Fire (66 page)

Minoo sees a boy in his late teens, with black, crew-cut hair. He is seated on a chair just like the one in the courtroom. No, it is the very same chair, Minoo is sure of that. And she is also sure that the boy is Simon, because Adriana loves him. Her love for him fills all of her. It is a love that will sustain her entire life. She cannot live without him. She is vaguely aware of how others look at them, but everyone else is only a shadowy presence in her mind. Simon is all she sees. He is gasping for air. His element has been turned against him. He cannot breathe. When she sees him die, something inside her dies with him.

Minoo pulls away, moves on. Back in time.

Two circles with fire as their power sign. Drawn on the stone floor in a room without any furnishings. It is high-ceilinged and its narrow windows admit a bleak light. ‘Try,’ a boy’s voice says just next to her. She turns and sees a young Alexander holding the
Book of Patterns
. ‘I can’t do it,’ she replies. He slams the book shut and sighs. Looks at the circles. A blue flame flares up. He gazes at her. ‘You’re useless,’ he says and leaves. She watches the blue fire. She will not give up. She is going to make them all proud of her.

Minoo follows the twisting memory threads forward in time.

A hospital bed, in a single room. Machines piping, pumping and hissing. Adriana approaches the bed and looks down at Max’s immobile face. Now she knows who he is and she curses herself for not having seen the signs, despite working together with him for almost a year. She examines the respirator, contemplates pulling the plug out. But it would mean an end to his suffering. And that, he does not deserve.

Onwards.

Adriana enters the Crystal Cave. ‘There, I knew you’d turn up sooner or later,’ Mona says and sucks on her cigarette. Adriana detests asking Mona for help, but she must find some way of telling the girls what’s what. She is prepared to pay any price.

Minoo changes direction and moves backwards.

Adriana is in her study in this house. She is turning over fragile, yellowing book pages, until she finds what she is looking for. An ancient, long-forgotten passage about how a witch can set about using her familiar to hide memories and at the same time be able to access them.

Backwards.

Nicolaus meets her walking along one of the corridors in the school. He glares disapprovingly at her and Adriana understands him. She likes him and wishes she was able to show it.

Minoo goes further back in time and comes across her own face again. She is in the passenger seat of Adriana’s car. Adriana has opened her Thermos and is pouring tea into a mug. ‘Drink some of this,’ she says. ‘Is it … magical?’ Minoo asks. ‘It’s Earl Grey,’ Adriana says. She is feeling guilty. Frustrated. She wishes it was possible for her to do more for the Chosen Ones. But the Council will not let her intervene. It orders her to wait.

Still further back.

Adriana sees the blood on the tarmac. Rebecka’s body has just been removed. If only she had run after the girl.

Backwards.

Rebecka is in her office, sitting opposite her. Rebecka’s eyes are tightly shut and Adriana tries to understand what is going on inside her head. ‘We’d better start at the beginning,’ she says. Rebecka opens her eyes. ‘Rebecka, what did you think this meeting was about?’ Adriana says. The girl
gets up from the armchair. ‘Excuse me, I have to go,’ she says and runs away.

Backwards.

Strange memories. At night, a deep dark forest seen from above. It takes a moment or two before Minoo understands that this is something Adriana has seen through the eyes of her raven. It descends to fly at tree height, turning this way and that to avoid the treetops, zooms so fast that Minoo can’t pick out any details. It suddenly lands in a pine. Hears a voice. Nicolaus is speaking. ‘Welcome, O Chosen One, you who have come to this sacred place on the night of the blood-red moon. Behold! The prophecy has been fulfilled!’ The raven flies closer and, once more, Minoo sees herself, looking so small in her pyjamas and sounding so helpless when she says: ‘Excuse me?’

Backwards.

Adriana is spreading out all the lists of first-year pupils due to begin that autumn. Just on an impulse. She doesn’t think this will work. But she lifts the pendulum and moves her hand over the pages, leafing through the sheets of paper. Suddenly, the pendulum starts swinging over one of the class lists. She stares at it. In the next moment, her hand is pulled down. The pendulum has come to rest on a name. Elias Malmgren.

Backwards.

