Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) (15 page)

Oh, and I was stuck, too.

The Queen Mother looked at me as she spoke more words, but looked at the prince when she finished. He then locked his eyes with mine for a moment before smiling beautifully and nodding.

I knew they were talking about me, and it made me even more annoyed that I didn’t know what they were saying.

So, I asked, “What did she say?”

“Um, she says that you’re the most beautiful girl she’s ever seen.”

Do you know what redder than a tomato looks like? Yeah, I was even redder than that.

And, he had nodded to that…

I smiled at her and looked down in shyness, feeling as if the heat of my blush would burn my skin at any moment.

The Queen Mother patted my head gently and moved her hand down my hair several times, while whispering some words in a quiet voice to herself. I looked at the prince to see him looking at what was going on with a smile in his eyes, asking him with my own eyes what she was doing.

He replied in a low voice as if not to disturb her, “She’s saying some verses of the Quran, our holy book, to protect you from envious eyes,” he explained. “She believes the girls and women in the kingdom will be jealous of your beauty and will envy you, so she’s protecting you from them, afraid something bad will happen to you.”

Oh! How nice of her!

“Something bad like what?”

“Sickness, troubles, sadness,” he shrugged.

“It’s really kind of her.”

“She likes you a lot,” he smiled, and I mirrored his smile.

When the prince’s grandmother was finished, she handed me another thin, square box that was a lot slimmer than the many boxes I’d gotten over the past couple of days. I opened it with another ‘thank you’.

Oh, my God!

I was so mesmerized by the sight in front of me that I didn’t pay attention to his granny as she spoke. What finally got my attention was the prince asking me if he could take the box.

I didn’t want to give it to him for some reason. I wanted to hug it and sleep beside it at night, but figured it’d make the prince wonder about my sanity. I didn’t want that, so–despite myself–I nodded.

He took the piece of wonderfulness out of the box and stood beside me. I knew immediately that he was going to put it on me, and it made me smile.

If I hadn’t seen the two white gold hairpins attached to the sides of the jewel, I would’ve mistaken it for a necklace. It was some sort of a crown, but it wasn’t the hard material kind that stood two feet above the head. No, it was soft and shaped like a bandanna, only it was decorated with white gold and diamonds all over it. When the prince put it above my head, a few parts of it dangled, resting on my forehead like gold-and-diamond bangs, and the rest of it rested above my hair and ended at the middle of my back.

I had diamond bangs on my forehead, people!

The prince secured it in place, taking his sweet time as he adjusted locks of my hair above the pins to cover them. I felt his knuckles touching the back of my neck softly as he dragged his right hand down it, sending shivers down my spine and more warmth to fill my heart.

I found myself wishing he wouldn’t move his hand away.

While still wearing my sort-of-crown, I only had soup for lunch: no salad, and none of the other delicious-looking food that was calling to me. Doctor’s orders. I couldn’t complain.

“Does it bother you when we speak in Arabic in your presence?” the prince asked out of nowhere.

I was taken aback by the fact that he noticed my annoyance with the subject, and I went with the truth. “A lot,” I nodded.

“I won’t do it again, and neither will Mona. I promise.”

I was grateful. Very grateful, to be honest. But I couldn’t believe he would be that–nice. Could he?

Games.

Traps.

I shrugged the voices in my head away, and politely thanked him, then took another spoonful of my soup as the prince ate whatever was on his plate.

A knock on the door echoed into the silence.

“Come in.” The prince smiled at me, earning a smile back.

If I didn’t already know that she was Mona at the door, I wouldn’t have recognized her. She had a black face cover on, I had no idea why. She was about to say something, but the prince interrupted her. “Speak only in English from now on in the princess’ presence, please,” he ordered gently.

“Yes, Prince Mazen,” Mona said. It made me smile. It had felt like I was in the dark, and someone finally turned on the light. The fact that I would now be able to understand what they said to each other and not just the words that were directed to me made me feel somewhat
safer
.

But my smile faded right away, and I wished she would’ve kept speaking in Arabic instead. Because, then, I would’ve never understood her next words, and it would’ve been a blessing.

“Mr. Yoseph wants to speak alone with Princess Marie.”

I swallowed thickly.

