Chapter 13

Who was your first? Obviously, it wasn’t your ex.” Was it one of the people who had made fun of her?

She paled.Just like that, the mask slipped back into place and her defense mechanism shot up like a wall—a far better sight than the defeated person she used to be. He knew that the defeated part had only been in the beginning as Brian didn’t peg him as a person who let any kind of defeat last long. When she finally spoke, her voice was as cool as ever.

“An ex-pirate. He helped me navigate around the treacherous seas when I was still an inexperienced traveler and had to do missions for the council.”To prove myselfwas left unsaid.

“I see.”

Her chin lifted, green eyes studying him. The quiet sweep was thorough and made his body stand on attention.

“How did you teach Yu our language so fast?” she asked.

“Call it a magic specialty. Em?”

“What?”

“The kiss…”

“I was taking the hypnosis out of you. That’s all it was.”

Shut down before he could even say anything, which was just as well. Mabel s