Adriana places the lamp with the dragonfly shade on the desk in her school office, plugs it in. She is feeling curiously full of expectation. Until now, she has not dared to believe that she was right all along. But now it feels as though something is about to happen in the godforsaken dump. Something that will change her. Set her free.

Minoo retreats.

She knows that here is where she must begin.

She has them in front of her now.

Shimmering, glowing threads. She links them, welds them together. She cannot tear the memories out of Adriana without damaging her, but she can construct new routes, weave new lines of thought that pass by all that is forbidden.

The black smoke wells out and closes in around Minoo, who feels the magic of the guardians operating through her; together they are burying the dangerous memories deep in Adriana’s subconscious, where neither she nor any of the interrogators can get at them.

And then, just as Minoo knows that her task is complete, she feels tiredness flowing into her.

She slips out of Adriana’s mind.

She is not yet back in the physical world, only almost there. She is in between, as in the moment when she saw the blessing of the demons radiate around Max like a halo.

In front of her, Adriana lies stretched out on the bed.

Now do you understand?

Minoo looks up.

Matilda has materialised on the other side of the bed. Her face is shaded, but Minoo feels sure that the apparition is smiling.

Your powers can be used for good.

Matilda doesn’t move, but Minoo senses something that sweeps through the air, feels like a caress against her cheek.

You must hurry away from here. The others need you.

‘What is going to happen tonight?’ Minoo asks. ‘Have Helena and Krister planned to kill everyone?’

Yes. It is the last requirement.

‘For what?’

Matilda is melting away into the shadows once more, but her voice lingers.

For the apocalypse to begin.

Vanessa cautiously opens the door leading from the girls’ changing room into the gym.

The stands are full of PE members and those without a seat are crowded together around the walls. A short girl right at the back is jumping up and down to catch a glimpse of what is happening on the stage.

Entering is like stepping back into the summer heatwave. Vanessa tries to breathe through her mouth to avoid inhaling the smell of new sweat and of old, engrained gym.

But, above all, the air is thick with magic.

Vanessa can’t see any ectoplasm circles anywhere. But that’s not necessarily significant. She and Minoo saw no circles a year ago, when they broke into Adriana’s study. Some circles don’t become visible until they are activated.

It feels as though the magic in the hall is set to standby. Any time now, the witch in charge of the remote can press ON.

Vanessa watches the stage. Rickard’s eyes flicker anxiously as they scan the audience. The amulet hangs outside his yellow T-shirt. Next to him, Erik and Kevin have their eyes hopefully fixed on Helena, who stands behind the microphone and is just slitting open an envelope.

‘And the Young Positive Engelsfors Member of the Year is …’ Helena makes an artificial pause and throws a conspiratorial glance at the audience. ‘Imagine how wonderful it feels to give you such a happy message, because – yes! Most of you will have voted for him.’

Laughter fills the hall. Helena pulls a card from the envelope. Her smile broadens and she reads out the name in a triumphant voice.

‘Erik Forslund!’

A new burst of applause. Stamping feet make the stands
shake. Wolf whistling cuts through the air. Erik doesn’t even try to act surprised. Calmly, he goes to hug Helena. Then he turns to Krister, who hands him a big bunch of daffodils and a framed certificate, then thumps him on the back so hard the amulet jumps on Erik’s chest.

Vanessa observes Rickard. He is applauding like everyone else, but is obviously disappointed. Krister says something to him and Kevin, and they get off the stage together.

Rickard joins a group of guys who are nibbling directly from the buffet platters. He takes his glasses off and starts polishing them, tries to act as if he’s not bothered. Vanessa sets her sights on him, moving through the crowd very cautiously in order not to bump into anyone.

‘This is really a surprise,’ Erik is saying from the stage. ‘A
positive
surprise, of course.’

The hall fills with laughter again. Many of the voices sound over the top, forced. There is hysteria in the air and it frightens Vanessa. As if the fun and games could in an instant topple over into either despair or rage.

‘PE has not only changed Engelsfors,’ Erik carries on. ‘PE has changed our lives. My life.’

Vanessa catches sight of Gustaf. He is standing near the stage, smiling like everyone else. But he can’t hide the anger in his eyes. She is pretty certain that he isn’t wearing a necklace. She hopes nobody else has noticed.

