What?
Why was she going to break his heart by leaving? Did he still think there was something between them because of the night he caught them together? Shaking the thought out of her head, she watched the Prince sit on his knees in front of the clear water and dip his hand inside it, closing his eyes during the moment.
It wasn't often she heard him speak so much; he would only say one or two sentences when he needed something. Deciding to seize the opportunity, Jasmine stepped forward, wondering if it was okay to ask him.
"Can I ask a question?"
Nikolai snapped his eyes open upon hearing her sultry voice, his eyes glowing brighter than before he dipped his hand inside the water. He replied to the girl, "You just did." Seeing it as her cue, Jasmine asked, "Why do you have different colored eyes, Prince Nikolai?" Nikolai had known what question she was going to ask, which was why it wasn't surprising to him. He merely opened his eyes and then turned over his shoulders, locking her in a heated gaze.
"Can you keep a secret?"
Wasn't that what she had been doing all along? Jasmine frowned slightly, seeing a little smile appear and fade quickly from his lips. She wondered if it was a curse for him to smile, as one didn't even last past a second on his lips.
Seeing him not continue and just keep looking at her, she nodded, "Yes, Prince Nikolai."
"Hm. Good to know that. I'll tell you the reason when I trust you," he said and stood up on his feet. Turning around, he started to walk away without looking at his maid.
Trust her? Jasmine repeated in her mind. That means he doesn't trust her yet. He would kill her when he wants... She shuddered at the thought.
"Let's go back," she heard his voice, interrupting her thoughts. She looked up to see him walking into the forest again, and she followed, feeling the thorns and pricks that tore at her feet as she walked. Her milky white gown that almost matched her skin stopped a few inches below her knees, and her skin wasn't spared from the forest bushes.
Once they stepped back onto the road, Jasmine saw the Prince start to walk on the road lane to his right.
"Are we walking back home, Prince Nikolai?" She couldn't help but ask, watching the man lazily pocket his hands while walking in slow strides, as if he had all the time to himself. She heard him reply in the affirmative, and Jasmine looked up at the setting sun before she raised her right foot, gingerly resting it on her left knee and removed the thorns that had gotten stuck to the sole of her feet.
Wincing, she pulled out the thorns and started limping five feet beside the Prince. They must have walked for ten minutes, Jasmine guessed, when she heard the galloping of horses and the sound of a carriage or cart coming ahead. She looked up, but the prince's back was hindering her sight, so she bent to her side to see a majestic black horse with no rider turn a corner towards them. Beside it was another horse, much smaller in size, with a rider whipping the reins around the horse as it pulled a cart behind. Surprisingly, the black horse stopped beside Nikolai, and she saw him pull his hand from his right pocket and pat the mane of the horse.
"Good boy," she heard him say, a small smile on his lips. Holding the reins, he gracefully pushed himself and sat atop the horse. Didn't he say they were walking back to the castle? She frowned lightly; this man never replies truthfully.
Looking up at him, Jasmine thought he and his horse complemented each other, a handsome majestic being sitting on a beautiful loyal horse.
"Jasmine," she heard her name as the prince kicked his horse, and it turned and started galloping away. She turned to see Peter standing beside the cart that had parked beside the horse, but she was mesmerized watching the prince's horse.
As she walked to the cart, Jasmine thought Peter looked redder than usual, and he seemed nervous. Did he catch a fever?
As she sat in the cart, Peter followed, and the cart began to move. She looked at Peter, who looked like he would fall unconscious at any moment, and as he pushed his glasses up his eyes, she noticed his hands shaking lightly.
"Mr. Peter, are you alright?" She decided to ask.
Looking like someone who had been caught committing a crime, Peter opened his mouth, but no words came out, and he closed it back, shaking his head.
"The cold..." he managed to say, which wasn't true, and watched the girl in front of him smile.
"You seem to be very loyal to the Prince to have come even when you're sick," Jasmine said, and he smiled back.
"He isn't as bad as you think," he said.
Bad as she thinks?
Does she think he's bad? Jasmine asked herself, she doesn't know anything about him except for his strange coloured eyes and the drawing on his back which she hadn't seen since that night, and she hadn't seen him done anything terrible except for when he ripped of that Fae's wings and she seemed bad.
But her own mother wasn't bad, she frowned internally.
Jasmine hadn't been very knowledgeable about the world, her mother had taught her only the normal things about how the society is, leaving her unexposed about the real world outside.
She had thought Fae's only exist in books until she had seen her mother then the one the Prince had caught.
Pushing that at the back of her mind, she wondered if she thought prince Nikolai was bad, no, neithet did she think he was good. She didn't have to bother about discovering what type of person he is. She had to find out how to escape from the palace before he kills her.
She thought and looked ahead watching the horse that galloped far from them.