The Key (83 page)

Anna-Karin is silent as she walks behind Minoo. She has stopped asking questions. But Minoo can read her mind anyway and sense her feelings. Anna-Karin is frightened about what will happen next but, most of all, she worries about Minoo. Which would have been touching, if Minoo had been able to feel touched.

The tunnel widens and they enter the first cave, the antechamber. The wall has collapsed. On the other side she picks up the light of Nicolaus’s torch. She senses the portal’s vibrations and how they sing inside her.

The struggle will soon be over.

She walks through the antechamber, climbs over the low wall of broken stone, feels the sharp edges against her hands. When she steps down into the enormous cave on the other side, she makes the blue globe expand, glow more strongly and hover higher up, near the ceiling.

The walls and the floor of this space are completely smooth. The floor is an almost perfect circle, like a circus ring. This cave was created when the tear appeared. When they got in, thousands of years ago. They were strong, then. And they will be strong again. Stronger than ever.

The floor slopes towards the centre. And there the circles are laid out, as perfect tracks in the perfect stone. The outer circle is four metres across. The inner circle is little more than a hollow, its diameter not much greater than Nicolaus’s foot. He is standing next to it and is putting his torch away in his coat pocket. Minoo makes the objects float along to him.

She turns to watch as Anna-Karin enters the cave and looks around, wide-eyed. She takes a step forward. Another one. And then she stops.

‘I can’t … I can’t move,’ she says.

‘Don’t worry,’ Minoo says. ‘It has to do with the levels of magic. Soon, I’ll tell you some more, but first there is something Nicolaus and I must do.’

‘What are you going to do?’ Anna-Karin asks. ‘And how did you know the portal is here?’

Minoo glances at her and turns away. So pathetic, really, that they thought they could hide it from her. But she forgives them. They understand so very little.

She walks across the smooth, shiny stone floor. As she crosses the outer circle, the vibrations become stronger. She can glimpse the tear as a faintly shimmering lightness.

She senses Linnéa and Vanessa entering the cave.

‘What are you doing?’ Vanessa calls out.

Minoo takes the box out of the air. Caresses the lacquered surface of the lid, traces the carved motif with her fingers. Walter is right. The craftsmanship is exquisite.

She bends and places the box in the inner circle, then pushes it down into the hollow. A click. Then a shudder runs through the stone floor. The wooden outer shell of the box cracks in front of her eyes, then crumbles and evaporates. A silver bowl with the elemental signs engraved in its flat bottom is left in the hollow.

The bowl.

Used six times.

This is the last time.

Linnéa tries to scream something but can’t make herself heard. The magic is far too strong.

Minoo straightens up and allows the skull to settle inside the bowl. Once it was part of a woman who belonged to the Florentine Council in the fifteenth century. She volunteered. It was a glorious task. It still is. But the Chosen Ones of this time would never understand.

Minoo takes the cross. The silver dissolves, becomes a glittering swarm, like sparks from a bonfire. And then vanishes into thin air. The dagger hidden inside it is now resting in her hand. Despite the thousands of years that have passed since it was forged, its edge is still as clean and sharp as a razor blade. The ebony handle has not the slightest scratch.

The dagger.

Used six times.

This is the last time.

She gives it to Nicolaus.

‘Are you afraid?’ she asks.

‘No,’ he says. He grips the handle of the dagger.

He thinks about his daughter. He hopes that he will meet her again. But he is anxious about how the other Chosen Ones will react.

‘They will understand,’ Minoo says.

Nicolaus nods. Pulls off his scarf and puts it away.

Then he kneels with his back turned to the others. Minoo is the only one who sees him put the blade against his throat.

* * *

Anna-Karin can’t see what Nicolaus is doing.

And then he collapses on his side, with the dagger still in his hand. A moist, gurgling sound comes from him as a dark liquid flows from his body. It doesn’t look like blood in the blue light but it is. It flows, dark and oily along the sloping floor towards the bowl in the inner circle.

Anna-Karin can’t move. And Minoo does nothing. Just stands there and watches Nicolaus bleed to death. Anna-Karin wants to force her to help him but her magic doesn’t work either. She has to make an effort just to breathe. She doesn’t understand. She cannot grasp why Nicolaus did this. Or how Minoo can look so calm as she walks towards them.

