The Seduction of Jac Frost (by Tatienne Richard) novel Chapter 65

Walking Away Part I

Original composition by Tatienne Richard exclusively for My

Fiction. If you’re reading this elsewhere it has been stolen from the platform.

Jacqueline looked at Winika as their plates were set in front

of them and watched in awe as the woman dumped a heaping helping of maple syrup over the breakfast.

“I love maple syrup,” Winika met her eyes with a big smile.

“Jack always tells me I was probably born in a honeysuckle

because I like all things sweet.”

Jacqueline smiled at the revelation. “I always thought it was

a deprivation thing for me. We didn’t get treats often growing

up so when I did, I gorged. Maybe it’s just genetic though?”

“It was bad, wasn’t it? I heard my flowers crying and I knew

you were hurting. Less the last several years but in the beginning I felt your despair so many times.”

“I didn’t know anything different,” she shrugged as she speared a strawberry, swirled it through whipped cream, and popped it in her mouth. “All I ever knew was foster

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homes and temporary families. It sucked when other kids would be adopted out and I’d be left behind because of

my illness. Nobody knew why I was blue other than it was a

strange oxygen illness not yet identified in the world. Foster

parents were not keen on bonding too closely with a kid who

might actually die while they were watching over her. I would

turn cold and blue.” She saw the sadness in Winika’s gaze, “turns out, it’s just Frost genetics.”

“I don’t turn blue.” Winika said quietly.

She was surprised by the comment. “What?”

“I am one of the Northern Realm’s fae who don’t turn blue. There are some out there. We are all a mixed bag of tricks at this point in our evolutionary journey. So many southern and northern fae have mated and expanded over the millennia. The genes which depict strength and power tend to be the more predominant ones so for example, seeing a fae turn blue, you know it’s someone of a royal fae bloodline and not to mess with them. If you’re of the southern fae and you see how fast they can move or the ability to blend in anywhere, almost always it’s a southern fae thing. Southern fae are

uncannily charming, swift, and cunning, so very cunning. Fawn in her youth once got word of a group of men who were stealing fae for their own purposes and she managed to 2/6

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charm her way right in with a few whispered spells and then before the leader knew what hit him, she moved so fast and slit his throat,” Winika made a swiping motion across her neck, “he was dead before he knew the princess was there. Fast. Northern are built brawny and blue. Southern are built smiling and lethally fast. I,” Winika shrugged, “come from a northern family with a lot of southern influence and none of it royal. I have powers but not the way my husband or son or daughters have.”

“You can talk to the plants.” Jacqueline shrugged. “I think it’s pretty cool how you can communicate through flowers.”

“It’s lame.”

“Says who?”

“Jacinta,” Winika whispered as she cut up her waffles, “she likes to tease me since I’m not as powerful as my offspring.”

“You do know she’s an asshole, right?”

Winika looked up in alarm, “oh no. She doesn’t mean it to be hurtful. Fae love to tease one another.”

“Teasing shouldn’t mean hurting. When words hurt you, 3/6

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Winika, it’s not okay. She is the kind of person who would see a person crying with a broken heart and make fun of their

snot bubbles.” Jacqueline stabbed a banana and grunted, “seriously. She has no compassion in her entire body.”

“She cried when you were abducted.” Winika offered weakly.

“She cried because it was required of her as the elder sister

to an infant she never wanted around. She is your child; you

are her mother. Surely you can recognize as a parent when she is being fake and phony or is this ability to fool even those closest to her one of her superpowers.”

“No. She is charming and sweet.”

“She’s manipulative and sly.” Jacqueline countered.

“She is not a cruel person. She would not have hurt me the way you think she did.”

“Winika, I know as a parent you want to protect her.”

“You don’t know. You’re not a parent. You’re right. I know my children. I know she wouldn’t have done what you are accusing her of. She loves me far too much to have caused

me such pain.”

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“What if it’s not about you, Winika,” Jacqueline pushed softly.

“What if it wasn’t about your pain but hers?”

“Hers?”

“What if she was feeling her own kind of pain and the best way to ease her pain was to get rid of me?”

“She wouldn’t. She’s not so cruel.”

“What if she wanted something she knew was intended for someone else and she realized she was never going to be able to get it and so she got rid of the competition in order to try to get her own way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what if she wanted my mates and when I was born she saw with her gifts they were meant for me?” She saw she had Winika’s attention now, “what if she knew she was going to lose her place as their playmate,” she knew the word sounded sordid, “and decided if she couldn’t have them, neither could I? I’ve seen her with them, Winika. I see the way she hangs off them and begs them to pay attention to her. She clings and bats her lashes and flirts outrageously with

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them. It had to hurt her to discover that while she was never

their mate her baby sister, the newbie coming in, was going

to take over the relationship she wanted so much. Not only

was this new baby going to take the attention off her from

her parents and brother, but she was now going to take her

two best friends, the men she fantasized about and take her

place with them too.”

Winika shook her head, “she wouldn’t.”