The Key (87 page)

Linnéa observes Minoo’s chilly, superior gaze. Her expressionless face.

‘No, it doesn’t,’ Linnéa says. ‘That’s what’s so fucking scary about it.’

Minoo crosses her arms.

‘It seems I must motivate you a little more,’ she says.

* * *

Anna-Karin stands in a kitchen. It smells of green soap and coffee. The checked curtains are drawn. She recognises the furniture. It belongs to Grandpa. But she has never been in this room before.

‘It can become yours,’ Minoo’s voice says.

Anna-Karin turns towards the voice. Minoo stands in front of the fridge with her arms crossed.

‘Look out of the window,’ she orders.

Anna-Karin pulls a curtain to the side. It is a summer day. Cows are grazing in the meadows. On the other side of the view, she sees a barn and a few outbuildings.

And then she sees Grandpa.

He is walking from the barn towards the house. He
walks
. He looks vigorous and moves with energy. It is astonishing to see him like this and makes Anna-Karin realise how much he has aged since the fire.

‘In our new world, there will be no illness,’ Minoo says.

Grandpa doesn’t look as if he is a slave to the guardians. He looks just normal. Any second now, he’ll open the front door and call her name. And then he’ll step into the kitchen and look at her with his bright, warm eyes.

Grandpa.

She hears the front door open.

* * *

Vanessa lies in Linnéa’s bed, covered by Linnéa’s duvet and close to Linnéa. Skin against skin, so very close. And Vanessa feels how much she has longed for this and how much she needs it.

Linnéa turns to her and meets her eyes.

Vanessa is so calm. All the wounds are healed now. She feels fine and Linnéa feels fine and they will stay together for ever, without hurting each other, without tearing everything beautiful apart. She knows it in the depths of her soul.

‘This isn’t happening, right?’ Vanessa says. ‘It’s just the guardians messing with our heads.’

‘Yeah,’ Linnéa says. ‘It’s not for real.’

They both know it. But it doesn’t matter. Not when Vanessa slides her hand around Linnéa’s waist. Not when Linnéa moves a little closer still, nor when her lips are just about to touch Vanessa’s.

* * *

Elias sits on the sofa in Linnéa’s sitting room. Sunlight is pouring in. It is all very familiar, and yet not. The furniture has been changed and so have most of the pictures and drawings. The panther’s head has been glued on. Linnéa sits on the sofa, too, but at the other end. She looks at him and seems surprised.

‘Where is Vanessa?’ she says. ‘I was with her a minute ago.’

Elias can’t reply. He is too absorbed by
sitting
on the sofa. He is able to touch it with his hands. It feels as if he really is here, in this room.

He catches a glimpse of movement and turns to look. Minoo has materialised on the other side of the table in front of the sofa.

Minoo is one of those people he has known all his life but never got to know properly. He has only heard her speak during school lessons. This Minoo is completely alien to him. How can the others be so sure that there is something human left inside this figure? Are they blinded by their friendship with her?

Is it up to him to be rational, to say that they should consider the possibility that Matilda is right?

He doesn’t want it to be like that. He doesn’t want to save the world at all. All he wants is to stay here. With Linnéa.

‘This is not for real, is it?’ he says.

‘No,’ Minoo says. ‘But it could be. You could return to life.’

He doesn’t believe her. But, at the same time, he desperately wants to believe her.

It’s so unfair that everyone else gets to go on, but not him. That he will miss out on everything, just as he felt life was getting better.

‘You’re lying,’ Linnéa says. ‘You can’t resurrect the dead.’

But Elias can hear that she isn’t completely convinced. She wants to believe. She wants it at least as much as he does.

‘True, not if a soul has passed on,’ Minoo says. ‘But Elias’s soul is still in the Borderland. In a world where the guardians are all-powerful, Elias can live again.’

* * *

Linnéa looks at Elias, sitting on her sofa.

Elias. Alive. Vanessa. Together with her.

‘You can have it all,’ Minoo says to Linnéa. ‘You can be with the love of your life and your best friend. You will never have to part from them again.’

Never part again.

Elias.

