Page 116 of The Mentor
“What is going on?” Khan demanded as he exited the school with Pearl, Shelly, and a few of the children behind him. Pearl made sure she and the children kept their distance from Magni, who paced like a hungry lion in front of the wall of human muscle that Archer, Marco, and Boulder formed between him and Solomon.
“What happened?” Khan repeated.
Pointing accusingly at Solomon, Magni spit out his words. “I just caught this fucker kissing one of the girls behind the school building.”
All eyes turned to the corner Magni and Solomon had come from and sure enough, a terrified Willow stood with tears running down her cheeks, lips that trembled, and arms wrapped tightly around herself.
Magni roared at Solomon. “What did I tell you on the first day of school? What part of ‘Don’t fucking touch the girls’ didn’t you understand?”
“Maybe we could give him a chance to explain,” Archer suggested and held up his hands in a placating manner that unfortunately did nothing to soothe Magni.
“There’s nothing to explain, I fucking saw his filthy hands on her body and his mouth on hers.Nobodytouches the girls,” Magni barked.
Khan moved over to stand next to Magni and placed a calming hand on his shoulder. Still consumed with anger, Magni brushed it off and kept his focus on Solomon, who was still on the ground and looked like he was afraid to move a muscle.
If Magni had a scale of anger, this would have to be a ten out of ten. The veins on his neck were showing and his face was red with anger. “How long has this been going on?” he shouted and gestured to Archer and Marco. “And where the fuck were you two? She’s twelve years old for fuck’s sake.” His words were dripping with blame as he stabbed his finger in Willow’s direction.
I couldn’t stand seeing Willow so vulnerable and alone, so I signaled for Shelly to take my place with Victoria and the other girls. Quietly, I walked over and placed my arms protectively around the frightened girl.
“Why are you protecting the little fucker?” Magni hissed at the three men between him and Solomon.
Khan’s voice was surprisingly calm. “Stop shouting, will you? You’re scaring the children,” he said and didn’t show a grain of fear for his brother.
“Good.” Magni swung his whole body to speak to the Nboys, who stood to the side with Finn. “Then maybe you will think twice about doing something as stupid as Solo. Or maybe you all thought I was joking when I said I’d string you up by your puny testicles.”
The Nboys quickly shook their heads.
Magni paced some more and kept looking at Solomon, whose Adam’s apple was bobbing heavily in his throat.
“I’m sorry.” His voice broke.“I didn’t mean to do it.”
“Didn’t I tell you on the first day of school to shut your fucking mouth?” Magni shouted.
“The boy is in love,” Archer interjected, but that only made Magni snort.
“In love! Ha – if being in love with a female was an excuse to kiss and touch her, no female would be safe in the Northlands. You know as well as I do that we have strict rules for a reason.” Again Magni swung his head to the group of boys. “Every male older than ten knows what the price of touching a female is, isn’t that right?”
They collectively looked down.
“William,” Magni called. “You’re the youngest of the boys; tell me what I should do to Solo for his offense.”
William’s hands were clammed into fists and his lips were pressed firmly together, but nothing could make him say the verdict out loud.
Finn stepped in front of William. “Calm down, Magni, you are not going to kill Solo.”
“This is an experiment,” Khan said loudly, pulling all attention back to him. “We knew unforeseen things could happen and this is one of them. I’m sure Solo didn’t kiss Willow without her permission.” Khan looked to the frightened boy. “Did you?”
“No,” he said quickly and shot a pleading glance at Willow, who was sniffling from all the tears running down her cheeks.
“Speak up, Willow. Did Solo molest you or did you give him permission?”
“I wanted him to kiss me,” she said in a vague voice.
“What was that?” Khan called out.
“She said that she wanted Solo to kiss her,” I repeated for her.
“And I’ll be thirteen in two weeks,” Willow bravely added.
