Dark Empathy by Archibald Bradford (inspiring books for teens TXT) 📕

his past experience with Tenebrae, it was easy for him to suss out the source of a monster girl’s distress, even in training simulations.

There was even talk of him getting an automatic pass on the subject, but he didn’t want any sort of special treatment, so he just contented himself at being the best in the class for the first time in his life.

The other branches of study however, revealed his shortcomings as a student.

While he was intimately familiar with the Aegis charter, the more complicated nuances of it eluded him, particularly when it came to questions of jurisdiction.

The Aegis was the ultimate authority when it came to monster girls and crimes committed against them, as well as any crime involving lost technology.

But the organization, while vast, wasn’t nearly monolithic enough to keep the peace in all of the city states, this is where local lawkeepers came in. The question each operative therefore had to deal with when it came to any given crime outside their purview was: is this worth my attention or can the locals handle it?

For Nameless, who was fully aware of his own idealism, the answer was... troubling.

On top of the struggles with the nuances of Aegis operating procedures, they had yet to get into Lost-Tech Applications, their instructors waiting on them to complete their first six weeks before throwing them into it.

So Nameless put it out of his mind for now, focusing on the present rather than dreading the future.

Normally when in the comfort of their dorm room he took off his Witch-charmed bracer, as his forearm got itchy if he wore it too long, and the previous evening was no exception. But as he was putting it back on that morning he noticed with no small degree of panic that Erica’s heartstone was no longer in its place next to Ophelia’s.

He opened his mouth to voice his alarm to the others but the Katje in question held up the emerald green sphere and winked at him.

When she had removed it, he had no idea.

“Been waiting for you to notice lover.” She winked at him and giggled at his flabbergasted expression; “Don’t worry about it. I’m just borrowing this for a bit.”

“O-okay?” He said uncertainly, though his relief at seeing the stone safe in her care was palpable.

She laughed again as she sauntered out of the room towards the showers with most of the other girls.

“You’ll get it back, I promise!” Her voice floated back through the open door.

At first he was left bemused, but once he took a moment to think about it he realized what she was up to.

His fingers played over Nina’s heartstone in the silver bracelet on his wrist and a broad smile crossed his face. He looked up to see Ophelia sharing his smile, having witnessed the exchange while preparing her bag for her own lessons.

His eyes flicked to the stuffed bear sitting on the end table.

Ophelia’s heartstone was always either in the bracer with Erica’s or hidden away in the teddy bear she made for him when he was a child.

Before he could give voice to what he was thinking she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

“For us monsters, for Erica and Nina and of course Milly too-” With one finger she delicately flicked the braid of Minotaur tail hair around his neck containing Milly’s heartstone; “Fashioning some means for their bond-mate to carry or display our hearts is something of a ritual. And if you will recall, I did make that bear for you, long ago. Though at the time, I didn’t intend for it to be used as such.”

Nameless wrapped her in his arms and held her close.

“I know how special that bear is to you, and me too really. So if you say that is all you need, than I believe you. But I’m sure Nina would make you something more durable, though unless I missed my guess, she is going to be busy with whatever Erica is after.”

Ophelia leaned away from his hug and kissed him on the lips before letting out a dramatic sigh.

“The one downside to being bonded to an Empath.”

“Oh?” His brow furrowed as he waited for her to finish her thought.

“It is impossible to surprise you.”

He thought about what she said, thought about all of the excited emotions coming from Erica, and had to admit she had a point.

“Maybe, but that goes both ways! Think of all the times I picked wildflowers for you when I was a kid! You always acted delighted, but how many times were you actually surprised?”

She giggled and kissed him again.

“I’ll never tell dearheart. Mmmm, actually if you want to do something nice for me, pick me some wildflowers?”

“Find my Flutterby some flowers in the dead of winter? No problem.” He replied drily as she laughed again.

Ophelia gave him one last peck on the lips by way of goodbye, but he felt the kiss was far too perfunctory so he grabbed her arm when she turned to leave and pulled her back into his arms.

Then he really kissed her.

Things were actually getting rather heated, one arm wrapping around her back while the other cupped her breast, but she broke away from him and flicked him on the tip of his nose.

“Down boy, you need to get going, I do believe you are running the obstacle course again this morning?”

“Don’t remind me.” He groaned.

Nameless had come to believe that the academy’s obstacle course was the universe’s way of balancing the scaled against him for having too many bond-mates.

Ranging from crawling up steep wooden ramps to dancing across raised pillars and rope bridges, it was a gauntlet in the truest sense of the word.

The thought of another humiliating run was more than enough to cool the