. But I was thinking that since everyone else seems to … Have you felt anything?’

Linnéa’s eyes wander to the fairground entrance where Vanessa is arriving. She’s wearing a jacket that’s far too light, as if she doesn’t want to accept that winter’s set in. Vanessa probably thinks the seasons ought to adapt to her, not the other way around. Minoo smiles to herself.

‘Christ, I’ve got such a hangover.’ Vanessa groans, as she trudges on to the stage. When she catches sight of the Thermos mug, her eyes glint. ‘Is that coffee?’

‘It’s empty,’ Linnéa says.

Vanessa rolls her eyes. ‘Christ, what a wonderful fucking morning,’ she says, and sinks down next to Linnéa.

Minoo notices how close to each other they’re sitting. Perhaps they’re becoming friends.

‘Where’s Her Witchiness?’ Vanessa sticks a piece of gum into her mouth. ‘I thought she’d be waiting here, whip in hand.’

Linnéa giggles. She and Vanessa start talking about friends they have in common. Soon they’re completely
absorbed
in their conversation. It’s not that they’re shutting Minoo out, but they do nothing to include her. As usual she doesn’t know how to break in without sounding either like a precocious know-all, or an annoying younger sister.

Minoo sits on the dance floor and pulls out her biology book. She pretends to read, but all she can think is how much she misses Rebecka.

The bus shelter is built of red-painted corrugated iron. Someone had come up with the idea of painting small windows on it with a view of a garden. Later the word
SLUT
had appeared in black marker across the flowers. Anna-Karin has always felt it was directed at her.

Only two buses run past here on Saturdays, but the principal said she could pick her up. She hadn’t dared to refuse. The principal scares the shit out of her. She worries that Adriana Lopez will divine at a glance what she’s done to her mother.

She hasn’t slept a wink all night. As soon as she closed her eyes she saw the pot of boiling water and her mother’s hands. She certainly hadn’t meant her to get hurt. Of course not.

Most frightening of all, she’s not sure how her power influences her mother. In the beginning she used it so intensively that she lost control of it. It started to work on its own, like a snowball sent rolling down a slope. It’s the same with Julia, Felicia and the others at school, except Jari. She still has to use it actively on him.

An expensive-looking dark blue car is driving towards her.
The
principal is sitting behind the wheel. Anna-Karin’s insides twist, as if someone had grabbed them with a pair of pliers.

Pull yourself together, Anna-Karin.

The car pulls up to the kerb. Anna-Karin gets up and opens the passenger door.

‘Hello,’ the principal says, with a cool smile. ‘Sorry I’m late.’

‘That’s okay,’ Anna-Karin mumbles, and gets in.

‘I need to talk to you,’ the principal says, as she accelerates.

The pliers twist again. Anna-Karin can’t look at the principal so she stares out through the windscreen, at the grey sky, the black trees and the white road markers rushing past.

‘You are abusing your powers,’ the principal says, ‘as you’re well aware.’

‘I haven’t—’

‘It’s not a question. It’s a fact. There may be extenuating circumstances, since there was no one to guide you, but rules are rules. It’s my job to inform you that the Council has launched an investigation.’

‘An investigation?’

‘You’re committing a crime, Anna-Karin.’

Anna-Karin turns to her. She’s sitting there with her perfect profile, in her perfect winter coat, in her perfect car. She’s judging Anna-Karin.

‘You don’t understand anything, you and that Council.’

The principal lets out a long sigh. They drive in silence as
they
approach Engelsfors’s most exclusive area. The principal parks the car outside a big green house. ‘You haven’t been found guilty yet, but you have to stop immediately.’

‘I’ll do as I please.’ Part of Anna-Karin is fascinated by how rude she can be to someone who terrifies her.

The principal looks probingly at her. ‘Anna-Karin,’ she says. ‘Answer me honestly. Do you think you can stop?’

‘Of course. But I’m doing nothing wrong,’ she says stubbornly.

The principal scoffs. ‘We’ll talk more about this later,’ she says. ‘Here’s Ida.’

Anna-Karin sees a blonde figure hurrying towards them. She hunches in her seat and stares at her hands. She’s not going to let Ida see how frightened she is.

30

AT NINE THIRTY
they hear a car approaching, the gravel crunching under its tyres. Minoo puts away her biology book and gets up as a dark blue Mercedes pulls into the fairground.

As soon as the car stops, Anna-Karin climbs out and marches angrily towards the dance pavilion. She stands at a distance from the others, arms folded.

‘Hi,’ Minoo says, but Anna-Karin just stares at the floor.

‘Good morning,’ says the principal, who is walking towards them with Ida in tow.

