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

“Most straight men I know can't tell the difference between green and blue. It could be any…”
    “It is her arm,” Aazuria said softly. She reached out and slipped her fingers under the cold flesh, and lifted the small arm from the case. “At least it is only her arm. She has not lost her life. As long as she was given medical attention, she will be fine. Right? She can survive without an arm.She could still be alive. Right? Naclana?”
    “There's more,” he responded quietly.
    “Tell me,” Aazuria demanded. “Tell me everything you know.”
    “Not more news,” he said, choking on the words. “There are more body parts.”
    “Which parts?” Aazuria asked, her voice rising in desperation. “Fingers and toes, that type of thing? Good Sedna, even an ear? Parts she does not need?”
    Naclana sunk his top teeth into his bottom lip. He was unable to respond.
    “Naclana!” Aazuria shouted. The man slightly recoiled from the tone of her voice, and was unable to respond.
    “If you please, Princess,” said the young guard behind Naclana, a dark-skinned woman clad in heavy armor. She stepped forward and bowed before speaking. “Throughout the last few hours we found several more cases containing all the parts of your sister's body. Among them were her limbs, head, and torso.”
    The only sound in the room was Alcyone’s muffled sob.
    “The message was written directly into her skin,” the young guard continued hesitantly. “A different word is engraved in every body part.”
    Aazuria stared down at the arm she held, rotating it to see the word carved into the tiny wrist. Her awareness of anything happening around her dwindled as she stared down blankly at the symbol. She did not notice that a few steps away, Elandria was clutching her chest and fighting a massive bout of nausea and pain. Her heart was beating erratically and quickly, and she was unable to catch her breath. The pain in her chest was spreading and there was a pounding in her head. She felt faint, and although she knew that if she focused she could probably fight her body's inclination to shut itself down, she could not conceive of any good reason to even bother trying to do this.
    “Thank you for telling me, Naclana,” Elandria signed, closing her eyes. Her knees buckled beneath her, and she began to collapse.
    Trevain gathered his senses just quickly enough to catch the falling woman. He held Elandria against him and stared up at Naclana with rage on his face. “Did you have to make a fucking PowerPoint presentation about it, man? Jesus. I despise you.”
    “Power...” Naclana’s brow furrowed in confusion, but Trevain was already leaving the room with Elandria in his arms, depriving him of an explanation. He looked at the Captain’s broad retreating back in confusion, as two of the guards in the room left to escort him. He knew that the words were meant to be insulting, regardless of the details of what they meant.
    “Mama,” Alcyone said brokenly, reaching out toward Visola for support.
    “It’s okay, baby,” Visola said, quickly moving to embrace her elderly daughter. Alcyone’s frail body shook with sobs, and Visola held her, realizing that her daughter weighed barely ninety pounds. She was greatly weakened from her time spent on land, and even more weakened by the loneliness of the psychiatric facility she had lived in.
    “I can’t… I just can’t,” Alcyone was whispering. “I need to lie down.”
    “Sure, sweetie, let’s get you to bed,” Visola said, kissing her daughter’s wrinkled forehead, which was covered with wisps of thin grey hair. “I’ll be right back, Zuri.” She looked pointedly at the guards. “Watch over the princess.”
    When Visola had taken Alcyone out of the room, carefully supporting her mother around the shoulders, only Aazuria remained with Naclana and the other guards. She had not moved from the spot where she had stood as rigid as a statue since she had learned that her sister had been