The morning light filters through the lowered venetian blinds in Nicolaus’s living room. As Ida changes position on her wooden chair, one of the lines of light makes her blue eyes flash. Minoo wonders, not for the first time, and hardly the last, what goes on behind those eyes. Who is Ida really?
‘“Danger”? She couldn’t have been a little bit less precise, could she?’ Linnéa says.
‘Are you sure it was Matilda?’ Minoo asks.
Ida nods.
‘I hate that fucking bitch. Why can’t she go for one of you, just for a change?’
‘Give it a rest,’ Vanessa says. ‘I think she’s more to be pitied than you are.’
Ida snorts.
‘What do you think she tried to tell you?’ Minoo asks.
‘Search me! I know no more than you do. Of course I realize that she had a hard time while she was alive but, honestly, it doesn’t give her the right to invade me all the time! She had another run at me in the dining area, not too long ago but I managed to block her.’
‘You did what?’ Linnéa asks.
‘Excuse me, but I didn’t want to go apeshit in front of the entire school – not again!’
Linnéa groans.
‘All right,’ Minoo interrupts. ‘We know that Nicolaus warned us of “difficult times”. It seems Matilda is fearful too. But we have no idea where the threat is coming from.’
‘Anyone else guessing the demons have something to do with it?’ Linnéa says.
‘Maybe we’d better ask her,’ Vanessa suggests.
‘Who?’ Minoo asks.
‘Matilda. Maybe we should have a séance.’
Minoo stares at her.
They know already that the dead can contact the living. But the other way around, is it possible? And if it can be done, what will it entail?
Despite the heat, Minoo’s arms are covered in goose bumps.
Rebecka.
At the start of the summer, she had been convinced that Rebecka and Elias had left this world for good, that they were in the right place, wherever that might be. But what if it were possible to get in touch with them again? Perhaps talk with Rebecka? Just one last time?
It feels like a forbidden thought. But one she can’t leave alone.
‘A séance!’ Ida says. Her voice is shrill. ‘And of course you’ll expect me to volunteer as your ghost magnet?’
‘We haven’t decided anything,’ Minoo says. ‘We don’t even know how to.’
‘And the Book of Patterns is no help, as far as we know,’ Anna-Karin points out.
‘But there’s Mona Moonbeam as well,’ Vanessa says. ‘She’ll help, at least for as long as she gets paid.’
‘All right,’ Minoo says again. ‘Ida and Linnéa, you check the book just to make sure. Vanessa, you go to the Crystal Cave.’
‘Why do I have to …?’ Vanessa begins, but falls silent and sighs. ‘Yes, yes. All right.’
‘Anyway, we’re sure about one thing – that we can’t trust the Council,’ Linnéa says. ‘So not one word to the principal about any of this or about what Nicolaus told us.’
‘But Adriana is on our side,’ Vanessa says. ‘Well, sort of.’
‘If there’s one thing that Nicolaus’s story confirms, it’s that we can’t trust any member of the Council.’
Minoo glances at her phone.
‘We’ve got to go,’ she says.
‘True,’ Vanessa says. ‘We mustn’t miss the fall semester’s first lesson in magic.’
Minoo walks beside Linnéa on the way to Kärrgruvan. The others follow, each on her own.
Since they left Nicolaus’s apartment, Linnéa hasn’t said a word. Every so often, Minoo sneaks a look at her profile, with the black bangs, the shoulder-length black hair pulled up in two pigtails. Her heavily made-up eyes are hidden behind large sunglasses.
Minoo is often troubled by Linnéa’s harshness and aggression, but she admires her, too. She is the kind of person Minoo would like to count as a friend. Only, their lives are so desperately different. Their talk never flows easily; there is always a watchful undertone.
‘Do you think it can be done?’ Linnéa asks suddenly. ‘Contacting the dead?’
‘I hope so. I mean, Matilda is obviously trying to contact us.’
‘What about someone dead who isn’t trying?’
She says this quickly, as if to conceal her feelings.
Minoo understands that she is thinking of Elias. Perhaps of her mother, too? Minoo wonders if Linnéa can even remember what her mother looked like. How old was Linnéa when her mother died?
