Page 69 of The Seducer
Athena swallowed before she asked the question. “Why do you idolize Magni so much?”
“I don’t idolize him. He’s just my best friend, that’s all.”
“But how can you be friends with someone who kidnaps women?” She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll bet he has even killed people.”
“First of all, Magni doesn’t go around kidnapping women in general. He only did it to you. Secondly, his job is to secure peace and stability in the Northlands. Of course he has killed people. If he hadn’t, they would have killed him and his family.”
A small triangle formed between her eyebrows when she frowned. “You’re friends with a murderer.”
“Don’t call him that. Magni is a warrior, Athena. And a damn fine one too.”
“But human lives are precious.”
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but some humans are scumbags who only bring misery and pain to others.”
Athena spoke in a low whisper. “But Finn, how can Magni live with himself without feeling remorse for the lives he has taken? And how can you not hold it against him?”
I looked down, knowing that I could never make her understand, unless I opened her eyes.
“You think everyone is kind and good.” I sighed. “There’s an innocence and pureness to you that I envy and resent at the same time. The thing is, Athena, you have no idea what really goes on in the world. What good people are capable of when it’s a matter of survival.”
Athena lay quiet, and just listened to me.
“You talk about being open-minded but at the same time you’re judgmental.”
She protested. “How can you say that? I haven’t judged you, have I?”
“Yes, you have, and you don’t even know the worst of what I’ve done.”
Her eyes widened.
“If you want to judge Magni for killing, then you’ll have to judge me too.”
Athena blinked and her nostrils widened in a big inhalation of air. “I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true.”
“No, I’m sensing kindness in you. If you were a murderer, I would feel it,” she exclaimed and kept blinking those green eyes of hers in confusion.
It was tempting to let her believe that, but with another deep sigh, I admitted my secret to her.
“When I was fifteen years old, I killed one of my mentors.”
She breathed in shock. “No.”
“Yes.”
“Was it an accident?”
I had propped myself up on my elbow and shook my head. “No, it wasn’t an accident. I hated him and I had fantasized about killing him for years.”
Her hand flew to her mouth, and then Athena pulled back a short distance. I didn’t blame her.
“The truth is that I kicked him to death,” I said. “His name was Johnson, and he was the meanest son of a…” I stopped myself. “For years he tortured me and the other students, and it didn’t stop until Magni came along.”
“Did Magni go to the same school as you?”
I nodded. “He had only been at the school for about three months when it happened.” My eyes locked with Athena’s and I saw tears forming in her eyes. “Magni and I weren’t friends, but he was the only person brave enough to stand up to Mentor Johnson. Probably because, Magni being the son of our ruler, Johnson never gave him a hard time like he did with the rest of us.
