The arrow hit Achilles in the middle of his chest, impaling itself to the flaming quill, spilling molten tar down his body like overflowing lava. Through the agony, Achilles heard Katrina scream and saw her rushing to him as the Myrmidons converged on Paris, burying him under an avalanche of swords and blood.
The berserker, so newly banished, slammed back into his body. Achilles fought the possession, but as his body began to burn, the pain overwhelmed him. Then Katrina’s face swam before him, and through the red haze he watched her snap the golden chain from around her neck and wrench open the locket.
“Venus! Hera! Athena! I call the three of you to me to claim the boon you swore you would owe me!”
The air shimmered, like mist rising from a morning field, and the three goddesses appeared as Achilles was driven to his knees. Body and mind afire, he still struggled against being lost to the berserker.
“I fulfilled my part of the deal,” Kat said. “The boon I want is Achilles. I claim the man and ask that you save him from the monster.”
Achilles began to lose hope when the goddesses exchanged surprised looks. It was too much. Katrina had tried. He had tried. His fate was unavoidable—what had been purposed by the gods could not be changed, not even by the gods themselves. He closed his eyes, concentrating on maintaining his humanity. He wanted to die a man, not a monster.
"Please.” Kat looked pleadingly at each of the goddesses.
“Darling, if you choose this you cannot return to your old life,” Venus said.
“You will live and die in this ancient world,” Athena said.
“Be very sure this is your wish,” Hera said.
“I’ve never been surer about anything in my life,” Kat said. “Please save him.”
Venus smiled. “You have already saved him. Take his hand and call him to you.”
Venus blew a kiss at her, and Kat felt the shock of divine power fill her body. She hurried to Achilles. His body was completely engulfed in fire, but she didn’t hesitate. She reached through the flames and grasped his hand. She felt no heat, no pain, only the surety of her love for him.
“Come to me, Achilles.” Her voice reverberated across the Trojan plain, magnified by the magic of the goddesses.
Kat felt Achilles shudder. Something gave under her hand. Automatically she pulled, and from the burning, ruined body of the berserker-ravaged warrior stepped a golden man. He was smaller in stature than Achilles, and he looked years younger. His body was free of scars. His eyes were a brilliant, clear blue. Gone were the pain and despair, regret and guilt that had been his companions for more than a decade. He gazed at Kat with an expression of happiness so complete that her heart felt as if it would burst with joy. Achilles pulled her into his arms and kissed her tenderly. Then, still holding her hand, he faced the three goddesses. Achilles dropped to one knee. The men around him followed suit. The fighting stopped and all eyes turned to the goddesses.
“My name will not be remembered for thousands of years, but I pledge that my children will honor goddesses for as long as my blood runs through their veins.”
“Actually, darling, your name will be remembered forever,” Venus said.
“No, Goddess.” He pointed back at the burning body that had been reduced to smoldering ash. “That is Achilles. I am only a man, not a legend, not a myth and definitely not a god.”
“I have discovered that being a man means being more than any of those things,” Athena said, her gray eyes finding Odysseus.
“Go with our blessings, mortal man. And know that when love is strong enough it can even cause Fate to change her course,” Hera said.
Still clasping hands, Achilles and Katrina walked from the battlefield with the Myrmidons silently following them. The armies, Trojan and Greek, parted to let them pass. The fighting, after almost a decade, was finally over.
So it was with no little sense of shock that Kat heard an ear-piercing scream. They were in the middle of the dunes between the Greek and Myrmidon camps when a small party of soldiers stumbled into view. There were two women with them. One was being led by a rope around her slender, white neck. She held her head high and ignored everyone and everything around her. The other woman was hurling herself against the man leading the others—it was she who was shrieking and crying.
Kat recognized the hysterical woman instantly. “Holy crap, it’s Briseis.”
“After all I’ve done for you, you dare cast me aside for Cassandra! A witch!” Briseis railed at Agamemnon.
The king called the line of warriors to a halt. “Briseis, I have already assured you that I will arrange for your return to your father and will send with you a handsome bride price. Your father will be able to make an excellent match for you.”
“My father is a reprobate! The reason that I’m here is that I fled his house.”
“And again I say that is not my concern.” Agamemnon motioned to his personal guard. “Escort my lady to the ship I have provided, and see her safely off with the next tide.”
The warriors saluted him. With utterly blank expressions, they began to drag Briseis away.
“I curse you, Agamemnon! You reject love, so love will be your downfall!”
Agamemnon yawned. “I’m afraid you’re too late. I’ve already been cursed by love once.”
“Fucking asshole,” Kat murmured.
As if he heard her, Agamemnon’s gaze turned her way. Kat watched his eyes glance past Achilles, discount him and then widen in disbelief and return to him. She looked up at her lover. His lips were curved up in his little half smile as he met the king’s shocked gaze.
“Make that three times you’ve been cursed by love,” Achilles said. He didn’t shout, but his voice carried easily over the dune. “You deserve no less than to be destroyed by that which you thought to use against others.”
Agamemnon paled, called an order to his men and the group hurried away toward the Greek camp.
Achilles glanced at Kat as they continued walking. “Was it you who cursed him the first time?”
“Absolutely,” she said.
“I’m glad of it,” Achilles said with a chuckle.
“I wish I could remember what happens to Agamemnon,” Kat said softly to Achilles as they came to the Myrmidon beach where the black-sailed ships were docked just offshore. “Well, I suppose I mean what happened to him according to Greek mythology. You know, Jacky is just as bad at mythology as I was, which is…” Kat ran out of words as the heartsick truth hit her. Jacky was still in the modern world.
“Remind them,” Achilles said.
“Huh?” Kat said.
“Didn’t the goddesses grant Jacqueline a boon, too? Remind them, and if it is her wish, they will return her.”
Kat grinned. “And Patroklos.”
He mirrored her smile. “And Patroklos.”
She opened the locket that she still gripped in her fist. “Uh, Venus. Sorry to bug you again, but I think the three of you forgot that Jacky gets a boon, too. And I know for a fact that she would like to come back here with Patroklos. So, if it’s not too much trouble I’d really appreciate it if—”
With an abrupt pop Jacky and Patroklos materialized on the beach in front of them. Jacky was wearing an exceedingly short, tight, nurse’s “uniform.” The kind that can be found in smut shops, especially around Halloween, complete with white thigh highs, garters and red come-fuck-me pumps. She was obviously in the middle of a very nasty bump and grind and was caught midfling of her long, waving, blond tresses. Patroklos, who materialized sitting on his butt in the sand, was wearing an open-backed hospital robe. He was sporting several different sizes and shapes of bandages, the most evident of which was wrapped around his neck. Patroklos was very obviously alive and very, very obviously firmly in the middle of a recovery stage.
Jacky blinked and looked around, eyes widening. “Oh, Jesus wept! Could you not have waited a few minutes or so?”
“Jacky!” Kat cried, hurling herself into her friend’s arms while Achilles and the Myrmidons descended upon Patroklos, thumping him not so gently on the back and commenting on his strange manner of dress.
Kat was happily telling Jacky how utterly stank she was when the sea began to boil. Achilles moved swiftly to her side, pushing the complaining, mostly naked Patroklos behind him with Kat and Jacky and shouting for the Myrmidons to form ranks as the god arose from the cove.