The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,165

She doesn’t know how she’s going to handle a long summer break.

It’s as if a thick pane of glass separates her from the rest of the world. Nothing taking place on the other side affects her. She’s mute inside. Sometimes it scares her, the numb feeling, but it’s still better than what she was feeling before: desperation, fear, sorrow.

She leaves the envelope on the kitchen table, looks at her watch and realises she should have left fifteen minutes ago. She picks up her bag and a worn pair of summer shoes. She has no intention of hurrying.

‘Where is she?’ Adriana Lopez asks.

Vanessa, Linnéa, Ida and Anna-Karin are sitting on the stage of the dance pavilion in their end-of-term outfits. In Anna-Karin’s case it’s not so much an end-of-term outfit as an outfit she’s wearing for the end-of-term – jeans and her old tracksuit jacket.

Ida, on the other hand, is wearing a white dress and is sitting on her hands so she won’t get it dirty.

Linnéa is sitting cross-legged next to Vanessa, biting her nails. Today they’re pink. She’s wearing a dress she finished making yesterday, it’s black and white checks with lots of black bows and a tulle skirt. She has fastened a huge bow to Vanessa’s pink dress, just below the neckline. Yesterday it had seemed a fun idea. Now Vanessa wonders if she looks gift-wrapped.

The principal paces back and forth across the stage. A few of the buttons on her blouse are undone. Vanessa tries to stop herself staring at the burned skin beneath.

‘She’s coming,’ Ida says. ‘I can feel her now.’

A few minutes later Minoo appears. She’s wearing a light blue dress that Vanessa recognises from the last day of year nine. Her hair is standing out like a black cloud around her head. ‘Sorry I’m late,’ she says, in the toneless voice she always uses these days.

The principal nods. ‘Sit down,’ she says impatiently.

Minoo climbs on to the stage and sits next to Vanessa.

‘I realise you’re all eager to get off to the end-of-term celebration, but I have to speak to you first. I’ve got some good news,’ the principal says. ‘The Council has decided to let you begin training in defensive magic this autumn. We’ll start in August.’

If it weren’t so pathetic, Vanessa would have burst out laughing. Only now, a year after Elias’s death, does the Council think they should learn how to protect themselves.

Since April the principal had ‘put the training sessions temporarily on ice’. Even she must have started to lose interest when they never managed to find anything in the Book of Patterns. Towards the end, they didn’t even have to lie to her any more. Ever since they had defeated Max, the book has been a big wall of silence. No more rituals, exercises or incomprehensible pieces of advice have appeared to them. The grumpy old hag is grumpier than ever.

The Chosen Ones have met up regularly at Nicolaus’s place to continue their old magic practice. Minoo has taken part only passively, and the others haven’t objected.

They know nothing of her power. Nicolaus’s theory is that when she defeated Max she somehow reflected Max’s magic back at him. No one knows what’s inside Minoo, what she can actually do. And although no one says so, they’re afraid of her.

‘So, the Council thinks we’re ready to learn a little self-defence?’ Linnéa says.

‘The situation demands it,’ the principal answers. ‘Things may have been calm since Christmas but whoever attacked Minoo may still be lurking close by, biding his time.’

The only thing the principal knows about Max is what everyone else knows: nothing. They were careful in choosing which clues to leave for the police.

It was Nicke who had found Max lying unconscious in the cafeteria. There was also an unregistered gun with his fingerprints on it. The newspapers speculated whether the incident might have had anything to do with the suicide pact, but their interest soon faded. The story wasn’t as exciting when it featured a maths teacher in a coma instead of a bloody corpse.

‘It may seem that everything’s over,’ the principal continues, ‘but it’s only just begun. What you’ve experienced so far is nothing compared to what’s coming.’ She pauses. ‘I know you have great powers. You’ve matured over the course of this year and have achieved a great deal.’

If she only knew, Vanessa thinks to herself.

‘I look forward to continuing to work with you in the autumn. Now you’d better go if you’re going to get there in time