Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) (25 page)

“Princess Marie, my apologies,” Mona said quickly, causing me to frown. “I didn’t hear you calling. I’m very sorry. Did you need something?”

My frown relaxed, and I attempted to smile at her. I failed. So I settled for reassuring her that she hadn’t done anything to apologize for. “I didn’t call you.”

“Oh.”

“I was just…you know, looking around,” I shrugged.

“Oh,” she said again. “Can I get you something? Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Um…no, I’m fine,” I told her. “I’ll just go back to the room.” There was nothing interesting there to see. Well, there was, but I wasn’t in the mood.

“As you wish, Princess,” I heard Mona saying after me. I headed back to the bedroom using the sunroom doors since it was the only way I knew. I wanted to see the whole place, but I was in no mood for that at all.

I paced the bedroom back and forth just like I had in the sunroom, abusing the heck out of my fingers as I fisted my hands together, gripping tightly and causing my frustration to get even wilder.

On the bed, I found myself once again wishing for nothing except for Janna to do what she had promised she would–fast, so I could stop this craziness inside of my mind and my heart. It was getting really ridiculous and it needed to stop. As soon as possible.

I wanted to get some sleep, hoping that with sleep the stupid night would just pass and I’d find a new day that might bring me freedom along with it.

A new day might bring me the prince, as well…
I shrugged the thought away. It was meaningless, just like any other thought I had ever had about
him
being good.

I was taking off the heeled sandals which matched my dress as I sat on the edge of the bed when there was a knock at the door. I ignored the tingle in my heart and the disappointment I felt when Mona asked for permission to come inside, and not the other person I’d expected–or better yet, stupidly hoped that it would be
him
by the door.

She smiled at me before going to the tray, intending to take it back, but stopped when she found that all of the food was untouched.

“Uh, you still haven’t eaten anything, Princess.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” I rolled my eyes, not bothering to look at her as I focused on the task in my hands.

Mona came to stand in front of me then kneeled. “Are you waiting for Prince Mazen to come back so you can eat together?”

Yeah, right!

I didn’t reply. Her hands came toward the ankle strap I was fumbling with. “Please, let me,” she said.

“I can take my shoes off myself.” I shrugged her hands away with mine.

“As you wish, Princess,” she said after a pause, getting up, but not leaving; it was driving me mad.
Everything
was driving me mad.

“Um, it’s been less than an hour since Prince Mazen left. He might stay out longer than that; he always forgets time when he’s with Salma.”

I looked up at her, anger filling my gaze even more when I saw a hint of a smile on her lips, a smile that disappeared the second she saw the look in my eyes.

“Uh, I mean…I mean, you should eat something now an-”

“Take the freaking food, and get the heck out of here!” I said through clenched teeth, screaming the last words with all of my might.

Mona flinched back at my tone and panic appeared yet again in her eyes, along with the sparkling of tears that were about to fall. She then nodded and walked away with fast steps, taking the tray, then leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

I emptied my lungs in a strong loud huff, throwing my sandals across the room one by one when I was
finally
able to take them off.

Less than an hour? Why does it feel like ten hours since he left?

He always forgets time when he’s with Salma? Why the heck would she tell me that? Just why? I didn’t want to know. I. Didn’t. She just assured me that she was-…

“UGH!” I gripped my hair and clenched my teeth some more. I was truly going insane.

The stupid dress I was wearing was impossible to sleep in, so I took it off–maybe also ripped it a little. When it was thrown to the floor, I found myself in the nightgown that was attached to the dress from the inside. It covered less of my body than I wanted it to cover, but I really didn’t care. I just wanted to sleep and have this stupid night end already.

The complete silence was something I’d noticed since the minute the sound of the wedding ceremonies stopped. Right after that moment, I’d heard absolutely nothing coming from outside of the bedroom, or even the whole wing. I would’ve appreciated that now that I wanted to sleep, but every time I lay on my side, I’d hear my heartbeat pounding really hard and strong in my ears. I’d sleep on my other side and have the whole thing playing in my ears again. On my back, it wasn’t really any better. My head was pounding, anyway.

I spent what felt like too long tossing and turning in bed, gripping my hair in frustration sometimes when I wasn’t rubbing my stinging eyes or my forehead. It was really, really annoying.

Eventually, I guess sleep found me, but it still left me too soon, because when I tried closing my eyes again, I couldn’t go back to sleep, even though it was still dark outside, as I was able to see out of the window opposite me.

I sighed and looked around wherever my eyes could reach from my spot on the pillow, not really focusing on anything in particular. Moments later, my eyes caught something on the nightstand beside the bed. I sat up to look at it and see what it was, frowning when I noticed that it was a jewelry box similar to the countless ones I had received over the past few days–and getting confused because it was a new one I hadn’t seen before.

I looked around the room, my frown and confusion transforming into anger and rage when I saw the prince sitting in one of the armchairs across the room, sleeping peacefully as if there was nothing going on at all.

