Black Keys: Black Keys Chapter 16

(SM) owns Twilight.

(CozItRunsInMyBlood) owns the plot.

(RobzBeanie) is a lifesaver and she beta this.

Chapter 16

Isabella Marie

There was something wrong – terribly wrong – in my head, in my heart.
The thoughts that were in my mind, the feelings inside of me – I had no explanation for it. None at all.
Once the prince left the room, I felt as if someone had taken something away from me, something big, almost as if it was something I couldn't live without. Almost.
It was insane. It was not reasonable at all. I couldn't have those thoughts. I shouldn't feel those feelings. It wasn't right.
I swayed myself lazily on the swing that was in the sunroom. It was a bit chilly, but the battling thoughts and the battling feelings inside of me kept me warm. I watched the beautiful stars in the dark sky, shining like small diamonds around the full moon that looked like a giant white pearl. The sight was like everything else in the Kingdom – magnificent. But the beauty of it was as pitch black as the sky I was staring at. Beautiful but scary. Beautiful but dark. All dark. The shining, small diamonds were like those who could be nice and kind, even though they were part of it, but … they were lost in a sea of darkness, anyway. And the darkness would always be their roots, their home. And I wasn't going to let their beauty or niceness fool me.
The prince was as beautiful as anyone could imagine and more. He had the most handsome face I'd ever seen, the most attractive look, he was nice to me, he promised me safety and protection, but … the name Salma was mentioned and, BANG, he was gone. No explanations. No excuses. Just that. Gone.
The name wouldn't leave my head. Salma. The way the prince gasped it, like … like he was dead and someone had brought his soul back to him. Like he wasn't breathing and someone had just given him air. It was sickening. The way he ran out of the room at the mention of her name looked sickening to my eyes. And I was mad. At him, and at myself.
I was mad at him for leaving me like that without taking a minute to tell me where he was going or for what; it was disrespectful and … rude. He wasn't supposed to leave the room, so why would he now? And without even bothering to explain? Yeah, I was beyond mad at him.
I was mad at myself for being mad at him, because I shouldn't. It wasn't right. I shouldn't be mad. Being mad meant that I cared, which I didn't. I didn't care for him. I was sure … Yes, I was sure. It was just crazy. Why would I care about him? He was a stranger; I barely knew him. Maybe he was my husband, but I had no idea what he was like, and if it wasn't for the fact that his family was royal and ruled this Kingdom – I wouldn't even know what his last name was.
Shining, small diamond, though pretty and nice, left the room once Salma was mentioned. Because the darkness of its home was what was inside of it. Shining little stars were nothing but balls of boiling fire. You could not be near one and you should not touch. You'll get burnt. Smart people knew better. Smart people knew the truth of things from the inside, no matter how good it looked from the outside. And I wasn't a fool.
Salma.
Who was Salma?
I had no idea. I only knew that it was a girl's name. Who she was, or what the relationship was between the prince and her was a big mystery to me. My heart – for some reason – wanted to plant in my head that she was his sister. But I knew he only had one brother and one sister and that was it. Salma couldn't be his sister. My mind kept wondering if she was that cousin he was supposed to marry before I was forced on him by our circumstances. But Salma wasn't her name; it was Talla or Tina or whatever, something like that. I was sure it wasn't Salma.
Who the heck is Salma?
I huffed and squeezed my eyes shut, rubbing my forehead with my left hand as I laid my head on the back of the swing; it was hurting. The thoughts and the questions were making my head pound and throb. It was really maddening. The only comfort I found came from my silver cross that was touching my cheek softly as it dangled from my wrist, reminding me that God was with me and that I should shrug the bad feelings away.
Salma.
Who are you? Relative? Friend? Cousin? … Lover?
I sighed in annoyance and got up, pacing the sunroom back and forth while playing with my wedding rings once and cracking my knuckles in frustration one at a time the other.
My eyes caught something hidden among the decorations on the back wall that looked like a knob – the kind of secret knob that surrounded the walls of the bedroom – and I knew then that this was the hidden door in the sunroom. It wasn't curiosity that made me go over there and put my hand on it, ready to turn it. It was pure boredom, and the fact that I wanted to do anything to pull me out of my thoughts and distract me from thinking of why I was feeling those stupid feelings.
I was right in my guess. When I turned the knob, a door opened and I pushed a little, testing my surroundings and taking a look left and right to see where it led.
I was surprised to find it to be a big kitchen with stainless steel sparkling everywhere. The marble on the table and counter was colored black, making a beautiful rhythm with the silver cabinets such that you couldn't tell which was reflecting its colors on the other.
Just as I took a step inside, Mona came out of nowhere, looking sort of panicked as she saw me and making me feel worried myself, thinking it was very wrong of me to leave the sunroom or the bedroom or whatever the heck their rules were. But then I thought that I shouldn't be worried. The prince had already left the room; I might as well, even if it wasn't an emergency for me, because I bet it wasn't an emergency for him either.
"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 with assuring 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 go even wilder.
On the bed, I found myself once again wishing for nothing except for Alice 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 my 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'd 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.