‘It isn’t easy to change your life,’ Erik says. ‘When we develop as human beings, we can’t count on everyone around us developing at the same pace. Often, they may resist change out of jealousy. Anger. Take my ex. I did try to make her understand, but she refused. She was simply not ready for change. A real energy-thief. And I realised in the end that I had to cut the bond between us. It was hard, but now I feel all the stronger for it. She held me back. She pulled me down.’

Vanessa thinks of Ida who is hiding in the girls’ shower-room together with Linnéa and Anna-Karin. Hopefully, she can’t hear all this.

‘I think many of you know what I’m talking about,’ Erik continues. ‘I’m not the only one who has been betrayed by somebody I thought was close to me.’

A familiar sob from somewhere. A girl with dark hair stands with her back to Vanessa. The girl’s boyfriend is stroking her bare shoulder to comfort her.

Michelle and Mehmet.

‘Put these feelings aside,’ Erik says. ‘Concentrate on your own goals. Who knows, perhaps the day will come when the others understand what we are about and catch up with us. Until that day, we have each other. Everyone in this room is a friend of mine.’

Hundreds of heads nod in agreement and Michelle’s is one of them.

Vanessa has to look away.

Rickard puts his glasses on again. Vanessa homes in on his amulet. If only she can get it off him, all this will be over and done with.

The dark shower-room smells damply of mould and old shampoo.

Linnéa can barely make out the shadowy shapes of the others. Ida, who is sitting curled up on the floor. Anna-Karin, who is standing next to Ida. Linnéa can’t see her face, but knows that Anna-Karin’s eyes are shut. She is with the fox.

Outside, in the gym, Erik carries on with the praise of Positive Engelsfors.

Linnéa so wishes that the sound of his voice wouldn’t make her heart race. Wishes that he didn’t have the power to make her afraid.

‘I hate him,’ Ida whispers.

‘You’re not the only one,’ Linnéa says in a low voice and, then, to Anna-Karin: ‘Has Vanessa done it yet?’

‘No. With such a crowd it’s hard for her to move about.’

Linnéa is glad that animals can see Vanessa when she’s invisible to humans. But someone in the gym might be able to see her, too. The thought makes her utterly terrified.

She presses her hands against the tiled wall, drums against it with her fingertips.

Linnéa
.

Linnéa turns to Ida and Anna-Karin. But she realises that this is not either of their voices. A stranger’s voice. Inside her head.

Say nothing to the others.

Linnéa opens her mouth, but the other person’s thoughts are ahead of her.

Or else I’ll kill Vanessa. I know she’s in the hall. And I know where you are.

Linnéa shuts her mouth again. Switches off all emotions. She must keep a cold head. Not act on impulse.

Good.

Now she suddenly recognises the voice. She hesitates. Can it really be her?

Michelle?
she asks.
Is that you?

A moment’s silence.

Not any more.

A quite different voice. This time, Linnéa does not hesitate. She knows Backman’s thoughts only too well.

I am everyone
.

This new voice she only recognises vaguely.

Rickard? Are you the one doing this?

Laughter.

And now Linnéa understands. He can leap between the
consciousnesses of others, steer their thoughts towards her.

I control everyone in here
, Rickard’s voice continues.
I can make them kill you.

‘Linnéa?’ Anna-Karin whispers. ‘Vanessa’s just standing there. Can’t you ask her if we can do anything?’

‘Just wait a minute,’ Linnéa says, just managing to keep her voice steady.

Tell me what you want me to do
, she thinks.

Find an excuse for going away. See to it that the others don’t follow you.

‘Vanessa is calling me,’ Linnéa says. ‘Something I must do.’

‘We’ll come with you,’ Anna-Karin whispers.

‘No. She says that only I must come. You stay here.’

‘Right,’ Anna-Karin says hesitantly.

Good. Now come along.

Linnéa leaves the changing room. The harsh light makes the hooks along the wall shine.

She would like to send Vanessa a warning thought, but doesn’t dare. It might expose Vanessa to even greater danger.

All she can do is hope and pray to all the gods she doesn’t believe in that Vanessa will succeed against all the odds.

Vanessa moves slowly towards Rickard. His entire attention is focused on the stage, where Erik is still holding forth. He seems able to trawl his bottomless store of PE clichés for hours to come.