I got out of bed and went to where he was sleeping. Though I didn’t want to do anything but yell at him for being so rude and disrespectful to me, I couldn’t do it for some reason. Maybe I was so mad that I couldn’t even talk, maybe I didn’t know where to start with my yelling, maybe I…didn’t want to disturb him. I just couldn’t. And it drove me even madder. Of course.

When I didn’t know what to do with myself, I went to the bathroom and did more pacing, knuckle-cracking and hair-gripping. I brushed my teeth, then my hair just because I couldn’t find anything better to do.

I could’ve been in the bathroom for hours, or maybe just half an hour, I wasn’t sure, but when I came out and found the prince just the same as I’d left him, I knew that I’d only spent a few minutes in there. I had no idea why time was really strange like that tonight.

Because I couldn’t take it anymore, I pulled the bathroom door shut with force, causing a loud bang that did as I’d hoped, and startled the prince awake.

His head jerked to where I was standing since that was where the noise had come from. “Princess,” he said sleepily. “You’re awake!” He rubbed his eyes then smiled lazily at me.

I folded my arms in front of me, my eyes gazing down at him with a stern look, causing confusion to be painted on his forehead, as if he really didn’t know what he’d done at all. “Welcome back, your majesty!” I said sarcastically. “Was I supposed to wait for your highness? Is that a rule? Or a tradition that says
‘I shall wait forever for you to come back because it’s too disrespectful of me to go to sleep before you’
?”

The prince stood up, scratching the back of his head, the frown not leaving between his eyes. “Are you okay, Princess?” he asked, and then his eyes moved lower, way lower than my eyes–to my chest–and lingered there for a few moments. The frown magically left his forehead and something shifted in his eyes when they met mine again.

I groaned in frustration, leaving him standing there as I made my way to the sunroom, trying once more to calm down a bit because what I was doing looked silly, even to my own eyes.

A few minutes later, I felt something soft being placed on my shoulders. I looked down and found it to be some sort of a fluffy scarf–with the prince’s hands securing it in place. I looked up at him from over my shoulder and he smiled. My nostrils flared and I yanked the scarf off of me, throwing it to the floor.

“Ok-kay…” the prince said. “I’m just afraid you might get sick again.”

No answer.

“Are you mad at me or something?”

Nothing.

“Is this because I left without explaining?”

“Huh! So smart. No wonder you just graduated from medical school,” I said, and even with my back facing him, I still rolled my eyes.

I heard him sighing. “You have every right to be mad. I’m sorry, Princess.”

“You apologize too much,” I told him.

“Believe it or not, I rarely ever apologize to anyone.”

What does that mean? If he apologized to no one, why was I any different?

“Maybe you shouldn’t have put yourself in this situation then,” I snapped.

The prince sighed again. “Yes.” He paused. “It’s just–Salma is too important to me, and-”

“I don’t want to hear it!” I said with a loud voice, cutting him off mid-sentence. “Do you really think I want to hear about the whore you were with?” My eyes started stinging suddenly.

How could he?

“Um, my whore?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I made sure that my apology sounded as fake as it could be. “Am I using the wrong term? Oh, yeah, I know, you call your whores
‘harem’
!” Venom laced my voice as I spoke the words to the glass walls in front of me.

The silent pause that followed that was too loud in my ears and I wanted to scream my head off. I wanted him to say something, anything. But at the same time I was really scared that whatever he was going to say would hurt me even more, and I wanted him to stay silent.

Why I was hurt by the thought of him with another woman was beyond me.

“You think I was with my
harem
?” he asked.

“Whatever!” Tugging at my heart and sickness in my stomach were the two feelings that dominated everything I was feeling at that moment.

Another moment of silence passed. “Are you
jealous
, Princess?” Even without actually seeing him, I was able to tell that he was smirking; I could hear it in his voice.

I spun too fast to face him, finding myself standing so close to his body that we were almost touching. “Absolutely not!” I was completely offended by his suggestion of me being jealous. Over
him
of all people.

What a ridiculous thing to say!

The
jerk
was seriously smirking just like I knew he was, and I found myself with a desperate need to wipe it off of his face. I wanted to hurt him. “I’d have to care about you first to be jealous.” I held my chin high, pulled the smuggest face I could manage and smirked, knowing full well that those words would hurt him and the smirk on his face would be gone, just as I wanted.

I was wrong.

The prince smiled one of those dazzling, crooked smiles of his and looked at me through his long, thick dark eyelashes before inching his face even closer to mine and whispering near my ear. “Exactly.”

“Huh!” I gave him my back again. I couldn’t stand for him to be that close to me, smelling so freaking good, while facing him. It did things to my heart, things I didn’t like. “You’re delusional!”

The prince didn’t say anything, and again, it was driving me nuts. “I only believe that it would’ve been nice if you cared enough to tell me where you were going, to not just leave like that, as if there was an earthquake or something.” I tried to fill the annoying silence.

“You’re right…I shouldn’t have done...that. I really wasn’t…thinking.” His voice was a bit strange and his words were kind of slow.

I looked at him over my shoulder to see what he was doing, why he was speaking that way, as if he was distracted or not really paying attention to how he was speaking. My eyes widened and I spun once again and faced him. “Were you just checking out my butt?” I gasped.