Page 123 of The Mentor
“But they’re still not going to let you get near her.”
With a sly smile and his index finger tapping at his temple, Finn said: “I already thought of that.” He looked around and lowered his voice to a secret whisper. “I lied to Pearl, telling her how incredibly sorry I am for my role in holding Athena hostage, and how I really want to ask for Athena’s forgiveness.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Surely Pearl is too smart to fall for that crap.”
Finn chuckled. “You would think that, but you know how naïve the Momsies are. They want to think that we are fundamentally good people.”
“Aren’t we?”
He smacked the back of his hand into my shoulder. “No, we’re the fucking men of the North. We do what it takes to get what we want.”
I laughed. “I’m not sure I follow, but even if you get to Athena, how do you know she’s going to be willing to talk to you?”
“Come on, the woman is a priestess. I bet she believes in forgiveness and acceptance and all that spiritual shit.”
“Okay, so let me get this straight: your plan is to find Athena and apologize to her in a way that makes her like you enough to lift the curse?”
“I can be persuasive.” He winked.
“Hmm, don’t take this the wrong way, Finn, but I really hope you have a backup plan.”
Finn frowned at me. “Now you’re just being negative.”
“No, I really hope you succeed, I’m just not sure Athena is going to welcome you with open arms.”
He got up. “I guess there’s only one way to find out, and when I leave here in a few days, you can be damn sure I’m going straight to find the little pretty witch.”
“What witch?” I turned to see Magni walking toward us.
“The one you kidnapped,” Finn said.
“Ah, okay.” Magni squatted down next to me. “You’re never going to believe what just happened to me,” he said in a low rumble.
“What?” I asked. “Don’t tell me you saw Solo and Willow together again.”
“No, I doubt the fuckster will repeat that offense after your harsh punishment.”
His comment made me raise my eyebrows, because compared to his threat of death, a shaved head seemed mild. “Okay, so what happened then?”
“Mila asked me to be her father.” Magni shook his head and broke into a genuine smile.
“Are you serious?” Finn asked with his mouth open.
“Yes, and at first I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there staring at her dumbfounded.” Magni threw his hands up. “You should’ve seen the little angel. I think she thought I didn’t want her or something because her lips drooped down so sadly.”
“You fool, why didn’t you tell her you wanted to adopt her?” Finn scolded his friend.
“I did!” Magni exclaimed. “I told Mila that I’d adopt her on the spot if I could.”
“The council will never let you. They didn’t even want you to be part of our field trip,” I reminded him. “The only reason Boulder is Raven’s father now is because he’s married to Christina, who is still a citizen of the Motherlands. There’s no fucking way they’d let any of us Nmen adopt their children.”
Magni sighed. “I know. And I told her that it’s out of my control.”
“Did she understand?” I asked.
“Yeah, I think she did, but then she asked me something that made me all mushy inside.” He shook his head as if the incident still hadn’t fully registered with him. “She asked if we could just pretend that I was her daughter, and if she could call me Dad.”
The rare sight of Magni flashing his teeth in a beaming smile made a laugh erupt from inside of me.