It is too unbearably painful to think that they would have to say goodbye to each other again. She couldn’t take it. She must be allowed to keep him. He must stay.

* * *

Above Ida’s head, the canopies of the trees merge to form a green tunnel. Sunbeams filter through the leaves, create patterns on the ground and on Troja.

He stands next to her and she can touch him. She reaches out and feels his warmth under her stroking hand, then leans her cheek against his muzzle and inhales the smell of horse and safety.

She has missed him. So much.

‘Troja,’ she whispers.

He snuffles.

‘Ida, he could be yours again,’ Minoo says. ‘You could become alive again.’

Ida takes a step back. Minoo stands on the other side of Troja; she is patting his mane.

‘The guardians can make your dream come true,’ she continues. ‘And this time round, everything will be so much better for you than last time.’

Ida looks at Minoo’s fingers. She doesn’t want her to touch Troja. Minoo takes her hand away.

‘I understand why you love him,’ she says. ‘He is the only one you can be yourself with. He doesn’t judge you. When you’re with him, you feel free. You can have that feeling every day, Ida. And not only when you’re with Troja.’

Ida wants to capitulate. Saying yes would be so easy.

She wants to live again. Of course she does. Live and be happy. And the feeling that Minoo described is exactly what she wants. More than she wants G. More than anything else.

Just to be.

* * *

Rebecka stands next to Gustaf’s bed. He is lying on his back, deeply asleep.

Gingerly, she sits down on the edge of his bed. She is close enough to sense the warmth radiating from his body. She places her hand on his chest and feels his skin. His calm breathing; the beating of his heart.

She sees the photo of both of them that Gustaf took down by the canal. It hangs in its usual place above his bed, but she remembers seeing in Minoo’s memories that Gustaf had moved it.

Now, it seems it hasn’t happened. It is Rebecka and Gustaf again. She wants to lie down next to him. Wake him. Look into his eyes again.

Would it really be him? Would it matter?

‘You could become alive again,’ Minoo says.

Rebecka sees Minoo standing at the other end of the bed.

‘You can be with him again,’ she continues.’ You can be with your family again.’

All of this is fake.

Or so Rebecka’s brain tells her. But her longing for him, for them, for life, all tell her something different.

And then, suddenly, she is back in the Borderland.

She looks around at the other Chosen Ones. They all seem shaken and Rebecka wonders what the guardians have tempted them with.

‘We can give you all that you dream about,’ Minoo says. ‘And I can take your pain away. If you collaborate with us.’

Rebecka turns towards Ida and Elias. The guardians must have offered them the same choice as her.

An impossible choice.

A choice that is too impossibly grand and too cruel.

A choice that really isn’t a choice.

She feels the rage and the bottomless grief at being dead.

But she knows that she can’t accept the guardians’ offer. It would be wrong. And it would not be a real life, anyway. All she needs to make her feel certain of that is to look at Minoo.

‘No,’ Rebecka says. ‘We can’t accept that.’

‘Then you will die,’ Minoo says.

‘We’re dead already,’ Ida sobs.

‘And this isn’t only about us,’ Elias says. ‘It’s about the rest of the world as well.’

Rebecka gazes at the other Chosen Ones and realises that none of them has fallen for the guardians’ temptations. It makes her proud to be one of them.

But what can they do?

‘What can you do?’ Minoo asks, and Rebecka wonders if her mind has been read. ‘Are you going to let the demons in?’

She gestures towards the portal, which is twice her height by now and still growing.

‘Or maybe you’re going to kill me, as Matilda advised?’ She looks accusingly at Rebecka.

‘Of course not,’ she replies.

‘Did Matilda tell you what would happen if you do?’ Minoo says. ‘The guardians will of course vanish from the world. Which is what you want. But the magic balance will shift again.’

She gazes at them all in turn.

‘It will start on a small scale. The magic will grow slowly at first and spread across the world. Non-magical places will become magical. And then the levels will rise. A magical flood all across the world. The earliest consequence will be that more natural witches will be awakened, many more than ever before. Do you think they’ll just sit quietly and wait for some authority to allow them to use their powers?’

