doubt. Evil is closer than you think. It is searching for you. You must train your powers, become stronger together. You need each other.’
Rebecka thinks she hears whispers of agreement coming from the forest. Like the concurring voices of invisible creatures all around them. In the next moment Ida looks straight at Rebecka, and a voice fills her head, a warm, loving whisper.
You must lead them, Rebecka. They won’t like it, but they need you. It is your task to deepen the bond between you. But it is our secret. No one else must know that I have given you this charge. Do you understand?
Rebecka can only nod. Ida looks at her gratefully, then turns to the others. ‘Trust each other. Trust Nicolaus. Soon he will remember more and be of help to you,’ she says.
Ida gazes sadly at Nicolaus. His ice-blue eyes are glistening. ‘Trust no one,’ Ida continues. ‘Neither your parents, nor your brothers and sisters. Not your friends. Not even the love of your life. And remember, the Circle is the answer.’
Ida sinks towards the ground. Minoo runs up to her. Rebecka and the others follow. They all gather around Ida.
‘Who are you?’ asks Minoo.
‘I am you. You are me. We are one. The Circle is the answer.’
‘What kind of evil are we to fight?’
No answer. Ida’s eyelids flutter as the foreign presence leaves her body. Everything becomes still. A faint smell of smoke hangs in the air.
‘Is she … is she dead?’ Vanessa asks.
Minoo cautiously lays her fingers against Ida’s neck. ‘No.’
‘So it’s possible,’ says Nicolaus. ‘You are the Chosen One. All of you.’
Rebecka looks at the others. Six people with nothing in common have been brought together by something huge and incomprehensible. All of a sudden it feels completely natural that they should be here together. As if it had always been meant.
Ida opens her eyes and stares at them.
‘How do you feel?’ Rebecka asks anxiously.
‘If you don’t let me go now, I’ll scream,’ says Ida.
11
THERE WASN’T ENOUGH room for them all in Nicolaus’s old mustard-yellow Fiat. Since Rebecka and Minoo were closest to home, they had offered to walk.
Minoo glances at Rebecka out of the corner of her eye. Neither has said a word since they left Kärrgruvan. The silence is starting to become uncomfortable. Unless it’s Minoo’s imagination. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Tiny, almost imperceptible signals can become so easily amplified in her head.
In school she’s never afraid to raise her hand because, there, she knows what she’s talking about. But now, alone with a pretty and popular girl like Rebecka, she is silent.
It shouldn’t be so difficult to find something to talk about after everything that’s happened tonight. But the more she struggles to think of something to say, the more stuck she gets. Everything sounds so lame, so dull. How do they do it, all those people who babble on seemingly oblivious to the fact that most of what they say is meaningless?
‘I hope we don’t meet anyone we know,’ says Rebecka.
Minoo nods, relieved that the silence has been broken. ‘Yeah. Good thing it isn’t the weekend. Not that there’s all that many people out then either, but the chance of us bumping into someone would be greater. It should be quiet now – it’s very early still, and most people are probably asleep. Unless someone’s out walking their dog …’
Minoo feels like hitting herself. It’s so typical of her. At first she can’t get anything out because she analyses every word. Then she removes the filter and blurts out whatever comes into her head.
‘Yeah, I guess it would have to be that, then,’ Rebecka says with a smile.
They’ve reached the national road.
Minoo makes very sure that no lorries are coming before she crosses.
‘Did you know Elias?’ asks Rebecka.
‘No. You?’
‘No. But I feel as if I did …’ Rebecka stops and turns to Minoo. Her face is framed with loose coils of reddish-blonde hair. Her eyes shift between grey and blue. Her skin and features are so perfect that she almost looks Photoshopped. It’s impossible to stop staring.
‘I don’t know how to explain it,’ Rebecka continues, ‘but it wouldn’t have made any difference if we had all been best friends before this. We still wouldn’t have known each other like we’re going to get to know each other now. You know what I mean? That we belong together in a way that has nothing to do with who we were before tonight.’
Minoo hesitates. She