Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) (42 page)

Oh! Guess I upset her as well.

“Prince Fahd, bring me the guard that drove the princess to the airport. Mona, bring me a scarf and meet us outside of the wing at the main entrance.”

“Yes, Prince Mazen,” Mona said, and Prince Fahd nodded, both going in separate directions while we continued our way through the very long anteroom.

The walk was silent apart from the sound of my heels on the marble floor. My mind was busy trying to figure out what the prince would want a scarf for. Was the one I had over my hair not enough or what?

Eventually, we made it to the great wooden door and the prince held it open for me. When we stepped outside the king’s wing, he pulled me closer to him and left his hand at the small of my back, as he looked at the guards with his head held high and his broad shoulders seeming even wider than the norm, like he always did when he was about to command something. Then we just stood there doing nothing other than looking around at the guards who were surrounding the area with their gazes lowered to the floor.

A minute or two later, Fahd entered from a door that was on the side of the room, followed by the same guard who drove the limousine.

“The guard you asked for, Prince Mazen,” Prince Fahd said.

The prince sneered at the guy, and for a moment I was scared of what would happen to him. The look in his eyes somehow mirrored the very same look I’d had when Jasem brought me here and I didn’t know what was about to happen to me.

“Do you speak English?” the prince asked the guard.

“Yes, Your Highness,” the guard replied with a heavy accent, shaky voice and lowered eyes.

“Good,” the prince said. “Were you the one to drive my wife to the airport?”

“I didn’t know she was your wi–”

“I asked you a question!” the prince shouted, interrupting him and causing both of us to flinch.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“What’s your name?”

“Bassel, Your Highness,” the guard replied, to which the prince snorted and shook his head.

“Do you know the meaning of your name, Bassel?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Courageous.”

“You sure are not. Stand in the center of the room for everyone to see you,” the prince ordered. I had to hug my arms to myself once again, so afraid of what would happen to the guard and believing that I would be witnessing his execution with my own eyes very soon.

“All eyes on me!” the prince commanded, and all of the guards looked at him as he stood in front of the guard and then spoke to him. “You weren’t aware the one in the car was my wife. For a reason someone like you should not know–it was her. Not knowing who was with you doesn’t give you the excuse of not protecting her. You were ordered to guard her and drive her safely to the airport, be it a royal or even a servant, you do as you are told!”

The guard was trying really hard to contain himself, but I could swear I was able to hear the thumping of his heartbeat.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The prince took a step closer to him, then reached for the badge over his left shoulder and ripped it, then did the same to the one on his right shoulder.

“If you cannot be trusted with our women, you are not trusted with our land,” the prince said.

“Your Highness, Prince Jasem ordered me to–”

“Prince Jasem has no power over you,” the prince yelled. “You get your orders from
me
, Prince Mazen Alfaidy, the Crown Prince, or my brother, Prince Fahd, if not from our father, the king of this kingdom, do you understand?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Mona!” the prince called the woman who I wouldn’t have expected to be Mona, for she’d had her face cover down when she entered the room a few minutes ago. “Hand me the scarf.”

Mona walked up to him and gave him the black scarf that was in her hand, and I wondered if he would strangle him with it, or what. It was a really scary and troubling thing to watch and wait for.

The prince reached with his hand again, but this time it was for the hat on the now ex-guard’s head. He shrugged it off of his head and let it drop to the floor, then offered him the scarf.

“Put it on,” the prince ordered, at which Bassel’s eyes widened at his words.

“Your Highness?” I could hear the terror on his voice.

God!

“If you can’t protect our women, then you won’t be treated as a man. Do as you’re told.”

From the tears that sparkled in his eyes as he obeyed, I knew this to be the most humiliating thing for him to do. Still, he did it. And it was a really saddening thing to see.

“Go home, you’re discharged from the army. You won’t be working in anything related to the security of the kingdom or its people whatsoever from now on,” he said. “You,” he pointed to one of the guards, who ran to stand in front of him. “Follow him. He’s not allowed to get any ride to his house, and make sure he keeps the scarf on until he arrives there.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The guard walked out with Bassel, his scarfed head hanging down in humiliation and I felt so bad for him, but then thought it was better than him being killed or punished with something else. Or maybe not…

“All of you, listen to me. This is my wife, your future queen. If anyone touches a hair on her head in your presence, I won’t order you to cover your heads, I will CUT THEM OFF. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” they said in unison, and I thought my eyes couldn’t get any wider.

“I will repeat it in the language you understand better so I’m sure that my order is clear, because I won’t take any excuses ever again in regards my wife’s safety and her honor,” he said and then did speak in Arabic, to which they replied again with something I understood to be confirmation to what they’d heard.

Right when they said the words, I heard clapping coming from behind me. I frowned, turning my head to look at the source of the sound, only to find it was the monster standing by the main door we’d come from. The stupid and silly look on his face made him look even more ridiculous than he already was.

“Bravo,” the monster commented.

