The Key (72 page)

Sparks fly around Olivia’s hands. Before she has time to create full-scale flashes of lightning, Vanessa leaps at her and shoves her up against the wall between the windows. Olivia is flailing wildly, but Vanessa grips her wrists and presses them against the wall, ignoring the pain from her own hand.

Olivia screams, then head-butts Vanessa.

A wave of pain and the world goes black. She hears Linnéa call her name, but isn’t sure if Linnéa is in the flat or only projecting thoughts. Something wet is pouring into her left eye and obscuring her vision. Blood.

Olivia takes hold of Vanessa’s shoulders and swings her round towards the window opening. The windowsill is pressing into the small of Vanessa’s back. She tries to fight and releases her power, but she is too dazed and her magic is too strong. The howling wind comes at both of them and tears at their clothes and hair. The blood is pouring over Vanessa’s face. She tries to push Olivia away, but Olivia won’t let go. Her fingers dig into Vanessa’s upper arms as she presses her towards the window.

Then, suddenly, Vanessa knows that she will fall.

Her feet leave the ground.

The wind tears them both out into the cold night, into the still-falling snow.

* * *

Linnéa enters just in time to see the storm wind heave them out through the window.

A second of stillness follows.

Then there is a heavy thud far below. The hall and kitchen lights come on again. The snowflakes blowing in through the window melt as soon as they land on the floor.

And then Linnéa sees first Vanessa’s blonde hair and then her bloodstained face as she hovers in the air outside.

Minoo is woken by a sudden sense of panic. Gustaf is not in bed with her. She grabs his phone from the bedside table and checks the time.

Only ten minutes to go. How could she
fall asleep
?

Gustaf comes in with a towel around his hips. His hair is damp and there is a smell of soap around him. He smiles when he sees her awake.

She loves him so much. And what she will do now will hurt terribly.

‘I could kill for something to eat,’ he says. ‘Fancy a cheese toastie? It’s the only thing I can offer, I’m afraid.’

‘I’m sorry, but I have to go.’

She can’t bear even to look at him as she gathers up her clothes, goes to the bathroom and gets ready. When she returns he is sitting on the bed. The silence weighs heavily on them both.

‘I truly want to stay,’ Minoo says in the end. ‘But I can’t.’

‘I know,’ Gustaf says.

He gets up and comes over to kiss her. She kisses him, too, but all she can think about is that this might be the last time. Their last kiss, ever.

‘I’ll come downstairs with you,’ Gustaf says.

She puts on her shoes and jacket, then takes an envelope from her jacket pocket and hands it to him.

‘What’s this?’ he asks.

‘It will explain everything,’ she says. ‘Please try to make the others understand.’

Before he has time to do or say anything else, she runs outside. Into a shimmering whiteness, a world covered in snow.

‘Minoo!’ Gustaf cries.

Walter’s car moves smoothly along and stops. She runs towards it. The last thing she hears before shutting the door is Gustaf calling her name once more.

* * *

Anna-Karin had almost forgotten how much she hates the hospital. Now and then, she has to be in touch with the fox. He is padding through the snowfall in the forest. Being with him reminds her that there are places where the smells don’t make her think of illness and death.

There are four beds in the room, and three of them are empty. Jannike lies in the fourth and Vanessa sits on the edge of the bed, holding her mum’s hand. Her other hand is swollen, she has a large plaster over her left eyebrow and her white sweater is soaked in blood. Mother and daughter are both in tears.

Jannike recovered a little on the way to the hospital. She has been examined, declared in good shape, but is kept in for observation.

‘Poor Frasse,’ Jannike says, snivelling with each breath.

She is so beautiful, still so young. She could almost be Vanessa’s older sister. And it’s obvious that she and Vanessa love each other.

‘I don’t get it,’ Jannike continues. ‘Who was she? She said she was a mate of yours.’

‘She wasn’t,’ Vanessa says.

‘The whole business is so mixed up in my mind; things went black and … she must have hit me. And then you turned up, Nessa. I was so scared. I must have blacked out. I dreamt things …’

She falls silent and looks anxious.

She saw Olivia’s magic
, Linnéa thinks.
But of course she can’t believe what she saw
.

‘Everything will be all right,’ Vanessa says.

Anna-Karin wishes they could tell Jannike the truth so she doesn’t have to worry about hallucinating. But the truth would be even more upsetting.