~BK~

The complete silence was something I'd noticed since the minute the sound of the wedding 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 to 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 to me and disrespectful, 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, knuckles cracking and hair gripping. I brushed my teeth, brushed my hair just because I couldn't find anything better to do.
It could've been hours that I spent in the bathroom, 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 it 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 – 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 in 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 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 position then," I snapped.
The prince sighed again. "Yeah." 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 'Hareem'!" 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 Hareem?" 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.
It was the prince's eyes' turn to grow wide. "What? Me? No way!"
"Yes, you were!" I insisted. "You were also staring at my breasts just five minutes ago when you woke up!"
"I don't know what you're talking about! I wasn't doing anything like that."
"Oh, my God! You really are a terrible liar!" I yelled my frustration.
"True."
"So you admit it?"
"This nightgown is … um, really short," he shrugged.
"Ugh! Unbelievable!" I bent down and grabbed the scarf off of the floor and dropped it over my shoulders, leaving him standing there as I shook my head in disapproval of his so-not-royal behavior.
A quiet groan stopped me midway. I turned around to find him with the same look again, but now he was biting his bottom lip, releasing it when he saw mine very far from my top lip as I looked at him in disbelief with a gaping mouth. "You were checking me out. Again!"
"The gown is still short."
I crossed my arms in front of my chest again, but given what it did to my breasts and the look in his eyes as he tried not to stare – but failed miserably – only managing to make his eyes bounce up and down between my eyes and chest, I dropped them to my stomach as I held the scarf in my hands, narrowing my eyes at him. "This is not acceptable at all!"
"You're right, but …" He looked me up and down. "You're really-"
"Stop it," I interrupted him. "You can't have those thoughts about me."
"Excuse me, Princess. But my thoughts are all mine. I can have whatever thoughts I want."
That stupidly-beautiful smile was back on his stupidly- beautiful lips and the stupidly-beautiful, mysterious look was back in his stupidly-beautiful, attractive eyes.
"You're doing it now!"
"Doing what, Jealous Princess?"
"I'm not jealous," I said. "You're having thoughts." I sounded ridiculous.
"I am." Crooked smile.
"You shouldn't."
"It's my head." He licked his lips. The sight of his tongue on his lip was distracting, and I found myself watching it as it swept over his bottom lip, replaying it in my head in slow motion – and for a moment I forgot why we were arguing.
No, seriously, why we were arguing?
"You shouldn't," I said, lower than I intended for it to be – and not really knowing what it was that he 'shouldn't' do.
I left the sunroom with a sort of foggy mind, wondering if his words meant that he was attracted to me, confused by the smile that tugged at my lips when I had the thought. Why I found it pleasing to think that the prince was attracted to me was something I couldn't understand.
Games.
Lies.
Traps.
"Princess," the prince's soft voice called in a whisper from right behind me. When I turned he continued, "I was just teasing, I wanted to make you laugh." His smile was small and his words were warm. I found myself smiling back with one side of my lips, a small and careful smile. Careful not to show my feelings. It would be so wrong of me to let him know that I- …
It would just be wrong.
When I didn't reply, he spoke again, "I'm in a very good mood, I had a very good night." My blood pressure started going up again. "I wish I could make you have a good night, too."
I looked up at his eyes, waiting for something, but not really knowing what that something was. Or maybe I was just enjoying looking into his green eyes …
Wrong!
"Can you keep a secret?" he whispered.
I frowned slightly, but nodded.
The prince's smile grew bigger and the next thing I knew he disappeared into the closet, spending no less than five minutes in there and then coming back with something black in his hands.
"Put this on." He handed me a black cloth and I took it from him, frowning again when I saw that it looked like the robe I'd worn over my dress on the wedding night, only with a thicker material and closed front. He must've seen the look on my face because he added, "Trust me. Please."
After I shrugged the scarf off, I put the robe on with the prince helping a little because it was a bit difficult for me to wear it without getting lost inside of it since it was so big. He then brushed my hair behind my ears and put the black hoodie attached to the robe above my head, whispering 'Perfect' when it was in place.