Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) (27 page)

“But–I’m here, now.” I didn’t bring him an heir, I wasn’t even… Why would he do that?

He just smiled, but said nothing.

“What if the palace was attacked? Your sister-in-law could be the first victim!”

“God forbid,” he said. “I’m sure she would be fine,” he paused, “Just like you would.”

It took me a moment to realize what he meant by that.

“Your brother taught her?”

He looked deep into my eyes, “When it comes to love, Princess, rules blur and traditions fade.”

“We’re here,” the prince announced, putting me down and keeping me in front of him after I took off the sandals.

“What are we doing?” I wondered. We were just standing in front of a wall, not doing anything.

“Look closely.”

I did.

“Can you see it?”

I nodded.

“Touch it.”

I did.

“Press.”

When I pressed the square figure that was barely noticeable on the wall, it moved to the side, revealing an electronic panel with ten numbers, from zero to nine.

I turned my head to look at the prince, and he told me to look at it again. His voice was very quiet and very close to my ear. “Do you remember which secret door we took after we left the living room?”

I closed the distance between my eyebrows in concentration. “The first?” I asked.

“Correct,” he said. “Press one.”

I did.

“Do you remember the number of the floor I pressed on the elevator?”

“Fourteen.”

“Press one then four.”

When I did, he asked, “How many tunnels did we take?”

“Two.”

“Very good, Princess.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Two is the last number.”

I smiled at my accomplishment and pressed the number, gasping and flinching, then taking a step back when I heard the loud bang caused by the wall moving up, only stopping when there was a decent gap for us to pass through to the other side.

“Do you want me to go first?” he asked.

“No, it’s fine,” I said, taking the few steps to the other side, finding my legs leading me to a ladder. I fisted the robe in my hand and climbed, pushing a wooden board when it blocked my way.

A cool breeze hit my face and my hood fell as I looked up at the dark sky, taking in everything around me. It looked like a giant garden, almost as big as the one I could see from the window in the bedroom. This one, though, had more flowers and was surrounded by tall trees. The feel of the cool grass underneath me was just as good as the sight. Refreshing and freeing, and it was only then I was glad my heel had broken.

Well, aside from the prince carrying you, holding you so close, and you getting to smell him and hear his heartbeat along with feeling his broad chest and tigh-

Shut up!

“This way, Princess,” the prince told me, his hand gesturing to the right while the other touched the small of my back.

“Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to meet the love of my life,” he smiled.

My breath hitched and I stopped in my tracks, looking at him in disbelief, feeling hurt and humiliated at the same time.

How. Could. He?

“My whores.” He continued.

That was it!

I turned to leave, my blood boiling and my heart clenching, my eyes burning with unshed tears that made my vision blur.

The prince’s hand gripped mine and he pulled me back. I didn’t turn around and struggled with him to let my hand loose.

“Let go!” My voice was full of hurt and my legs were shaking.

“Princess!”

“Let go of me!” I screamed.

My scream was met by a loud noise that sort of scared me. I looked around to where the noise had come from but I still saw nothing, though more noises made me sure of what they were, and
what
they were coming from.

It was a horse neighing.

Oh!

I looked at the prince with traitorous tears wetting my cheeks. His eyes were watching me and he offered me a small, sad smile. “Do you need me to spell it, Princess?”

I looked down.

“It’s H.O.R.S.E, Jealous, Jealous Princess,” he said, taking my face in his hands and wiping my tears with his thumbs, just like he had done before.

“I’m not jealous,” I whispered, still looking down.

“Come.”

I let him lead the way again as he kept his hold of my hand and started walking toward where he’d pointed a minute ago. A short walk later, the grass underneath my feet turned into sand as we passed through a small fence that circled the garden, and it wasn’t so hard to tell we were standing in front of a stable. A ridiculously huge stable.

“Salma is in number forty-one.” He pointed to the doors with numbers on them.

Salma is a horse?

Huh!

Wait, wait, he left the room, without explaining, and stayed away for hours…for a horse?

“Um, please don’t make any sudden moves or try to touch her; she’s a bit sensitive and insecure,” the prince said, and I nodded, even without knowing what that meant–and with a hundred questions forming in my head.

When we entered Salma’s large stall I was surprised to find a little horse–not a newborn horse, colt or a pony. She was just a little one, short, almost my height. Her coat was colored light brown and the hair of her mane and tail was a darker shade of chestnut; it looked so soft. I
wanted
to touch it.

“Princess, this is Salma,” the prince smiled while looking at her. I could see how he truly loved her, just by the look in his eyes. He took a few careful steps to stand beside her, then slowly raised his hand to touch her neck, causing her to make a low, but strong neighing. I stayed back.

