I flopped back against the pillows. “More than.”
“Then you of all people can’t go around changing things. You told me yourself that it can cause a cascade effect and screw everything up.”
“Which is why I don’t do it.”
“But you offered. In that Jonas guy’s office.”
“I was upset—and I wasn’t serious. I knew Pritkin wouldn’t take me up on it—”
“And if he had? Or if Jonas had? He doesn’t seem to mind bending rules as long as he wins.”
I stared at Billy.
I’d never heard Jonas Marsden described so well.
“You see a lot of the same kind of people when you’re dead,” Billy said. “I’m not saying they all fit into a little cubbyhole, but after a while . . . yeah. You start to see patterns. Jonas reminds me of this old gambler I used to know. He’d take new arrivals on the riverboats under his wing, teach ‘em the trade. Then use ‘em to help him cheat, only it was somehow always them who got caught, and always him who ended up with the cash.”
“You’re saying Jonas is trying to use me.”
“He’s already used you. You helped him get back into power, right?”
“He was better than the alternative.”
Billy couldn’t argue with that, since the alternative had been a traitor corrupted by our enemies. “Just be careful, Cass.”
“Why are you suddenly down on Jonas?” I asked.
Billy narrowed his eyes. “Seriously? You trying to tell me that that,” he hiked a thumb over his shoulder at my crappy ward, “ain’t a trap?”
Sometimes, I decided, my life would be easier if Billy was a little dumber.
I pulled up the covers. “Jonas was right about one thing: it would be nice to have someone we could question.”
“And if you get dead instead? You said the fey are resistant to the Pythian power. What if that thing don’t stop him—”
“It’s not supposed to stop him. It’s supposed to snare him.”
“—and why is it always your head in the noose?”
Billy lit another ghostly cigarette; I was pretty sure just so he could glare at me through the smoke.
“It’s not a noose,” I said. “Think of it as an extra layer of protection, assuming anybody shows up here, which I doubt. I think he’s going after Pritkin.”
Billy suddenly caught a clue. “No—”
I sat up again. “Just for a little while—”
“I am not babysitting that damned mage!”
“I thought you liked Pritkin.”
Billy rolled his eyes. “I like him better than the vampire, because he isn’t always trying to use you. But that don’t mean—”
“Billy—”
“—that I wanna hold his hand. Anyway, I thought he was supposed to be guarding you, not the other way around!”
“I don’t need a bodyguard. But right now, he does. He can take down a fey warrior, but not if he doesn’t see him coming—”