The air inside the circle has grown hazy. The haze thickens and becomes a mist.

Nicolaus’s body twitches a few times and then the greyness swallows it. Anna-Karin can’t see him any more.

She wants to cry but her body lacks the strength. Vanessa and Linnéa stand on either side of her, just as immobile.

Minoo steps in front of them.

‘The tear begins here,’ she says. ‘From here, it runs all the way to the limits of our world. The portal is there. We must get there in order to close it.’

She points to the thick, swirling mist inside the outer circle.

‘We must travel into the Borderland. Strong magic was necessary to set up a stable link. A sacrifice. Nicolaus’s task as our guide was precisely that. To sacrifice himself and guide us into the Borderland.’

Guide.

Their guide.

‘He lived on borrowed time,’ Minoo continues. ‘He has been dying ever since he opened the grave and his memories returned. He told Linnéa about this.’

Anna-Karin glances at Linnéa, who confirms it with a barely perceptible nod.

She knew, then. Nicolaus knew. And neither of them told anyone else.

‘Linnéa didn’t know of his sacrifice,’ Minoo tells Anna-Karin, as if she has read her mind. Then she points at the circles.

‘It is time. We must go in.’

Anna-Karin looks at the mist, swirling ever faster in the blue light. She doesn’t want to enter it. It’s just about the last thing she would ever care to do. But she knows she will. That she must. This is what Grandpa spoke about. To be brave even though one is afraid.

Minoo places one of Anna-Karin’s hands in Vanessa’s, and the other in Linnéa’s. Suddenly they can all move again.

‘Now go,’ Minoo says. ‘Hurry. Wait at the outer circle. There is one more thing I must do.’

The three of them start moving forward. They struggle, as if against a strong headwind. They could have talked now but none of them speaks. They walk until they reach the edge of the mist. And stop.

Anna-Karin turns round.

Walter is entering the cave.

* * *

The black smoke is twisting around Walter. His black bird’s eyes are fixed on Minoo.

Ever since he arrived in Engelsfors, the demons have been whispering to him, urging him to accept their blessing.

He has resisted them. The guardians had already promised him what he wanted.

But once Minoo had revealed the truth to him, he didn’t hesitate. When Linnéa had run off, he invited the demons. ‘The guardians have offered me all the power I can imagine in this world,’ he told them. ‘And I can imagine a great deal. How will you bid against that?’ The demons replied that there are many other worlds, many other realities – you can take your pick.

Walter crosses the smooth stone floor and aims straight for Minoo. She senses the terror felt by the Chosen Ones.

His shirt has lost two buttons. Sigrid gripped his collar when he killed her in the hall. Until the very last moment, she refused to believe it was happening. He ripped out her soul and her life-force. Her lifeless body sagged and collapsed. Walter felt no remorse, only impatience. When he opened the front door, he caught a glimpse of the Chosen Ones just before they vanished into thin air. Now that he had added Sigrid’s power to his own, it was easy to catch up with Viktor and Clara. He broke Viktor’s neck with a touch, then took his powers and his soul. Clara made herself invisible and threw herself at him, but he simply shoved her away, opening up a deep wound as he did so. Deep enough to kill her. But he didn’t bother with her frail life-force and her soul. He wanted to get to the caves and meet the Chosen Ones.

Now, Walter is only a few metres from Minoo. He is intoxicated by his own strength and can’t wait for the victory he knows will be his. He wants to test Viktor’s power in a way Viktor never did. Walter is considering the large amount of water in the human body. What if one froze it? Or made it boil?

‘I should’ve done this long ago,’ he says, reaching for Minoo.

She sees the blood spattered over his shirt front and jacket. Clara’s blood. She grabs his wrist and holds it firmly. The dial of his wristwatch cracks under her hand. She forces him down; his knees slam against the stone floor. He looks shocked.

‘Yes,’ she says. ‘You should have killed me in my sleep. Maybe then you would have had a chance.’

Walter is afraid, for the first time.

He is not a worthy opponent.

No one is.

But she needs him. The demons have staked all their expectations on Walter and made him as strong as they possibly can. Their magic is in him. Magic that she intends to take from him.