‘You’re lying,’ Linnéa says.

‘No, I’m not,’ Minoo says, ‘and it won’t stop there. The levels will continue to increase. Becoming a trained witch will become easier and easier. And by the time the levels finally stabilise, you will have a world where anybody at all can learn to handle magic.’

She takes a few steps towards them.

‘The outcome of all this will be chaos. All existing political, economic and religious systems will crumble. Magic will equal power. Those with most magic will rule over everyone else. Let’s narrow the perspective to make an obvious point … can you imagine someone like Erik Forslund with magic powers?

* * *

Erik Forslund with magic powers.

Anna-Karin can imagine it only too well.

A world drowning in magic.

It is a frightening thought. But not as frightening as one where the guardians rule and have made playthings out of human beings.

As they have done with Minoo.

‘If you close the portal now, you can truly save the world,’ Minoo continues. ‘Together with us, you can make it into what it should be. You could correct all the wrongs, all the injustices.’

Anna-Karin looks at Minoo and realises that they have only one chance.

Together, you are stronger than the guardians
.

She leaps at Minoo and grabs her right hand. She calls out to Rebecka, who takes Minoo’s left hand.

Now, Minoo is part of the Circle.

Anna-Karin feels how Minoo struggles and tries to use her powers to free herself. But the Circle holds her.

‘Let go of me!’ Minoo screams.

Anna-Karin senses how the others stare at her in utter surprise.

But she fixes her eyes on Minoo.

‘Use the guardians’ powers against yourself. Break your own blessing!’

* * *

Break your own blessing
.

Minoo hears Anna-Karin’s words. She hears them but they somehow don’t sink in. There is a barrier that stops them.

And suddenly she becomes aware. Aware of the barrier between herself and the guardians. It is still there, even though they would like to eliminate it.

Anna-Karin’s hand squeezes her own.

‘You can make it,’ she says. ‘We’ll help you.’

‘We’re here,’ says Rebecka, who is holding her other hand.

Rebecka.

It is only now that Minoo truly realises she is here. Emotions try to surface, but they don’t reach her.

‘We’re here for you,’ Vanessa says.

‘Pull yourself together, Minoo!’ Ida says.

Ida. She is here as well. And Elias, whose grave eyes are fixed on her.

They are all here and Minoo is aware of the bond between them. Of the tremendous power they have when they are together, all seven of them. All are individuals yet they belong together. She belongs with them. The guardians have tried to make her forget that.

Don’t do it
.

The guardians are whispering to her now.

You are the Chosen One, Minoo. Chosen by us. We have given you all this power because we believe in you, believe that you are the right one to exert it. It is a huge responsibility, but you are a good human being, Minoo. You will do the right thing. You can save the world
.

Then Minoo recalls what Walter said about how one must not be afraid of power.

She realises that he was wrong.

One must be afraid of power, always. Power is dangerous and must be handled with caution, carefully examined and cared for. Above all, it must be shared.

There is no human being who is so completely good that she can rule the world alone. And no one who can save it without the help of others.

For the first time in weeks, Minoo becomes aware of the black smoke pulsating around her. And then she realises that she controls it. Not the other way around.

If you do this you will lose all your magic. The world will become ever more magic but you will never be able to take part in it. All your friends, Gustaf, your mother, your father – everyone will have access to that magic. Everyone except you, Minoo. You will go from being the most powerful witch in the world to nothing
.

She hears the whispering from the other side of the portal as well. The demons.

You don’t have to do it, Minoo. Just do nothing. Do nothing for a little longer and we will give you another world. We will let your friends come with you. Think about it. Think about it for a while. Then you won’t even have to make the decision yourself
.

‘Minoo!’ Linnéa says. ‘Do it now! You must do it now!’

‘I will,’ Minoo whispers, holding tightly to Rebecka’s and Anna-Karin’s hands. ‘But you must close the portal while I … The demons … they’re coming …’

The others nod.

And Minoo senses when they release their powers.

* * *

Vanessa opens herself up completely to her power.

She is holding on to Anna-Karin and Linnéa but is just as aware of the other four members of the Circle, as conscious of them as she is of herself.