Chapter 15
Teodric set his jaw as he walked past the house where they’d first lived upon their arrival to this dilapidated excuse for a city. Small gutters ran down each side of the main street, carrying filth of all sorts out to sea. The month-long voyage across the ocean had done enough to fray his mother’s already fragile nerves. Her first sight and smell of Nortelon snapped them.
Or so he’d thought.
But fate had other, cruel plans waiting up its sleeves.
Frederick’s disappearance drove Aurelia, forever, from her own right mind. Duke Amastacia’s final victory over the Adhemar family.
Teodric scowled at the dirt path that twisted over to the market. He stopped by Smitty’s flower stand to bring a gift home to his mother. “Anything pink and pretty,” he told the smiling gardener. He ad
