Read Online Even Hell Has Knights (Hellsong) by Shaun O. McCoy - Free Book Online

his mouth. He swallowed it quickly. The burning sensation went down his throat and disappeared into his stomach.
    “Wow.” He coughed a couple of times, his eyes watering.
    She punched him in the shoulder. “Good boy, did you like it?”
    “That was probably the most disgusting thing I’ve had in my life.”
    She smiled and licked her front teeth. “So you want some more then?”
    “ Sure.”
    The second swallow didn’t taste any better, but he found the burn of the liquid pleasant for some reason.
    Alice leaned back against the wall and looked out into the Kingsriver chamber. Arturus did likewise.
    “Do you ever think you’re better than us?” she asked. “Because you weren’t damned? You think you would have made it into heaven if you were on Earth?”
    He thought for a moment. “You cannot judge what you do not know. I have no idea what people do to get sent here.”
    She nodded, and took a long swig of bloodwater. “Me neither. I’m betting I was sent here for my tattoo.”
    “You had a tattoo? Like Hidalgo?”
    “Not like him!” she said, sitting up into a kneeling position. “It was right here.”
    She turned around and pulled up the bottom of her shirt. Arturus’ heart picked up speed. She pointed to her lower back. “It was a tribal, except it had vines and flowers going all around it. It was my tramp stamp.”
    “Tramp stamp?”
    “Sure was. Now it’s gone though. Hell swallowed it up, so I’m not a tramp anymore.” Her stomach rumbled audibly. “Sorry about that.”
    “No problem. I know it’s been hard.”
    She pulled her shirt back down and turned back around.
    “I don’t have any more food,” he said, “but I have some hungerleaves you can chew on if you want.”
    She accepted one. “Thanks, buddy. It’ll help keep me awake too. I love hungerleaf, it’s an optimistic plant.”
    “How do you figure?”
    “It has three points, so it has to be. Sinfruit leaves, they have four points, so they’re pessimistic. Watch, I’ll show you.”
    She leaned up to the edge of the Kingsriver chamber. From their height, perhaps forty feet or so, the mist seemed to cover everything like a blanket. She ripped off one of the points of a dark green hunger leaf and tossed it. Arturus watched it fall into the mists below.
    “Aaron loves me,” she said, and ripped off another point. “Aaron loves me not.” And another. “Aaron loves me. See, all out of leaves. With hungerleaf, all the men love you.”
    Does she really love Aaron?
    Arturus felt his throat tighten. “All the men?”
    “All the men.”
    “Even Mancini?”
    “Eww!” Her eyes went wide. “I’d make sure to use a sinfruit leaf for him. So what’s it like, Turi, growing up without a woman in your life.”
    He shrugged his shoulders. “Not sure really what to compare it to. What would I be missing?”
    “Well, women can teach you things.”
    Now that could be interesting.
    “Like what?” he asked.
    “I don’t know. A different perspective. Intuitive things.”
    “Galen says that female intuition is an oxymoron.”
    Alice’s eyes narrowed. “Does he now?”
    “Yes.”
    “We shall have to have a talk with him about that.” She laughed and threw the remains of the hungerleaf at him.
    He balled it up and put it in his mouth, letting the leaf’s sourness wash away the ugly aftertaste of the bloodwater.
    “It must be hard for you,” she said. “There’s no girls in the village your age. How are you going to find love?”
    “You’re my age,” he said, looking down to the Kingsriver mists.
    “Turi, I’m at least three years older than you.”
    He nodded. “Maybe, but I’ll catch up.”
    Her laugh was delightful.
    Those three years won’t mean as much as time goes by, and then maybe you’ll love me.
     

 
     

     
     
    Davel Mancini marched up the Fore’s stairs.
    Finally, I have the Fore to myself.
    Once a week Klein would hold a special service just for Citizens. The rest of the Citizens had agreed to