“She’s beautiful,” I said in a quiet voice, watching his hand as he moved it up and down her neck slowly while looking at her face.

“She is,” he smiled, not stopping his soft rubbing over her brown coat or his loving stare. “I met her a few months ago, right after I came back from the UK. She was being sold at a horse marketplace for such a cheap price, it was shameful,” he sighed. “Salma is a purebred Arabian horse. Her kind is sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially at her young age–she’s only six,” he paused, then looked at me. “S. I. X.” He grinned, causing me to blush and look down, trying to hide my wide, as I remembered my embarrassing freak-out moment the other day.

The prince chuckled, but then continued after a moment, “They told me she was aggressive and hard–almost impossible–to tame, that’s why her price was so low. From only looking at her picture, I wanted her, because I like a challenge,” he winked.

My stomach flipped.

“I met her for the first time when she was brought here, and…” He looked at her for a moment then turned to look at me again. “It was love at first sight.”

My chest tightened.

“Her eyes…they captured my heart like I could never explain. They were fearful, but loving at the same time.” He locked his eyes with me for a moment. “She looked like she wanted to be close, but her mind stopped her from taking a step without being out for the kill.”

The prince sighed again, touching her with both hands now. She bent her head and rubbed it on his chest, causing him to smile big and move his hand through her hair.

“Salma was born for a farmer’s family, and he used to put so much weight and pressure on her that he almost broke her spine,” he said with bitterness filling his voice. “When she got really sick, the lowlife burnt her to force her into working harder, not even bothering to buy another horse to help get things done with her.”

Oh, no!

The prince pointed to her scars, and when I followed his hand, my heart broke for her.

The poor thing…

“But my baby here was so stubborn, she wouldn’t do what he was trying to force her to do, and when it got really serious and he burnt her badly, she taught him how it would feel to have a broken spine–because now he has one,” he said with pride in his voice.

“I did everything I could to get her to like me, but she wouldn’t even let me near her,” he said. “I tried some more, bringing her the best food and trying to feed her myself. I treated her well, very well, I tried teaching her that
I
wasn’t
him
, but nothing…she wouldn’t trust me.

“She barely ate anything for weeks, and I lost any hope that she would ever be mine, no matter how hard I tried.

“I loved her so much, and I wanted the best for her, so…I let her go.”

“You did what?” Even with the shock that was filling me, I still kept my voice quiet. For her.

“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my whole life,” he said. “But it had to be done.”

“Why?” I asked, not able to understand why he would do that or how he could. He seemed to be really attached to her.

“Don’t you know that saying, Princess?” He looked at me.
“If you love someone set them free. If they come back they are yours; if they don’t, they never were.”

I just looked at his gloomy eyes with my sad ones. Sad for him.

“And I loved her so much, I wanted her to be happy–even if it meant that her happiness would be in being away from me.”

I swallowed.

“When she left, it was my turn to hate food; I was really depressed. I knew she’d be okay. She could protect herself, and there is a forest few miles away where she could live if she wanted, but I was selfish enough to wish she would just come back.

“Weeks passed and she hadn’t come back, and I lost hope once more, because I knew that if she came back, it’d only take her five days or so. I was wrong, though: it took her two months because my baby is really stubborn that way,” he grinned. “She only found her way back home tonight.”

His grin was infectious. I grinned back and wondered how it would feel to be loved that much by him, or…touched that caringly by his hands.

The prince left Salma and came closer to where I was standing beside the door. “When Mona mentioned her name, I couldn’t believe it. I just had to see her with my own eyes to truly believe she really was here, that she had come back to me,” he said. “I didn’t think of anything else at all, and I’m sorry for doing so. I hope you understand now, Princess.”

I nodded, smiling a little. “I understand, I really do. It’s okay, I would’ve done the same if I were you.”

He smiled, tucking my hair behind my ear, a gesture I had grown to like a little too much. “One more thing,” he said. “I don’t have a harem.” I stared at him, waiting for him to continue, searching his eyes for the evidence of honesty in his words. “As a matter of fact, there is no
‘harem’
at all–and there hasn’t been for hundreds of years now.”

Huh?

The prince nodded at my disbelieving eyes. “Islam forbids any sexual act outside of marriage. Harems were common before Islam came. Women left from wars with other countries were treated as belongings of the king, and whomever he might gift them to, but they wouldn’t be shared. They were just for one man, so as not to mix the fathering of any children. Islam made releasing those women and giving them their freedom a good deed, a very good deed to become closer to God and earn his forgiveness. With time there were almost none, and with Islam forbidding slavery, they became non-existent.”