The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,168

you mean?’ Minoo mumbles.

‘You loved Max. He was a murderer. But you loved him. That’s not something you get over just like that.’

‘As soon as I found out it was him—’

‘I know. But you had all those feelings for him before. And it must have been devastating to find out what he’d done. I’d have hated myself if I’d discovered I had a crush on Elias’s killer.’

‘I’m over it,’ Minoo says.

‘Okay. Fair enough,’ Linnéa says. ‘But you aren’t over the black smoke.’

Minoo stares at her. Linnéa knows things Minoo hasn’t told anyone.

‘I can understand it scared the shit out of you,’ Linnéa says, ‘but it won’t get any better if you keep quiet about it. Maybe together we can find out why Max’s and your magic looked the same and why no one else could see it.’

‘How do you know all this?’ Minoo asks. She has the feeling she ought to know. That she should have put two and two together ages ago.

‘Do you remember Vanessa said she could hear my voice in her head that night? That was something new. I didn’t even know I was doing it. But …’ She hesitates. Her hands sort of wrestle with each other. ‘It started last summer.’

‘Okay,’ says Minoo, in as neutral a tone as she can muster.

‘At first I didn’t understand what it was. I mean, it was so … impossible. In the beginning it just happened now and then. I sort of picked up things.’

She can’t say it, Minoo realises. She wants me to expose her.

And at that moment she realises how it all adds up. All at once, a thousand odd moments are explained.

‘You can read minds,’ Minoo says. ‘That’s your power. You’ve been able to do it all along.’

At first it looks as though Linnéa is going to deny it, take back everything. But then she slumps down and nods. ‘The first time we met, it was pretty new,’ she says. ‘Just before we found Elias. I knew you’d come into the toilets because you usually hid there during breaks. It just popped into my head.’

Minoo doesn’t know what to say. She thinks about all the things she’s thought about Linnéa since then, and all the things she’s thought when Linnéa’s been around. And then she thinks that Linnéa may be reading her thoughts at this very moment. ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ she asks.

‘You’re one to talk! I kept quiet because I knew everyone would react the way you are now. I don’t need to read your mind to see that you’re terrified about what I’ve heard you think.’

Linnéa seems to be on the verge of tears.

‘You don’t understand what it was like in the beginning,’ she continues. ‘Sometimes it was as if everyone I met just started screaming into my head. That was why I wrote in my diary that you gave me a headache. You think so much. But Anna-Karin was the worst. Her endless thoughts controlling others were like fucking primal screams right into my ear.’ Linnéa looks at her pleadingly. ‘But I’ve learned to control it now. For the most part. It’s only occasionally that I hear things. And I’m becoming better and better at switching off.’

‘But you were the one who really went for the principal about not telling the truth. And you were sitting there the whole time and—’

‘That was the whole point! I was trying to tell you that the principal knew a lot less than she claimed.’

‘But we could have used you right from the start! Maybe we could have found Max a lot sooner!’

‘I tried,’ Linnéa said. ‘I tried to listen to everyone who was a suspect. I listened to Gustaf and every time he thought about Rebecka he felt so guilty. I really thought it was him. I never checked up on Max because I barely knew who he was until you told us.’

‘Does anyone else know?’ Minoo asks.

‘Yes. The principal.’

Minoo has no surprise left in her. ‘How?’ she asks.

‘I read her thoughts when she showed us her scars. She thought about the man she loved and what the Council had done to him. I was shocked. And she saw that I reacted. That was when she realised it. Or she already knew. Mind-reading is common among witches. According to the book anyway.’

Minoo is quiet for a long moment. She ought to be angry with Linnéa. But Linnéa’s right. She herself is harbouring a big secret. A secret she’s not sure whether she’s ready to share with