A Different Kind of Despair Read Online Free

poles.
    "LEO!" his voice boomed.
    "That was an accident!"
    I heard him sigh directly overhead. Once
again, I tilted my head back, smiling at my unwitting husband. I
wrapped my arms around his neck, taking advantage of this
opportunity.
    "I love you," I reminded him.
    His eyebrow twitched. The corners of his mouth
quirked into a frown.
    "Is my love that repulsive to you?"
    "If I said yes would you knock it
off?"
    "No."
    He sighed. His breath carried the scent of
wheat, barley, and lemongrass.
    I kissed him full on those unguarded
lips.
    " Mff?! " When he pulled away I was
pleasantly surprised by his horrified look, turning beet-red in
fractions of a second. I felt a genuine grin return to my
face.
    "I. love. you," I repeated sweetly.
    "GODS DAMMIT, MIRAJ!"
    The tent finally came off of us. Marvin
staggered back and to his feet. Leo and Will both caught sight of
his face right before he could hide it in the crook of his arm. Leo
watched him storm off with a measure of awe, turning to me as I
rocked back and forth, quite pleased with my
assertiveness.
    "What did you do?"
    "I kissed him," I giggled in spite of myself.
"Did you see the way he left? It was like he's never kissed a girl
in his life."
    Leo's expression blanked.
    The gears turned in my head.
    My hands covered my mouth in
horror.
    " No, " I gasped.
    Leo scratched the back of his neck looking
sheepish, saying nothing to confirm or refute my conclusion. The
gears turned along some more. If Marvin had never even kissed a
girl then...
    "He's never...?" I began. "So he's...?" I
pressed my face into my palms. "I've done something unforgivable,
haven't I?"
    Leo and I peered into the distance, where we
saw Marvin rapidly relaying the events that had just transpired to
Will. Once he'd stopped with his exaggerated gesturing, there was a
brief moment of silence.
    Will then circled one arm around his abdomen
while pointing at Marvin, laughing so hysterically we could hear it
from where we were standing.
    "BWAHAHAHAHA!"
    "I'm a despicable
woman."
    "Pretty much," said Leo. "Help me finish
packing things up so we can leave once Marvin is done mourning his
lost innocence."
    I cursed myself profusely.
    "He's twenty eight!" I said, aiding Leo in
rolling up the tent. "What man past the age of eighteen hasn't yet
kissed a girl?"
    "A live one? Over half of them."
    Now it was my turn to gape. Leo looked up at
me, wondering why I stopped working.
    "What?" he asked.
    "A... live..." I cringed. "You mean you...
kiss corpses?"
    Leo shot me a disparaging glance. "If you'd
seen the selection in Nethermountain then you wouldn't be judging.
To be a man is to endure!"
    I bowed my head to the grass. "My deepest,
sincerest, most humbled condolences."
    "Marvin's my best friend," he fumed, "but damn
him for getting a wife before me. If I was kissed by a living girl
I guarantee we'd be doing a hell of a lot more than touching
lips."
    I coughed, mortified.
    The emu wandered over to us, offering Leo a
comforting rub of its head. Leo smiled.
    "Thanks, Tully. At least you're not going to
betray me like that, right?"
    I watched the emu nod, recalling its skeletal
legs.
    Huh. So these are necromancers.
    The pitiful virgins from hell.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
5: Return to the Moor
    Leo and Marvin were several paces ahead of us,
with the latter avoiding me in particular. I cursed myself over my
priorities, and the fact that that this all felt like a dream. Our
group of four was heading south. I saw the Cascadian Plains, their
low-lying fields and prairie grass patches, giving way to arid
earth and pockets of sand.
    It felt wrong to me. The loss I'd just
suffered didn't feel real. I saw the fire and the brutal attack,
but in my heart I still believed I could return and there would be
my mother discussing some matter with the women soothsayers of our
tribe. I felt impossibly selfish for being here in the company of
these very strange men, for