Page 19 of The Seducer
I had never seen either of his sons, but I knew his older one was fifteen years old like me while the younger was only twelve.
As the ruler and his son were almost the same height, I assumed the boy to be his older son, Khan Aurelius.
“Maybe you would like to introduce your son yourself?” Mentor Johnson asked our ruler.
Lord Aurelius raised an eyebrow before he took one step forward and spoke in a deep rumbling voice: “It is my hope that you will accept my son, Magni, as one of you. He has a bright mind and is an excellent fighter.” The way Lord Aurelius took his time to let his eyes slide over us felt like he was demanding a personal promise from each and every one of us. “You must all grow up to be strong and brave men. But no man is an island and having friends is an important part of succeeding.”
With those words, Lord Aurelius stepped back again and Magni had officially joined our school.
If his father had worried that we wouldn’t welcome him, he was wrong. Everyone wanted to be Magni’s friend. Only problem was, Magni didn’t make it easy. For one, he didn’t say much and he seemed annoyed with all the attention he got.
I was popular because of my humor and ability to make people laugh, but Magni didn’t crack a smile when I was around.
A week after he arrived, I gave up my attempts at making friends with him and accepted that he was a loner by nature. Not everyone was as smart as me, and some of the boys who couldn’t get his attention in a positive way resorted to provoking him. Two broken arms and four concussions later, even the boys my age were afraid of Magni, and no one dared provoke him anymore. He seemed content to be left alone, which is why I was shocked when a few weeks later, he spoke to me for the first time.
“Hey, you.”
I was returning from the study hall to my dorm and saw Magni sitting on a bench alone. At first, I turned around to see if he was speaking to someone behind me, but no, Magni had spoken to me.
I thought about telling him that sitting on the backrest with his feet planted on the seat of the bench wasn’t allowed, but I didn’t want to poke the bear, so I kept quiet.
“What’s your deal?” he asked with a deep scowl on his face.
Not wanting to be the next person to go down with a broken bone or a concussion, I took a small step back and held up both my palms. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“Oh yeah? Then why the fuck do you keep provoking Mentor Johnson? I’ve been here for three weeks and you take more punishment than any of the other kids here.”
My heart started racing and my palms grew moist. “Johnson is just an ass, that’s all.” I shrugged to make it seem like I didn’t care.
Magni crossed his arms. “What are you, stupid?”
“Yeah, something like that.” I backed away until I felt safe enough to turn my back on him. Then I ran as fast as I could, thinking my secret was safe. That was before I truly understood Magni’s observant nature, and how determined he would get, once he was onto something.
CHAPTER 7
Irony
Athena
I woke up to Finn making a deafening whistle that made me sit up straight, my hair in disarray, and my eyes popped wide open. “What happened?” I shrieked.
His chuckle made it clear that the mill wasn’t on fire.
“You have two seconds to untie me or you’ll have a wet bed,” he warned.
“You could have just woken me up like a normal person,” I grunted, displeased.
“Ah, yes, but where would the fun be in that?”
With fumbling fingers, I started working on the first knot, while blinking and trying to wake up, but Finn only stressed me further by whispering: “Come on, Athena, hurry up.”
Tired, and not thinking straight, I climbed over Finn to untie the second knot, but this time the knot wouldn’t give.
“Oh wow, and here I thought that you didn’t like me,” Finn said in a sultry voice. “I guess I was wrong or you wouldn’t be rubbing your tits in my face, would you now?”
My inner peacemaker was thrown off by his rude suggestion that I was coming on to him.
“Just trying to save my mattress here,” I muttered and got the knot untied.