Nicke comes in, together with a woman police officer with short dark hair. Both look uncomfortable when they see Vanessa and Jannike. And Nicke looks more uncomfortable still when he realises that Linnéa is with them.

‘Christ,’ he says, and turns back to Jannike. ‘I had no idea it was you two who … This is one hell of a chaotic evening. How are you?’

He glances at Vanessa’s bloodied sweater.

‘We’ll live,’ Jannike says crossly. ‘Where’s Melvin?’

‘With my mam,’ Nicke says. ‘All police have been called in. It’s this effing weather that’s buggered it up. Nobody has changed to winter tyres yet. And the communication … I don’t know what we would have done without the police radio … I wonder sometimes what’s going on in this town.’

‘That’s what you keep saying,’ Jannike says. ‘Hi, Paula.’

‘Hi,’ she replies.

Nicke clears his throat. Paula shifts from one foot to the other. The snow on their uniform jacket is melting and dripping on the floor.

‘Sorry, but I think you must be Linnéa Wallin?’ Paula says, looking at Linnéa. ‘I just want to say congratulations. It was good news that those lads got punished. It usually doesn’t turn out that way.’

‘No,’ Linnéa says, with a glance at Anna-Karin that warms her heart. ‘It usually doesn’t.’

‘Good thing that they confessed,’ Vanessa says. ‘If they hadn’t, Linnéa wouldn’t have had a chance. Right, Nicke? I seem to remember that you didn’t even believe that there had been a break-in.’

‘You know, Nicke, I think you owe Linnéa an apology,’ Jannike says.

She and Vanessa stare at him. He seems so ill at ease that Anna-Karin has to stifle a smile.

‘It’s possible that the case could’ve been handled differently,’ Nicke says. ‘Though it’s a fact that these two lied to me. And that the boys had alibis.’

‘Is that all you’ve got to say?’ Jannike asks.

‘We’re here to talk about you.’ Nicke produces a notepad and a chewed pencil. ‘Vanessa, we’ll want to talk to you as well later on.’

‘We’ll go away for now.’ Vanessa gives Jannike a kiss on the cheek.

‘Bye, Jannike,’ Linnéa says.

‘You take care, sweetheart.’ Jannike looks close to tears again. ‘I’m very, very happy for you.’

Linnéa nods and leaves the room quickly with Vanessa just behind her. Anna-Karin waves to Jannike and as soon as she turns her back, Nicke starts to speak.

‘Now, tell me what happened, from the beginning?’ he sounds kinder than before.

‘Frasse is dead,’ Jannike starts sobbing. ‘She killed him.’

Anna-Karin turns just as the door closes, catching a glimpse of Nicke’s face crumbling with grief.

Out in the corridor, hospital misery comes over her again. It makes her feel nauseous. Further away, in the waiting room, a woman screams. Anna-Karin pities her. And pities Nicolaus, who is waiting for them there.

They go to the stairwell. Outside, the snow falls thickly now, flakes as large as down turning yellow in the light from the streetlamps.

Vanessa fingers her plaster – Olivia broke the skin under her eyebrow. Anna-Karin will never forget the moment when she saw Vanessa thrown out of the window. And never forget the next moment, when she floated back up, still dripping with blood, hovered outside and then climbed in through the window.

‘It was so easy,’ she’d said. ‘As easy as in my dreams.’ And then she’d collapsed to the floor and fainted. They had to carry both her and Jannike down to Nicolaus’s car because it was no good trying to phone for an ambulance.

‘I killed her,’ Vanessa whispers. ‘I have killed someone.’

The figure lying on the pavement in front of Vanessa’s house is part of another memory Anna-Karin will keep all her life. A lifeless body, already covered by a thin layer of snow. Around its head, a dark halo of blood.

Linnéa looks intently at Vanessa. Anna-Karin knows that they must be thinking to each other. The magic between them is so strong it’s palpable.

‘You didn’t kill her,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘She fell.’

‘But I wanted her to die,’ Vanessa says, looking at her with frightened eyes.

‘Stop it,’ Linnéa says. ‘She attacked you. And your mother. And she killed Frasse.’

Vanessa nods but doesn’t look entirely convinced.

‘There’s something else,’ she says quietly. ‘Olivia said that Walter wanted her to join the Council’s circle. And she went on to say that of course it was a useless idea because “it’s not like you can replace the Chosen Ones”.’