Ida is clenching her teeth, so hard that Minoo wonders if she can still open her mouth at will.

‘Must have been a pleasant drive,’ Linnéa says.

Vanessa giggles, but Minoo is irritated. Can’t they take this seriously?

Adriana Lopez walks to the middle of the dance floor, her ankle-length winter coat sweeping around her feet. She’s wearing leather gloves and an elegant fur hat. Minoo thinks admiringly that she looks like a character in some nineteenth-century Russian novel. She’s holding a black leather bag that she sets down beside her.

‘I’m sorry I’m late,’ she says. Then she says to Ida, who has stopped on the steps leading up to the dance floor, ‘Step inside the circle.’

Minoo wonders what circle the principal is talking about. When she works it out, she’s annoyed at her own stupidity. The round dance floor is itself a circle.

Ida walks on to it with evident reluctance.

‘Let’s turn up the heat, shall we?’ the principal says. She glances at Vanessa and Linnéa. ‘I suggest you get off the stage.’

Linnéa and Vanessa get up slowly. Minoo decides they’re just as curious as she is, even if they’re trying to hide it.

The principal takes a little black cylinder, like a tube of lipstick, from her pocket and pulls off the top. When she draws a circle in the middle of the dance floor, Minoo recalls the symbols in her house. She tries to make eye contact with Vanessa, but she’s watching the principal.

Intensely focused, Adriana Lopez draws a symbol in the centre of the circle. When she straightens up she removes a few sticky white threads from the marker and puts the top back on.

‘What’s that?’ Vanessa asks.

‘Ectoplasm,’ the principal answers curtly.

Minoo wonders if that means any more to the others than it does to her.

The principal takes out a book. It has a worn black-leather cover and is the size of an ordinary paperback. She opens it and fishes out a shiny object she has hidden beneath her coat. It looks like a silver loupe and is attached to a long chain
that
she wears around her neck. She twists the loupe’s eyepiece, as you might adjust the focus on a pair of binoculars, and puts it to her eye.

Minoo is waiting for her to start incanting a spell, but she mumbles quietly to herself. At once a flame erupts inside the circle.

It’s no ordinary flame, shimmering in varying shades of blue from cobalt at the bottom to light sky blue. It takes Minoo a moment to grasp what makes the flame so eerie. It’s not that it’s blue, and is burning a few centimetres above the ground, but that it’s completely silent. After a few seconds she feels her face warming up.

The principal takes off her coat, hat and gloves and lays everything in a neat pile on the floor next to the railing. Underneath she has on a well-tailored dark grey suit.

Minoo also removes her outer garments and lays them on the floor. Now she notices that the air around the pavilion is glimmering. She cautiously reaches out her hand and meets a slight resistance, as if she’s touched an invisible membrane.

‘Try,’ the principal says.

Minoo turns. The principal nods at her encouragingly. Minoo reaches further – and breaks through the membrane. On the other side the air is cold.

‘An outer circle,’ the principal says, and makes a sweeping gesture around the circular dance floor, then she points towards the smaller circle where the flame is burning. ‘And an inner one. The outer circle binds. The inner circle holds the power source.’

‘What
is
the power source?’ Vanessa asks.

‘The symbol in the inner circle.’

‘But what kind of symbol is it?’

‘We’ll take it one step at a time. And you must trust me.’

‘Of course,’ Linnéa says ironically. ‘We’ll just get murdered in the meantime.’

‘I’ve already explained the situation to you. And there’s another issue that the Council has asked me to clarify.’

Minoo pulls out her notebook and the pen she always has with her. Yes, she’s a true nerd.

‘According to the prophecy, the Chosen One is supposed to be impossible for evil to trace, at least until the great battle is upon us. And that won’t be for several years. We thought you had some kind of magical protection, that you were immune to evil.’

‘You said the great battle won’t come for several years,’ Minoo says, taking notes. ‘How many?’

‘It’s unclear. At least two, but probably closer to ten, according to our calculations.’

‘So we could be facing Armageddon when we’re leaving school. Not much of an incentive to get good grades,’ Linnéa says.

‘This has nothing to do with the Biblical apocalypse,’ the principal says drily.

‘Can you tell us what we’re going to be fighting in this battle? Isn’t it about time we heard this prophecy?’ Vanessa urges.

‘It’s not that simple.’

‘Why did you bring us here if you’re not going to answer any questions?’ Linnéa asks.

‘That’s enough.’ The principal raises her hand. ‘Perhaps Nicolaus let you push him about, but you won’t get anywhere if you try it with me. I’m here to teach you to master and develop your powers, but you’re behaving like children. I can’t teach the fundamentals of magic to children.’