Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) (43 page)

BOOK: Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1)
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As I was about to look up at his face again, I saw something on the inside of his arm: a smudge, a fading red smudge of…
dried blood.

My eyes grew bigger as I stared at it; there was no way that this blood could be Jasem’s. This smudge was dry, meaning that he’d gotten it long before he started to hit Jasem and cause him to bleed from his nose and lips. It also looked like that spot had been washed before, but maybe that he’d done it in a hurry and hadn’t noticed that it wasn’t completely gone.

My head started pounding, and my throat went dry as I thought of whose blood this could be. Still, I needed to ask. Just to make sure. Or to reassure my heart with a
‘not hers’
kind of answer. I swallowed thickly, and did so.

“W-whose blood is this?” my lips trembled a little as I asked the question.

The prince looked down to see what I was looking at, paused for a moment, then answered with the name I feared he would answer with the most, “Janna’s,”

My heart skipped a beat, and my pounding head started spinning, my free hand coming up to cover my mouth after I let out a shocked and horrified gasp, leaving little room for my lips to allow my question to come out, “You killed her?”

It was only then that his eyes looked at mine, his lips forming a sneer, and his face changing from a blank to an expression that spoke of disgust more than anything, “Is that what you think of me?” he asked through clenched teeth. “A monster that would kill his own sister for being a foolish teenager who doesn’t know better and always acts as stupid as stupidity could get? Huh? Is that all you see?”

I stared at his angry eyes for a few seconds, completely dumbfounded and not knowing how to answer, only thinking of what his answer-questions could mean more than actually thinking of an answer to reply to him. My hopes were as high as they could get that this meant Janna was okay and well, until he broke our connected gaze when he jerked his hand away from mine and continued his way to the bathroom, leaving me by myself and with only my thoughts to keep me company.

I stood there in my place for a minute or two, lost in my thoughts, until I heard a knock on the door that brought me back to where I was standing and not in the land of wondering, guessing and hoping.

“Come in,” I called.

Mona entered the room, the box that the king had given to me in her hands. “I will put this with the jewelry, Princess,” she said, her face sad and her eyes even sadder.

“Yeah, sure,” I said.

She went on her way to the dresser beside the window where all of the boxes of gifts I’d gotten in the past few days lay, and I went to sit on one of the armchairs, not really knowing what to do with myself.

When Mona was finished putting the box away a minute later, she came closer and asked, “Would you like to eat now, Princess?” Her usual soft smile was long gone, leaving sad features in its place which caused her to age ten years.

“Do you think I can find any appetite to eat now, Mona?” I asked softly, not really questioning it, but just telling her I couldn’t.

“I only do what you order me to do, Princess, not what I think,” she replied just as softly. I didn’t know if she meant my order for her to leave when I was about to flee or not, but I still felt bad about it.

“Okay,” I murmured. “No, thank you.” And she was gone after saying her usual, “Call my name if you need anything.”

I rested my body and my head back against the armchair, allowing myself once again to get lost in my thoughts. They were mostly about Janna and her destiny, the worrier in me wondering if maybe he didn’t kill her but someone else had? Because what would explain her dried blood on the inside of his elbow other than that?

Just the thought of her being killed made my stomach twist and turn, so scared that she had faced this horrible fate at all, let alone because of me.

God! Why, why did I go along with it? Why? I was such an idiot; none of this would’ve happened if I hadn’t done that. At the very least, I wouldn’t have been this worried and the questions in my head wouldn’t be killing me this way.

Time went by, and the prince didn’t come out of the bathroom. I wondered if I should check up on him because it’d been a long time since he’d gone in there, but I thought better of it.

After a while, I heard another knock on the door, Mona coming in after I called for her to do so. She informed me that the prince had requested for her to tell me he would be spending some time alone in the living room, disappointing me with her words, for I had been waiting for him to come out, even though I had no clue what I would tell him when he did.

She suggested preparing me a bath and I agreed. She picked me something comfortable and I wore it. She dried and brushed my hair and I didn’t say anything. She asked if I needed anything and I told her no. And when she left, the thoughts remained present.

Sometime later, I heard the faint sound of a door closing, and I wondered what the prince was doing or where he was going, or if it was Mona. I walked around the room for a bit, then decided that I’d just go and sneak a peek from the secret door that lead to the living room where Mona had said the prince was, hoping that I wouldn’t be caught doing so because it would be so embarrassing.

I opened the door as slowly as possible, only parting it enough for me to be able to see inside of the living room. I scanned the place searching for the prince, only to find him sitting in one of the armchairs across the room. The sight of him…broke my heart. Just
broke
it.

He had his head in his hands, and his shoulders hunched down and his posture screamed miserable. Knowing that I had everything to do with it broke me even more and I couldn’t help tearing up, saddened by what I was looking at and my hands’ doing.

He had changed, and his hair looked slightly damp. In front of him stood Mona; she was speaking to him, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying from my spot. He wasn’t replying, and she would stop talking and then talk again, and though I couldn’t hear her, I knew that she was trying to soothe him. For a brief moment, I wondered if I should open the secret door in the closet that lead to the living room instead of this one, for it was closer to where they were, but thought better of it.

The prince laid his head back, his eyes closed, still not replying to her. Then I saw her as she patted the top of his chest, then smoothed his hair with one movement, starting from his forehead to the middle of his head in a motherly gesture, and then left the room.

This woman’s closeness to him was a bit confusing to me, but I doubted that Mona was his nanny when he was a kid or something of that sort.

I stared at the prince’s troubled form for a few minutes before I decided that enough was enough, and I closed the door as quietly as I’d opened it.

