Warrior Rising (Goddess Summoning #6)(59)

Achilles frowned at her but said, “I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Good. The truth is that this”—Kat gestured down at her body—“is Polyxena, Princess of Troy’s body. But this”—she closed her fist over her heart—“the soul inside the body, doesn’t belong to Polyxena. At least it hasn’t since the day Odysseus came to Hera’s temple.”

“I do not understand.”

“The day I came to you Polyxena and her maidservant, Melia, were killed by Agamemnon’s men as they sacked Hera’s temple. That same day, in another time and another world, I was also killed in an accident, along with my best friend. Venus was watching me, so she grabbed our souls and ended up putting them in Polyxena and Melia’s bodies.” She hurried on before he could say anything. “No, it doesn’t make much sense to me, either. The part I understand the most is that the goddesses wanted me here.” She paused on the verge of admitting to him that she was supposed to keep him out of the war so that Troy could win. But how could she ever tell him that? Kat drew a deep breath. “They wanted me here for you. Athena and Venus and Hera all believe that your fate should be changed, and they think I can help you change it.”

As she spoke, Achilles had become more and more still. He didn’t pull his hand from hers and he didn’t look away from her steady gaze.

“You come from another world?”

“I don’t know if it’s exactly another world, but it is another time. It’s the future.” She managed a little smile. “A really long way in the future—like a couple thousand years or so.”

“And in your future do they know my name?”

“Yes, they do.”

He dropped her hand and stood, turning his back to her. “Then how can you or the goddesses believe my fate can be changed? It has already happened!”

Kat thought about it and found the answer easily. “It’s fiction.”

He turned back to her. “Fiction? Explain.”

“The stories of you and your time are told as fiction in our time—mythology to be specific. Stories that aren’t true—that either never happened, or happened and then were exaggerated over time. Okay, here’s a prime example. In my time people believe that you could have been immortal, you were completely invulnerable, except in your heel. You were struck by an arrow in your heel, which was your downfall.”

“My heel?” He looked down at his very normal-looking foot.

“Your heel,” she repeated. “You’re so famous for it that the tendon that runs behind the ankle,” Kat pushed the bedclothes back from her leg and pointed at the tendon, “is known as the Achilles tendon all over my world.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Exactly my point. Well, unless you tell me that the only way you can actually be killed is to be shot or stabbed or whatever through your heel.”

“The heel isn’t even a vulnerable area of the body. Slice the tendon and a man can usually be defeated because he’s fighting without the use of one leg, but the wound alone won’t kill him.”

“So your heel isn’t invulnerable.”

“No.”

“And you’re not immortal.”

“Of course not.”

“Okay, and how about this—fiction has it that Troy is defeated by a gigantic, hollow horse filled with Greeks. They sneak into the city inside the belly of the fake horse.”

“You jest.”

“I’m serious as a heart attack.”

“But a giant hollow horse is silliness.”

“Again, do you see my point? You and the Trojan War are written about in history, but the facts of your life and the war are mixed up and amplified with myths, so what really happens to you could, in actuality, be much different than the fate written about you.”

“And what is that fate?”

Kat didn’t look away from his piercing blue gaze. “You die here at Troy in this, the last year of the Trojan War.”

* * *

CHAPTER TWENTY

Kat thought he would ask more questions about his death, but instead he just nodded briefly and disinterestedly. The only thing he seemed really interested in was her. “Will you tell me your real name?”

“Katrina Marie Campbell. My friends call me Kat.”

“And you are not a princess?”

Kat laughed. “No way. I’m definitely not a princess. I’m a shrink.”

“You make things small?”

“Oh, god no. I’m sorry. Shrink is a slang term for my job. I’m a psychologist. That’s someone who counsels people—helps them to be emotionally healthy. My specialty is couples counseling.”

“And this is the reason you know the spell needed to calm me?”

“Yeah, but it’s not a spell. Actually it’s not magical at all. You can even learn to do it for yourself. It’s called hypnotism. It’s just a way of being able to relax deeply and reach your subconscious mind.”

“Like the dreaming mind? That’s why, at first, I believed I only dreamed that you touched me.”

Kat felt her cheeks get warm. “Yes. Okay, I’m sorry about that. I really didn’t mean to take advantage of you. It’s just that you were so… uh… male, and when I started touching you, you didn’t want me to stop and—”