‘What did she mean by that?’ Linnéa asks. ‘Was she saying she didn’t think she could open the portal?’

‘No,’ Vanessa says. ‘That’s the thing. She thought she could.’

The stairwell is silent.

Anna-Karin tries to get a grip on what Olivia has said, what it means. But she can’t. All she can think of is that Walter wanted to use Olivia in his circle, despite knowing what she had done. What she was capable of. It surely says all you need to know about Walter? Anna-Karin worries about Minoo. She has hardly had time to think about her today, but Minoo has also taken risks. Did she find the box? Did they catch her looking for it?

Anna-Karin hopes that Minoo will be at home when they arrive.

‘I can’t make sense of it,’ Vanessa says.

‘I can’t either,’ Linnéa admits. ‘But we have to talk with Minoo about it.’

‘Yes,’ Vanessa agrees. ‘But, Linnéa, don’t be so hard on her.’

‘I know,’ Linnéa says. ‘I won’t.’

Vanessa hugs Linnéa and then puts her arms around Anna-Karin, who almost bursts into tears.

Anna-Karin would like to say to her that she hasn’t forgotten that Vanessa held her when Mum was dying in this hospital.

And she would like to tell Linnéa and Vanessa that they must find each other again. She almost feels like using her magic to make them understand they belong together, that they love each other.

They leave the stairwell and Anna-Karin and Linnéa carry on to the waiting room. The room is full of people. The screaming woman sits on the floor. She wears a thick quilted coat. Now and then she opens her mouth to let out another anguished howl. Everybody else in the room is busily looking anywhere but in her direction.

Nicolaus gets up from one of the sofas and comes to meet them.

‘How did it go?’ he asks.

‘They’re fine,’ Anna-Karin says with a nervous glance at the screaming woman.

‘But there’s lots to talk about,’ Linnéa says. ‘We’ll tell you in the car.’

The woman in the quilted coat starts crawling between the rows of seats. Her dirty scarf is trailing on the floor.

‘It’s coming!’ she says, looking straight at Anna-Karin. Her eyes are burning with despair. ‘It’s coming!’

Linnéa sits next to Nicolaus as they drive at a snail’s pace through the streets of Engelsfors. The snow is falling as quickly as ever and the large flakes stick to the windscreen. The wipers are struggling.

Linnéa looks at the snow and thinks of the flakes that landed on the floor of Vanessa’s sitting room. And the snow that slowly covered Olivia’s dead body.

It’s not like you can replace the Chosen Ones
.

But Olivia believed she could open the portal all the same.

Nicolaus parks outside Minoo’s house. Linnéa sees someone waiting on the steps. It’s Gustaf. She feels a knot of anxiety inside her.

She climbs out of the car. Gustaf’s jacket is far too thin for this weather. He has snow in his hair, on his shoulders, all over him. His face bears signs of tears.

‘I’ve got to talk to you,’ he says.

They settle down in the sitting room. Anna-Karin hands Gustaf a blanket and he wraps it around his shoulders.

‘Minoo came to see me,’ he says. ‘When she left, she gave me this.’

He holds out a scruffy envelope, damp with snow, and Linnéa takes it from him. She unfolds the letter inside it.

I have to leave you for a while
.

I know you won’t understand, especially not you, Linnéa, but I have no choice. The time for closing the portal is near now and I must spend all my time practising with the Council’s
circle. I will move into the manor house and stay there. I must not be in contact with you or with my family until this is all over
.

I will tell my parents that I live in the manor house in order to assist my boss Alexander with an important project that he has to complete. Anna-Karin, please make them accept this explanation
.

Do not attempt to contact me by any means. And keep away from the manor house at all times. The Council will not punish Anna-Karin and Vanessa for their intervention at the court hearing, on condition that you leave us all in peace
.

I have already packed everything I need. That includes the cross and the skull. You have no use for them
.

I am so sorry that it turned out like this but there is no alternative
.

Minoo

Linnéa folds the letter and hands it to Anna-Karin and Nicolaus, who are sitting side by side.

‘I noticed something was wrong,’ Gustaf says. ‘She used her magic at first but then she stopped and I thought … she said something had happened but that she didn’t want to … I didn’t get it.’

Linnéa feels a heavy sadness. Minoo has chosen sides. She wishes that she could be surprised at Minoo’s final decision.