I wasn’t expecting that–at all. I hadn’t expected to see
him
again so soon. Upon reflection, I really hadn’t thought about seeing him again. Not like I thought I’d never see him
ever
again; I knew he was around somewhere, but I didn’t think about what would happen when we met.

And now that it had happened, and he wanted to meet with me…my blood ran cold just thinking about it. Something that just a few days ago, had someone told me I’d feel that way about seeing my own brother, I would’ve found foolish.

My heartbeat sped up: something that had happened to me more times than I’d like to admit since I’d come here. And I didn’t like the feeling. Not for a second.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. It didn’t work.

I let it out, thinking that my heartbeat would slow down a bit. It didn’t work.

I repeated it, again. Still, no use.

“Sign the fucking papers, you selfish bitch!”

“Princess?” I felt a hand brushing mine, and automatically I flinched away, holding my hand to my chest and staring at him with eyes that were tingling with uninvited tears, tears that were fighting with me to be shed.

“Are you okay?” he asked in a low voice, his eyes pitying me; it was so obvious.

I hated it.

A tear falling was my answer.

The prince got up, motioning to Mona with his head to leave, which she did after a nod of her head. Then he knelt in front of me, his green eyes full of concern and never-ending shades of sadness.

It was the same pose my brother had taken when he pleaded with me to sign away my soul to the…
prince
.

“You’re so fucking selfish, Marie. I can’t even find a word for your selfishness!”

“Princess, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” the prince said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.

He knew what I was thinking. He knew the thoughts in my head were eating away at my soul. He knew I was disturbed by the request Mona had just delivered. He knew that it wasn’t something that I wanted to do.

But, it needed to be done. I’d have to meet with him sooner or later. And I knew I’d better do it now.

“It’s seems like it’s all I’ve been doing lately,” I told him, and he waited for me to continue, so I did. ‘‘
Everything
that I don’t want to do.”

He hung his head, the tenderness that he had just been looking up at me with now gone. For some stupid reason, I wanted to move my hand through his hair, and remove that look I saw flashing in his eyes when I spoke, and the words along with it.

I didn’t do it. I only wiped my tears away, held my head high and then I announced, “I’m going to meet with my brother.”

The toughness with which I tried to fill my insides was nothing but a fake dream that I couldn’t force to come true, no matter how hard I tried.

I was a shaking mess.

Still, I knew I could do it. I just
had
to do it. Maybe he was here because he knew of his mistake and the wrong he had done me. Maybe he was here to offer me a way out. Maybe he was here to take me back home.

I hoped.

“I’ll be in the sunroom,” the prince informed me once I was ready to see my brother.

I nodded hesitantly, but once he turned around to leave, I felt as if the room was spinning. I stopped him, “Wait!” and he did.

“I, uh, I don’t want to meet with him in here,” I admitted. “Please, I know it’s too much to ask, but I c-can’t.” My voice was shaking and my lips were trembling, unshed tears tingling in my eyes and hitched breaths caught in my throat.

I couldn’t imagine myself meeting with him here again. It brought back one the darkest memories in my whole life, the memory of my brother holding a gun–a gun that was pointed toward my head and ready to be used.

I couldn’t breathe normally.

“Hey, hey,” the prince whispered after he hurriedly took the two steps that parted us and stood right in front of me. It seemed like his hand was just about to caress my cheek, but he thought better of it and moved it away immediately, maybe thinking about how I had shrugged the very same hand away not ten minutes ago. Little did he know that I was desperate to feel anything a nice caress on the cheek would offer, any of the warmth and tenderness I knew that–strangely–his touch would make me feel, anything to replace the fear and panic that were filling my heart. Anything. Anything at all.

“It’s
not
too much to ask, it’s not,” he told me. “You won’t see him here, you won’t,” he reassured me, his hand touching my arm softly, his touch barely there as if he was still afraid I’d push it away. “You won’t break the rules if you meet with your brother in any room that is connected to this room. Don’t worry about it, Princess, don’t worry about it.”

I was grateful. It meant so much to me that I wouldn’t have Joseph here in the same place where he’d destroyed me with his words and his actions, and killed a part of my soul along with it. I attempted to smile at the prince, but it came out more like a grimace. I kept avoiding his gaze; I couldn’t bear his look of sympathy that I knew would be there. I looked pathetic, I sounded pathetic, and I really
was
pathetic.