MAEVE POV
“Eric?” I questioned, surprised, thankful for the interruption, tearing my gaze away from Isabelle.
What is he doing here?
Eric’s lanky figure shuffled uncomfortably, yet he moved with determination. “I-I was on my way back to my room. I was just in a meeting with my father,” he shakily enunciated, swiftly pointing his gaze directly at me as those words left his mouth, “until he got called away for something else.”
That knowing glance he gave me only served to validate that feeling of dread I’d had ever since I entered the palace. At first, I just wrote it off as my worry about what Queen Leonora had to say to me, or that I simply did not want to be around Isabelle. But now I knew my instinct was correct.
She was likely lying to me.
Isabelle’s eyes widened. “You
