Free Warrior Rising by P. C. Cast Page B

hair.”
    â€œOh, darling, don’t worry yourself about that. I can help you. I’m an expert.” Venus shook back her head, causing her own amazing tresses to bounce and shimmer.
    â€œI’m not in hell. I’m trapped in a romance novel,” Jacky said. Then she leaned closer to the mirror. “And my eyes are absolutely sky blue.”
    â€œWell, look at it like this,” Kat said. “If we’re trapped in a romance novel that means we’re going to be having sex. Probably lots of sex.”
    â€œThink so?” Jacky said hopefully. “It’d be nice if it was an erotica novel.”
    â€œOne can only hope,” Kat said. Then she took a deep breath and turned the mirror so she could look at herself. “Oh!” Slowly, she touched her face. “Holy shit, how old am I? I look like a teenager.”
    â€œAnd you, too, have some tresses,” Jacky said. “Although they’re black, and not as stunning as mine.”
    â€œI thought black was good,” Athena said.
    â€œI’ll never understand them,” Hera whispered.
    â€œSeriously, how old was Polyxena?” Kat asked, still staring at herself.
    â€œI believe she was approaching eighteen summers,” Hera said. “Prime marrying age, which is why she was here petitioning my aid. She wanted to be betrothed to the King of Sardis.”
    â€œGood god, eighteen! That’s way too young,” Kat said.
    â€œYou are unmarried, are you not, Katrina?” Hera asked politely.
    â€œTotally unmarried,” Kat said.
    â€œMe too,” Jacky said.
    â€œAnd how old were the two of you?” Hera said.
    â€œI’m thirty-six,” Kat said. “Or at least I was.”
    â€œYou’re such a baby, Kat. I’m thirty-eight,” Jacky told Hera. Then she frowned and stuck her face close to Kat’s so she could look at her reflection again. “Huh. I look young, too. No way are we even twenty.”
    â€œSpinsters?” Hera said, clearly appalled. “You chose spinsters?”
    â€œAs I have said more times than I should have had to: Modern mortal women are different, ” Venus said.
    Reflected in the mirror, Jacky’s and Kat’s gazes met.
    â€œUnattractive old spinster,” Kat said.
    â€œDried up old hag,” Jacky said.
    And both women burst into gales of laughter.

CHAPTER SIX
    "Oh, god, we are funny,” Kat said, leaning against Jacky, who was still giggling and wiping her eyes.
    â€œWill you help us?” Venus asked.
    Kat looked up at the goddess. “What if I do my best, it doesn’t work with Achilles, and he goes back to fighting? My mythology is shaky, but everyone knows he was a famous warrior who was killed because an arrow pierced his heel, the only place he wasn’t invulnerable. He lived to fight and he died fighting.”
    Venus rolled her eyes. “His heel is the only place he’s vulnerable?”
    â€œRumors,” Hera said, shaking her head. “More incredibly annoying rumors.”
    â€œSo the heel thing isn’t true?” Jacky said.
    â€œIt makes no sense whatsoever,” Athena said. “How could piercing his heel kill him, or anyone? Modern mortals will believe anything.”
    â€œHello! It was written by people back in your day—not by us. The tendon that runs behind the heel was even named after him. A long time ago,” Kat said.
    â€œHey, what about that Trojan horse thing?” Jacky asked. The goddesses turned blank looks to her. “The stupid war was won when, uh . . .”
    â€œWhen the Greeks snuck inside the walls of Troy hiding inside a humongous hollow horse,” Kat finished for her. “Or something like that.”
    Venus shook her head. “First we started the war. Then Achilles can only be killed though his ankle. Now there’s a huge horse that wins the war? It just gets more and more ridiculous. No,” she said firmly.