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

others gawked at them at the revelation, having missed most of the conversation.

“Well reasoned my love, and indeed you are correct. We are creatures of sacrifice, to put others first is no burden to us, though that is not to say we cannot be selfish in our own little ways, as I have demonstrated on more than one occasion in our bedchamber.” She winked at him and drew a giggle from the others, but her expression turned more serious as she continued; “As for the darkness of man, it can gain no hold on my soul, so I remain undaunted in the face of it.”

She sighed then, putting her face in her hands momentarily.

“That is not to say I don’t make mistakes.” She peeked through her fingers to look to Milly: “I was so focused on Escrya that I completely missed what was happening within you. I am sorry, my love.”

The Minotaur shook her head as she wiped at her nose with her polka-dot hanky and gave a huge sniffle.

“You were worried about her, and you had every right to be. She’s been such a good friend to us, and we’ve kind of taken advantage of her.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Erica said uncomfortably.

The Katje had all but attached herself to the Minotaur’s side, refusing to release her from her embrace.

“Yeah, it’s not like we took it in turns to finger-blast her or something.” Nina agreed.

“Nina!” Ophelia gasped with a blush.

“Oh shut up, you liked it.”

Nameless smiled as the Flutterby’s flush deepened, but with Milly taken care of his thoughts soon returned to the young Amazon, and his spirit fell again.

“What do we do now? Escrya was so humiliated when I held her heartstone.”

With one last kiss to Milly’s cheek, Volka moved towards the door.

“I will speak with her. Unless I have misread the situation yet again, I believe that she may yet have cause for hope?”

The Valkyrie looked to all of the faces in the room, especially the cow’s.

Milly blushed but eventually gave a little nod before speaking earnestly, if softly.

“I think maybe not right away, but I would like to see more of her, I miss training with the Saenga, and the Brael for that matter.”

“Then that is what I shall convey, my love. As I once said with regards to Kar, we do not have to make a decision immediately. I was mistaken to press the issue earlier.”

With a wink and a blown kiss, Volka took her leave.

Nina let out an impatient huff before looking around at the others.

“So, are we going back into Erica’s mind or what?”

Chapter 11:Dark Encounters

After what Rebecca believed to be the most disastrous date of her life, she avoided Carol like nobody’s business. For the last several days she had begged, pleaded, and downright bribed other couriers to deliver to the machine shop for her, too mortified to go there herself.

But the fact was it was too far out of the way from the other couriers’ routes, so inevitably she ran out of favours and therefore had to deliver the latest parcel herself.

Despite the added weight, she wished she had some flour for Cordelia; she could do with the moral support. The two of them had grown closer in the interim, the brunette having brushed off Rebecca’s apology over the soiled dress and commiserated with her over her failed date.

Even without a package for her friend though, Rebecca’s bag was full to bursting, and as such it was much later in the day than usual when the Lapine arrived at the big door leading into the machine shop.

They kept it closed in the evenings to ward of the chill so she couldn’t see inside, but she could still see light through the murky windows above.

With most of the workers gone home, the shop was quiet, but when she knocked she very clearly heard a startled oath from inside followed by the heavy clatter of something large and probably expensive being dropped.

“Um, hello? Algrade courier service.”

Though she managed to inject some volume into her voice, she was distracted by the sound of urgent whispering from the other side of the door.

“Put the lid back-”

“That courier with the ass-”

“Shaddup you idiots!”

There was a long pause from inside, which was accompanied by a fair amount of rustling until finally the last man to speak raised his voice to address Rebecca through the door.

“You’re delivering kind of late aren’t you? We were just locking up for the night.”

“Y-yeah.” She answered uncertainly.

She heard some metallic sounds as he unlatched the door, then a creak as he opened it about a foot, his face appearing in the gap.

Though unshaven, he looked much less scruffy than Carol’s other employees so Rebecca didn’t bolt at the sight of him.

“Sorry, I got... held up. Is Car- I mean, is Miss Reindel still here?”

He stared at her for just long enough to make her uncomfortable before slowly nodding his head.

“I think she’s still up in her office. You have a package for her?”

Once again he stared at her, his eyes inscrutable.

“Yeah.”

She pulled the foot long box part way out of her bag to display the evidence.

The man was acting oddly... cagey, and it was setting her on edge.

He drew in a breath, looking her up and down, then slowly nodded as he pulled the door open wide for her.

“Alright then. Sorry if I seem cautious. I’m Gregory, the night manager here.” Seeing her reticence to enter the workshop he smiled a surprisingly reassuring smile; “We can’t be too careful. This isn’t exactly a nice neighbourhood, especially at this hour.”

Surprised at his shift in demeanor, but nonetheless reassured, she stepped inside.

“Oh that’s alright, I’m sorry for the late delivery but...”

She trailed