Fathoms of Forgiveness (Sacred Breath, Book 2) by Nadia Scrieva Page A

it,” Aazuria admitted. “Launching a full-throttle attack on Zimovia just to rescue Corallyn? It is exactly what Vachlan expects us to do. So many people will be injured on both sides. There will be more mass cremations… if Vachlan is even respectful enough to properly cremate the bodies of my people.”
    “You can’t abandon her either,” Trevain said quietly. “She’s just a little girl.”
    Aazuria nodded, noticing that although he now had knowledge of Corallyn’s true age, he still felt fatherly and protective towards her. “I love my sister, but I know that her life is not worth more than the lives of hundreds of my people.” Aazuria frowned. “The truth is that Visola is right. She is always right. It was somewhat fair of him to request one person in exchange for one person, but I cannot let her go. Visola is too precious. Do you understand that? Is it selfish of me? Am I too immature to be a leader?”
    “I hardly know my grandmother, but the idea of using her as a human sacrifice doesn’t really appeal to me either.” He placed his hands in his pockets as he observed Aazuria’s features. “As far as I understand, there is no one better qualified than you are to lead your people. I only have experience running a crew of a dozen men, which is nothing compared to your kingdom, but I know that sometimes even the right decisions feel wrong.”
    Aazuria pulled her cloak closer around herself. “I wish I could know what Elandria would do. I wish I could speak with her, but she cannot know that Corallyn has been abducted. She is fighting for her own life and it would kill her. Literally kill her.”
    “I would really like to reassure you that things are going to be okay,” Trevain said quietly, “but I have no clue in hell what is going to happen.”
    “None of us do.” 
    “In my whole life I’ve never had to deal with as much death as in the past few months,” he said. “I can only hope that the worst of it is over.”
    “It has only just begun,” Aazuria said. She turned to look at him curiously. “Can you not feel it? You have a keen intuition about dangers in the water. Do you not dread what you feel is coming? Do you not anticipate enough dead bodies to fill a few more of these volcanoes?”
    He swallowed. “This world is completely new to me. Just because I feel a certain way…”
    “Have you ever been wrong?” she asked him.
    He hesitated before shaking his head.
    “Vachlan was not always one of ours. He was not born in Adlivun,” Aazuria said. “He and my father had some kind of twisted connection. You can take the man out of the European seas, but you cannot take the European seas out of the man. My father was a conqueror at heart, although he chose to live peacefully alongside the Aleutian people. Vachlan, however… as bad as my father was, Vachlan is ten times worse.”
    “This is a rather shocking thing to learn about my grandfather. So far, everything I’ve learned about my mother’s family has been so pleasantly surprising. I’m a little bit thrown.” He frowned. “I almost wish that I had never learned about him, because it makes me think that I must be capable of the same things. I wonder how my grandmother fell in love with him…”
    “He is a heartless sociopath. Yet he is so intelligent! So charming that you wish to believe him. He plays on your inherent belief that people are good,” Aazuria said. “Do not consider it as any reflection upon yourself that you are related to this man. I spent hundreds of years wondering if I was like my father, and believing ill of myself for every similarity I had with him. I would even feel disgusted with myself when I saw that I was standing with the same posture as he would, with my hands clasped behind my back. I must believe that I am capable of more compassion than he was in order to get through each day.”
    “From what I have heard of your father, I don’t think you should worry that you are like him,” Trevain