“You think?” His voice was bitter, and he wrung the water out of his shirt. It was a little pink. “I’m going to have to live in this room for the rest of my life.”

“Hardly,” Nita said, but she wasn’t sure.

He spread out his shirt, looking at it critically. The stains were mostly gone, and he put it back on, still wet.

“What did I miss here?” he asked.

Nita hesitated, then admitted, “Adair offered to partner with me. He knows how to use the information we got, and I . . . don’t.”

Kovit nodded. “It’s not the worst idea.”

Nita raised her eyebrows. “Working with a kelpie who’s betrayed me before?”

“Adair’s not the worst you could do. He’s ruthless when he has to be, but he doesn’t hold a grudge, he’s damn clever, and he’s reasonably sympathetic, for a murderous black market information broker.”

Nita sighed and flopped back on the bed. “I know.”

“But?”

She hesitated. “But is it . . . is it weak to take him up on it?”

He sat beside her. “Weak?”

“I don’t have the knowledge. If I work with him, maybe I can learn it. He can use it more effectively than I can.” She closed her eyes. “But I would basically be giving over power to someone else. I worked so hard for this, and the idea of just letting it go . . .”

Kovit hesitated, then slowly said, “I suppose it depends on your goal.”

“Goal?”

“You once told me you wanted to be an unnatural researcher.” Kovit turned to her, his wet hair dripping on the bed as he lay beside her. “Can you really do that if you’re scrambling to try and use this information right? Working with Adair will make it easier—much easier—to pursue that goal safely, and faster.”

Her mouth dried. “Yes, it would.”

“You’d be giving up power, but was power your ultimate goal? I thought you wanted it so that people wouldn’t hurt you, so that they would be too scared to go after you. So you could live your life.”

“Yes,” she admitted.

He shrugged. “Do you really think you can live your life, the one you claim this is all for, and become an information broker more powerful than Adair at the same time?”

Nita was silent for a long moment, thinking. Because Kovit had a point—what use was power if she couldn’t use it to do what she wanted?

She still wanted to be an unnatural researcher. But she also wanted to be so powerful that no one would ever dare try and mess with her again. Giving the information to Adair felt like shifting responsibility, trusting that he would take care of protecting her instead of Nita using the power to protect herself.

She didn’t like it.