‘I don’t know,’ Minoo replies cautiously. ‘Maybe you could ask the book?’
Linnéa doesn’t answer.
They have almost reached Kärrgruvan. Minoo hasn’t been to the fairground since the end of last semester. Everything looks the same. The broken fence. The ticket booth, with two planks nailed across the opening. The overgrown hedges. The dance pavilion under its pointy roof, which they can glimpse between the trees.
As they walk through the gate, the sense of an unchanging past grows even stronger. It’s almost too unchanged. It’s as if the abandoned fairground has been preserved in its state of decay. As if the whole place is holding its breath.
The principal waits, standing on the dance floor.
Adriana Lopez is wearing a tight skirt that ends above the knee and a creamy-white silk blouse, as ever buttoned up all the way. There is a patch of sweat on her chest. Minoo can’t think why Adriana doesn’t undo a few buttons. No need for her to hide anything now. They have already seen her scarred skin.
The raven, Adriana’s familiar, caws loudly from its perch up on the roof.
Adriana looks up and waves to them. Her body language is stiffer than usual and her back even straighter.
Minoo and Linnéa step up on to the dance floor and the others join them, one by one.
He buried her somewhere here, Minoo thinks. Her eyes search the grounds. She wishes that they had asked Nicolaus exactly where Matilda’s body has its resting place so that they could mark it out in some way only they would understand. In her honor.
‘Girls, welcome back,’ the principal says when they are all gathered around her.
Her smile is forced.
Minoo and Linnéa exchange glances. Both have observed it. Adriana is nervous.
‘There is something I must tell you,’ she continues, but falls silent when the sound of a car engine comes closer. Heavy tires crunch over the gravel on the roadway.
A dark green car pulls up just outside the gates.
The engine noise is cut and the driver, a tall man in a suit, climbs out. Then the passenger door opens. Viktor climbs out and slams the car door shut.
Kärrgruvan has been wiped from the collective consciousness in Engelsfors. People can’t find their way here any longer. No one even remembers that it exists.
But now this stranger walks straight in, with Viktor in his wake.
Minoo observes the principal. Her face is blank, like a mask. She is transformed into the Adriana Lopez whom Minoo met a year ago. Back then, Minoo had found it impossible to imagine that Adriana had any emotional life whatsoever.
Adriana watches Viktor and the unknown man as they reach the pavilion.
The stranger is at least forty, Minoo guesses. Could he be Viktor’s father? Only if some kind of genetic miracle had taken place. The man’s skin has an olive tone, his hair is dark and his eyes are brown. Definitely different from pale, ash-blonde, blue-eyed Viktor.
And still they belong together. It shows, somehow.
Minoo tries to catch Viktor’s eye, but he ignores her.
‘Girls,’ Adriana speaks loudly. ‘Let me introduce Alexander and Viktor Ehrenskiöld. They are sent here to represent the Council.’
She steps aside. Minoo notes that Anna-Karin’s face has turned green. She looks as if she is about to faint any minute, or throw up. Or both.
The Council. The authority whose rules Anna-Karin disobeyed throughout last year’s fall semester, despite warnings.
The authority that ordered the sign of Fire to be burned into the principal’s skin to punish her defiance. That allowed the earlier Chosen One to be burned at the stake.
Minoo takes Anna-Karin’s hand. She shudders at the touch at first, then returns it and squeezes Minoo’s hand hard.
Alexander’s gaze slides across their faces. Halts when it reaches Anna-Karin.
‘Anna-Karin Nieminen?’ Alexander Ehrenskiöld asks.
Anna-Karin is past speaking. It is as if she has forgotten how to. Mute, she nods instead.
‘You will be tried in court for your crimes. As of now, and until further notice, you are not allowed to leave Engelsfors and must be available for interrogation. We would have preferred to keep you in custody, but Adriana has persuaded us that you will cooperate.’
His gaze leaves Anna-Karin and she at least dares to breathe again.
