Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) - Rose B. Mashal Page 0,113

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.

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