Minoo sets Viktor’s and Sigrid’s souls free. Unlike Walter, she isn’t a monster. Besides, she doesn’t need them. Taking Walter’s soul will be more than enough. He fills her. Makes her even stronger. She observes his memories as they pass. All the lives he has destroyed, all the pain he has inflicted, all the pleasure power has given him.

She feels the weight of his soul, pulls, and it comes loose. Walter doesn’t scream. His pain is too intense. His mouth gapes, his eyes are wide open.

Minoo doesn’t take his soul, she incinerates it. Turns it into pure energy. The final boost of energy that she needs.

Walter’s eyes roll back so that only the whites are showing. She lets go of his wrist and he slumps sideways.

Around her, the magic grows. All the powers of the guardians are concentrated inside her now. She is their anchor.

She turns to face the other Chosen Ones, who are staring at her.

‘What happened?’ Anna-Karin asks.

‘The demons had blessed him,’ Minoo says.

‘Is he …?’ Linnéa begins. ‘Have you
killed
him?’

‘Yes,’ Minoo says.

She has in fact done more than kill him. She has obliterated him. But the others would hardly see the distinction.

Minoo walks towards them, then takes Linnéa’s hand. The four of them form a chain now. She turns to the swirling mist.

‘Now,’ Minoo says.

Together they walk into the Borderland.

Rebecka feels hands gripping her shoulders and shaking her.

I survived, she thinks. I survived. But how?

She opens her eyes.

It is Ida who is holding her shoulders. Now she lets go and throws her arms around Rebecka, hugging her tightly.

‘We found you!’

Rebecka hugs Ida, but awkwardly. She is so confused. Everything around them is grey.

And then she sees him.

Large, blue eyes. Black, unruly hair. Rings in his eyebrows, his ears, his lower lip. A leather strap around his neck. Black T-shirt with the word
NIN
on it, worn over a long-sleeved top. Torn jeans and large black boots.

Elias.

Elias, who is dead.

Suddenly, Rebecka isn’t as certain that she has survived.

‘It wasn’t G,’ Ida says in that falsetto tone of hers that always hurt Rebecka’s ears. They let go of each other. ‘I mean, it wasn’t G who killed you. It was Max. He had murdered Elias and taken his power to look like different people. So G didn’t do it, it was Max disguised as G. But no one suspected G – at least, the police didn’t. Everyone thought you had jumped because you wanted to, except the Chosen Ones—’

‘Calm down,’ Elias interrupts. ‘Give her a break.’

He glances worriedly at Rebecka.

‘Do you even know who we are?’ he asks.

Rebecka nods, feeling confused. She is still trying to grasp what Ida has just told her.

Gustaf pushed her off the roof. But it wasn’t Gustaf. She didn’t believe it was him and it turns out she was right. She feels so relieved that she almost forgets about being dead.

Dead. Murdered by Max. Max, who Minoo had a crush on.

‘How do you feel?’ Ida asks.

‘I’m not sure. Am I really dead?’

‘We all are,’ Elias says.

Rebecka looks at Ida. And she remembers the night of the blood-red moon, when Ida was levitating above the gravelled area in Kärrgruvan. And remembers, too, the warning they were given not to trust anyone. Then something else comes back to her. The figure in a hoodie who observed her on Olsson’s Hill. And then followed her to the City Mall.

‘Was Max the evil we were warned against?’

‘Yes, he was,’ Ida says. ‘But not just him. It’s such an insanely complicated story …’

Abruptly, she stops speaking, and instead scans the greyness behind Rebecka.

‘What’s wrong?’ Elias says. ‘Is it the thing you told me about?’

Rebecka turns to look but sees nothing. Then she shudders. There is something out there. Something that wants to get at them.

‘Run!’ Ida screams.

* * *

All that was needed was one step.

Everything in front of Linnéa is still and grey.

‘Do you feel it?’ Vanessa asks.

‘Yes,’ Linnéa says.

It is a note so deep it is not heard but felt as a vibration. She became aware of it as soon as she stepped into the round cave room with the circles. Now it has grown more powerful.

Looking back, she can see the lit cave through a whirling haze.

Minoo lets go of Linnéa. Linnéa looks at her hand. Minoo used that hand to hold Walter down when she killed him. Minoo
killed
him.

‘Is this the Borderland?’ Vanessa asks.