‘Until the trial ends, your lessons in magic will be canceled. The rest of you must also be ready to be interrogated. I will prosecute. Viktor is my assistant—’
‘Excuse me,’ Vanessa interrupts, without a trace of apology in her voice. ‘But this is so inappropriate. When somebody was trying to murder us, you guys didn’t do anything at all. And now you’re coming up here to take Anna-Karin to court?’
Anna-Karin tries to grasp what Vanessa is saying. Tries to get into her head that she is not alone, exactly as Minoo said. She tightens her grip on Minoo’s hand, despite worrying that her own is sweaty.
Alexander looks contemptuous as he turns to Vanessa.
‘Who is this?’ he asks Viktor.
‘She is Vanessa Dahl,’ Viktor replies promptly.
‘“She” can speak for herself, just so you know,’ Vanessa snaps.
‘We are here to help you,’ Alexander says. ‘You are hugely important to us. Indeed, to the whole world.’
Anna-Karin realizes that he doesn’t mean a word of all that. On the contrary. He doesn’t even try to control the undertone of scorn in what he says.
‘However, this trial is necessary,’ Alexander continues. ‘It is a consequence of the severe breaches that have been committed against the laws of magic.’
‘What crimes is Anna-Karin actually charged with?’ Minoo asks.
Alexander turns to stare at her.
‘Minoo Falk Karimi,’ Viktor prompts.
‘Is that so?’ Alexander says with a hint of interest in his dark brown eyes. ‘Anna-Karin was told by Adriana Lopez to cease using magic for personal gain. She did not desist as ordered. You know the laws of the Council.’
Alexander turns to look at Anna-Karin and, once more, terror grabs her by the throat.
‘Three laws, all straightforward,’ he instructs. ‘You are not allowed to practice magic without the permission of the Council. You are not allowed to use your magic powers to break non-magic laws. Finally, you are not allowed to reveal to the non-magic population that you are witches. In the case of Anna-Karin, we are certain that she is in breach of at least two of these laws. Probably all three.’
Anna-Karin is gasping for air. Just to escape that ice-cold, merciless gaze she would confess to practically anything.
‘But, as a matter of fact, we were all given our powers before we even knew that the Council existed,’ Minoo says. ‘I’m saying that Anna-Karin hasn’t committed any crime whatsoever, surely you can’t be accused of breaking the laws of magic when you don’t even know that such laws exist?’
Anna-Karin sneaks a glance at Minoo and sees that her cheeks are blushing bright red. Obviously, she is nearly as scared of Alexander as Anna-Karin. And yet she dares to contradict him.
‘Naturally not,’ Alexander replies coolly.
‘Good,’ Minoo says. ‘I wanted that clarified.’
‘I can assure you that the trial will be thorough and just, from beginning to end,’ Alexander says. ‘Afterwards, Adriana will continue to train you.’
Miss Lopez’s face is immobile. She just stands there, like a wax doll.
‘One more thing,’ Alexander says. ‘Until the Council has arrived at a sentence, you are all strictly forbidden to use magic. Viktor will keep you under surveillance at school and we have our methods for continuing to supervise you also during your leisure time. We will get in touch as and when you are required for interrogation.’
He walks towards the steps. But someone moves to block his way. Linnéa. Of course.
Anna-Karin’s heart does a somersault inside her chest. She feels like screaming at Linnéa to keep out of this. Alexander is dangerous, can’t she see that?
‘Linnéa Wallin, I presume,’ Alexander says. ‘And what’s on your mind?’
‘Just a minor problem. The apocalypse.’
‘We have plenty of time, enough to deal with the present case, as well as training you for future battles.’
‘Why should we listen to you at all? You need us more than we need you.’
A faint smile flickers on Alexander’s lips.
‘Really? Well, if you believe that you must act accordingly. And be prepared to cope with the consequences.’
His eyes suddenly fix on Linnéa. She whimpers and puts her hands to her head as if a blow has been struck. Her sunglasses crash to the floor.
‘So, I wouldn’t try that kind of move again if I were you,’ Alexander says.
These are his final words.
He walks to the car, closely followed by Viktor and Adriana.