Page 56 of The Mentor
“You stay safe, all right?”
“Enough with this love fest.” Magni rolled his eyes but couldn’t hide a small smile.
I kept my goodbyes short, and soon after, the children waved as Magni’s drone disappeared in the distance.
“Who is going to train us now?” Raven asked me. “We’re still going to learn how to fight, right?”
“Of course you are. In fact we’re going to be having a session right now and Marco will be your new trainer.”
Raven turned her head to look at Marco and her little nose wrinkled up in disapproval. “But Magni was the best fighter in the whole world,” she complained.
“What are you saying?” I asked the girl and crossed my arms. “You don’t think Marco can teach you anything?”
“I guess,” she muttered.
“Hey, look at me,” I commanded. “Why aren’t you excited about Marco teaching you?”
Her small shoulders bobbed in a shrug, but then she leaned closer and muttered in a hushed voice. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful of Marco, but he doesn’t look half as scary as Magni.”
“Hmm.” I took a minute to look at my assistant, trying to see the young man through her eyes. Marco might not be as scarred, tattooed, or menacing to look at as Magni, but at Marco’s six-foot-three he towered over her, muscled and broad-shouldered.
“You really don’t think he looks scary?” I asked.
“No.” She shook her head. “Marco is the pretty one, that’s why all the girls like him.
Marco swung his head and gave me a disgusted look. “Did she just call me pretty?” he asked with a grimace.
“I think she did,” I confirmed with a grin.
Raven tugged at my shirt and signaled that she wanted to whisper something to me, so I bent down.
“You want to know a secret?” she asked and I nodded.
“Rochelle, Paysey, and Nicki are all in love with Marco.”
I pulled back with my eyebrows raised. “Is that right?”
“Uh-huh!” She gave me a conspiratorial glance and looked back at him.
“What are you two whispering about?” Marco asked and came to stand next to me.
“Nothing,” Raven said too quickly.
“Raven wonders if you’ll be any good as a trainer. She only wants to train with the best?”
Marco took the challenge with a charming grin. “Why don’t we find out?” he said and called to the boys. “Any of you little boys wanna fight me?”
Ten hands flew into the air and he signaled for them to circle around him.
“So, Raven?” he called to her. “If I can take down all the boys, will you be impressed?”
The Nboys were excited by the challenge and ran to get their safety gear. My concern was that Marco might be in over his head, because he hadn’t been training with them like I had. As per my instructions, Marco had kept close to Magni and trained with the children from the Motherlands instead. I had no doubt that Marco could take down nine ordinary schoolboys. After all, I had trained him myself and he was an excellent fighter. But these boys were handpicked and they were advanced for their age. Hell, I wasn’t even sure Magni or I could handle the full pack if they attacked us all at once.
“This will be interesting,” I said and took a step inside the circle that the boys had formed around Marco, who closed his thin safety vest and put on the protective gloves before he stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders to warm up.
“To make it last a little longer, I want only two of you to attack at the same time,” I instructed the boys.
“Can I do a one on one?” Solomon asked. “I want to take Marco down by myself.”