A few hours later, when it was the early hours in the morning, I took the hint that the prince wouldn’t be coming, and the empty feeling I had at the realization wasn’t an easy sensation to bear.

I went to my bed, trying to get some sleep, because I wanted this nightmare of a night to end. Funny that, unlike any other nightmare you’d end it by waking up, I was trying to end mine by falling asleep.

I prayed. Sleep still wouldn’t visit me, and my thoughts and worry for Janna just wouldn’t let me be. So I got up, dropped a fluffy scarf that was on the couch over my shoulders and went to the sunroom.

It was chilly, but I didn’t care, and when the windows opened, it was even colder, but I still didn’t leave it. I sat on the swing and swung myself back and forth lazily.

The night seemed longer than a week, and the quietness around me was so noisy that it hurt my ears. I thought about going to check on the prince, to see if he was alright, but I didn’t do it, feeling as if it wasn’t my place to even feel worried about him.

A while later, I heard the
azan
, powerful and strong, but quiet and peaceful, just like I’d heard it with the prince on the roof of the palace. I wondered if the prince would come out now to pray. I knew he could do it in any room, so I still might not see him if he decided not to come to our bedroom.

Next, I found myself reaching for the secret door in the sunroom that opened into the kitchen, and without hesitation this time, I went in. My hands touched the black marble counter and I looked around to see if Mona was nearby or would come out of nowhere like last time. I knew she would be awake now to pray. A few minutes passed and as I expected, she came with hurried steps.

“Can I help you with something, Princess? I apologize if you called and I didn’t hear you, I was praying.”

Figured.

“I, um…can we talk for a few minutes, please?” I asked hesitantly.

“Of course, Princess,” she said, I smiled a small smile and then pulled one of the stools and sat on it, waiting for her to do the same, but she didn’t, so I asked her to do so.

“I’m sorry for the trouble I caused you, I promise that hurting the family or even causing problems was never my intention, Mona. Please believe me,” I apologized with quiet voice.

Mona looked at me for a moment, offered me a small smile, then nodded. I wasn’t so sure if she believed me at all; her eyes told me that she wasn’t the one I should be apologizing to–and I knew she was right–but she still said nothing.

“I...um, do you know if Janna is okay?” I asked softly.

I heard her sighing as she looked down, taking a moment of silence before she replied, “She’s stable, may God protect her.”

“Stable? What happened to her? Why was she bleeding? Did Prince Fahd hurt her?” I asked, my heart crying for Janna and whatever she’d gone through, though thankful to learn she was
stable
, whatever stable meant.

“Uh…it’s not my place to answer those questions, Princess, I’m sorry,” she said in a soft, almost-embarrassed voice as she looked down.

“Look,” I reached with my hand for hers on top of the kitchen table and touched it, “I know you have no reason to trust me, but I
swear
I will keep whatever you tell me a secret, and to never let anyone know you told me anything. Please, I just want to know what happened to her, my mind is going in every direction and it’s really disturbing,” I tried.

Mona took longer to reply to me this time, but eventually she did. “Princess Janna tried to kill herself.” My eyes doubled in size and hers teared up. “She cut her wrists.”

“Oh, God!” I gasped, “I–…God!” I rested my head in my hand, trying to process what I’d just heard. “This is all my fault,” I whispered to myself, but when Mona patted my hand that was still on hers with her other, I knew she’d heard me. She didn’t say anything, though.

“Is she alright now? Was she found before it was too late?” I tried to reassure myself with my own questions. I only wanted a nod from her in reply to settle my thoughts and put my head to any kind of rest.

“Yes, Princess. I wasn’t finished with packing, but I wanted to bring certain things from her old wing that I thought she would like to have with her in the US,” Mona replied. “I had no idea that I would find her there–drowning in her own blood.” Her voice cracked at the end.

“Oh, dear God!”

“It was pure coincidence that I went there at all. I believe God wanted to keep her safe, that’s why I found her. She’s too young for death, the poor girl.” Sorrow was dripping from her voice.

“Thank God you found her in time,” I told her.

“Thank God I was able to get Prince Mazen in time: he helped a lot.”

I nodded my head slowly and looked down.
That
was how she’d planned to keep him busy.

All my fault…

“He must’ve been really scared.” I shook my head in sympathy, sorrow consuming me.

“He was. He loves her very much. I can’t even think what would’ve happened if–God forbid–something bad had happened to her.”

I nodded, understanding. “Where is she now?” I wondered if I could see her…

“In the sky.”

“What?” I shouted. “But you said she was okay...”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Princess. I meant on a jet, on her way to the US,” she replied.

“Oh,” I sighed in relief, then we stayed silent for a few moments. “Wait, why is she on a plane in such condition?”

“The family doctor is with her with his team, and she will be okay if God wills. She didn’t lose enough blood to make it life-threatening, but she will have a blood transfusion on the plane as Prince Mazen suggested. It was the best way to prevent anyone from finding out what’d happened. Rumors would start if anyone learned about it, or that she was still in the palace at all–plus what happened with Prince Jasem…things wouldn’t have turned out well,” she explained. “Now everything is back on track, and, hopefully, will stay this way.”

I pursed my lips, finding everything to be very complicated and it would’ve become even messier if just one thing hadn’t happened. Though I was sure there was more than one private jet owned by the royal family, I was glad I didn’t get on that one I was going to flee on. Because it was ready to go to the States and everything was prepared for that trip, it made Janna’s departure easier than it would’ve been if it wasn’t ready, as well as removing the risk of anyone knowing about her still being in the palace or what she tried to do.

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