“Oh, Jasem, how nice of you to join us, I was just about to call for you,” the prince said with a fake smile that told of disgust rather than anger. The next thing I knew, the prince was moving in fast and long steps in Jasem’s direction so that I had to step away, and then had him by the collar and started punching him in the face over and over again until I lost count of the fists thrown at his face.

“How dare you put your disgusting hand on my wife? How dare you touch her?” the prince said through clenched teeth as he kept punching Jasem under his jaw and in the nose while the weak monster struggled to block the punches the prince was showering him with.

“How dare you call her a name?” Another punch to his stomach and then another to his side.

“Enough!” to my surprise I heard Mona saying, but the prince didn’t stop.

“Mazen! That’s enough!” The commanding tone in her voice was more than shocking, let alone the fact that she hadn’t used a title before his name, or the fact that he did stop when he heard her.

What kind of power does this woman have over him? She is just a servant,
I wondered.

The prince then took Jasem by his collar and dragged him until he was right in front of me, pulling him to stand on his knees, his face all puffed up and bloodied so that he was now even more disgusting to look at than before.

“Now you can apologize decently and beg for her forgiveness–if she
really
accepts it;
only
then will I let you go, you jerk,” the prince shouted.

Jasem shouted back with something in Arabic and was met by a shove of the prince’s leg to the middle of his back while continuing to hold him still by the back of his collar, causing him to scream in agony, a very disturbing noise to hear.

“I–uh, I’m sorry, Princess. I b-beg your forgiveness.”

I nodded frantically. “Accepted, you’re forgiven,” and said the words in a hurry, turning my face to the side. I just couldn’t stand seeing him kneeling in front of me like that, and I just wanted him gone.

Only then did the prince let go of him. “I swear to Allah if you ever step a foot inside my father’s wing again without my permission, I will make you regret it, Jasem,” he threatened. “Take him out of my sight.”

The guards helped Jasem to his feet, and once settled, he shoved them away and walked himself out of our sight, barely able to walk at all, words that sounded like curses dripping from his mouth.

Prince Fahd came and patted his brother’s shoulder with delight shining in his eyes. “Couldn’t have done it better.” The prince shrugged his hand away, not forcibly, but powerfully enough to show how mad he still was. And then headed to an elevator after saying, “Let’s go.”

I followed him, not knowing how it would be between the two of us from now on.

Despite everything that was happening, despite the worry that had its grip on me so tightly, and the anxiety about what was to come that filled my every sense, I couldn’t help the warmth that spread deep inside of my heart when everything the prince had just done sunk in.

He’d lied to save my life. He’d punished because I wasn’t protected enough. He’d ordered and commanded to make sure I’d always be safe. He’d used his fists to deal with the one who’d treated me with disrespect.

And...he’d promised to cut heads off if a hair on my own was touched.

I couldn’t even imagine what all of this meant to me. It was making me speechless, even inside of my brain; I was speechless, as in couldn’t-even-form-a-thought kind of speechless.

I couldn’t understand why he would go this far to protect me? For what? A part inside of my head couldn’t help but wonder if there was something hidden in all of this. Like...if he had other intentions. Bad ones. I just couldn’t find a reason why would he do all of that for me.

Unless he cares for you. A lot
, something inside of me spoke.

Could it be true? That the prince had feelings for me? I really didn’t know. But the mere thought of it made my insides tingle…in a very good way, and I had no clue what to make of it.

Just like the walk through the lobby, the wait in the elevator was... Silence. The only sound was coming from the prince’s panting as he tried to catch his breaths, while leaning his body and his head back against the side wall of the elevator with his eyes closed.

Oh, how I wanted to take him in my arms, or rather
be
in his arms, but I didn’t know if it would be welcome or not. I didn’t know how he really felt about me leaving that way. Of course he wasn’t happy about it or couldn’t take it easily; after all, I did lie to him and fool him so I could try and escape.

The elevator opened to the same place which I’d come from on the night of the wedding, a foyer. The closed door nearby, I knew, led to our bedroom.

Once inside, the prince headed towards the bathroom in the corner, but I was able to stop him before he got there by catching his hand in mine. “Wait,” and then keeping my hold on it even after he stopped.

He didn’t turn my way, so I took a step or two to stand in front of him, facing him. He didn’t look at me; he just stared straight ahead, and I wished he would just look into my eyes, or that I could read him or hear his thoughts. Or that he would hold my hand back…

“I-…I just wanted to thank you. For–uh, what you told your parents. And for defending my honor,” I said softly, sincerely.

He was silent for a moment, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed before he replied, still not looking at me. “I promised that I will keep you safe as long as I breathe,” he said in a low, but firm voice.

My heart. It ached.

If you would only look at me?

“I never break my promise.”

If you would just hold my hand back?

I started feeling the now very familiar sensation of my throat closing as my tears started choking me. He was so…cold. I wasn’t used to this kind of tone from him.

I nodded my head, looking down, wanting to say something else, but not really knowing what that
‘something else’
would be. Still not wanting to let go of his hand, even if I wanted to let go of it. God! I was so confused that I was even confusing to my own self.