I can be of use to you, she’d said to him the first night they’d met. Rain-darkened lashes, eyes like pebbles beneath water, lips trembling. Beneath it all, there had been fire. He’d sensed it. Any ordinary person might have given up, but the girl—she’d looked straight at him and asked him for an equivalent exchange. Zen drew her closer, anchoring himself against the maelstrom in his mind.
