A few hours later, Achilles returned once again, just before dawn. Iphigenia was horrified. She did not know if she could ever face him again.
Elatos woke from where he fell asleep at the table, waiting for Achilles. "You know, that was a dick move." He said as he yawned. Iphigenia listened, unsure of what would happen.
"Remember your place." Achilles barked.
"Yeah, yeah. You are the immortal warrior prince. I am the human servant who protects your ass from the wicked sunshine. Whatever." Elatos paused as he stretched. "But, what you did was unnecessary and mean. In all of the years that I have known you, I have seen you bed many women, even some men. I have seen you flirt. I have seen you ogle. I have seen you rip apart men. And kill. But, what I have not seen from you is cruelty to women. Any woman. And what you did was cruel."
Achilles washed his face while he tried to ignore Elatos. "What do you care? You hate her."
"No. I don't. I hated being stuck on that island because of her. I hate seeing what she has done to you. But, I don't hate her."
"That does not make any sense." Achilles twisted his face.
"Why don't you tell her the truth?"
"What truth?"
Elatos sighed. "That despite what she thinks, it is not that she is trapped here because of you, it's that you are the one trapped here because of her."
Iphigenia was stunned. What was he talking about? How could she have trapped Achilles here?
Achilles gave a half laugh. "Oh, yes, that will go over real well. She already hates me and thinks I am a monster. She has spent over a week, more or less, locked in her room in depression. Let's just add guilt to that as well."
"Oh, I suppose that losing your temper on her, scaring her, teaching her about carnal relations when she is choosing to stay pure, those are better options? Did you even hear the words she said? She kept mentioning dreams and torture, abuse. Achilles, she is terrified. You need to talk to her."
"You were the one that told her to strip and bathe in the sea right in front of us." He growled.
Elatos shook his head. "That was different. I was angry that she tried to kill you. But, I did not really expect her to do it. It was just stupid talk. What you did was more than talk. You crossed a line. Now you need to really talk to her and tell her the truth."
Achilles was getting a headache. Alright, not a real headache since Acheron swears that Dark Hunters can't really get headaches or get sick. But, the pain in his head was definitely there, as strongly as the pain in his ass that was still talking.
With a deep breath. "No. It was my choice. She is innocent of our situation. I won't add that to her heart." Achilles finally said.
Elatos let out an exasberated sigh. "Well, one day she is going to ask why Artemis saved her life. Somehow, she will learn that you sold your soul to the goddess in order to protect her when her father would not. And then, when she learns that truth, she will learn the rest of how Artemis was going to keep her in stone permanently, to crumble away to dust. And it was you that fought so hard to get her any life outside of the stone at all. That it is you that is ordered to protect her both in life and in stone. That it was you that built her shelter from the elements. And it was because we could not get her on to a boat large enough to carry the weight of her stone that kept us all trapped on that damned isolated island."
"Silence." Achilles growled. He did not want to hear it all. He certainly did not want to say it all.
But, Elatos stood his ground against the Dark Hunter. "No. You say that it was your choice to condemn yourself. And, you chose to stay on that island because any time you came to the village you would panic that someone had wandered onto the island and broken her arm or finger off. You were so concerned that you only left the island three times in the eight years since you became a Dark Hunter. Damn, you gave her your bed and slept on the floor every night because we were not prepared for her to wake two years earlier than we thought she would. The past two nights, you have spent buying her gowns and accessories that you have not given her yet because she refused to open her door in fear."
"I get why you went whoring tonight. It has been years since you have slaked that hunger. But, damn. Decide if you take responsibility for that life, or if you blame her for it. Don't fall on the sword and then strike out at her."
Elatos started to storm out of the house, but then stopped long enough to turn around with one final parting blow. "And decide exactly who she is to you. For eighteen years, you have held on to the image of her still being the 12 year old little girl that you sold your soul for and then in one moment, you shattered her innocence. For what? You won't sleep with her, you won't marry her. I seriously doubt that her curse will ever allow her a life with someone else. So, what was the point of crossing that line to make her want you?"
Achilles went into their room and slammed the door shut. "You can find somewhere else to sleep." He called out at Elatos. But, Elatos was already gone.
Iphigenia sat against her door as tears rolled down her cheeks. Was she wrong about Achilles? Was he not the one who attacked her in her dreams? Was it really all her fault? Achilles had sold his soul to save her? He is the reason that she still lives at all? No wonder he was so angry with her when she asked him to kill her.
Oh gods, he had given up so much to keep her safe. And she had done nothing but hate him. What is she to do?
She slowly opened the door to see the common room empty. After taking a moment to gather her strength, Iphigenia made her way into Achilles room. The candles were burning and he was pacing. He froze when he heard her at the door.
"Are you going to try to kill me again?" He growled.
She sniffed back her tears. "Have you been coming into my dreams?" She asked. Her voice was shaky as she did not know if she wanted to know the answer.
"What are you talking about?" He was losing patience with her.
She collapsed in the doorway. "Oh gods. It wasn't you." She sobbed hysterically.
Achilles frowned at the scene that she was making. In this condition, he was not going to get any clear information from her. But something about it reminded him of what Elatos had said. Her words… dreams, abuse… Once he thought about it, he realized that she had accused him of taking pleasure assaulting her in her dreams?
He did the only thing that he could think of to find out what was going on. "V'Dona! I summon you to human form."
A bright light filled the room for a moment and then faded to show a petite woman with long wavy black hair and pale blue eyes.
Iphigenia's eyes widened as she tried to crawl backwards away from the dream goddess in front of her.
Achilles stopped Iphigenia. "It's OK Iphigenia. I called her here to try to help. You are safe."
She was still too hysterical to talk, and too scared to relax. So, Iphigenia curled into herself with her knees up to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around them.
V'Dona tilted her head. "What is the reason for this call? You are not injured." V'Dona was a member of the Oneroi, the dream gods. For some reason, each Dark Hunter gets assigned to an Oneroi. The Oneroi help to protect their dreams, but also help to heal the Dark Hunters when they are injured. As immortals, Dark Hunters heal faster than humans, but with the assistance of the Oneroi helping during sleep, they heal even faster. The connection seems to make the Dark Hunters want to sleep once they are seriously injured which Achilles could not imagine would be the best impulse while in battle. But, hell, he did not set up the rules or system.
Achilles knelt down beside Iphigenia. "She is having nightmares that have left her hysterical. Is there anything that you can do or answer about this?"
The Oneroi looked Iphigenia over and then gazed above their heads as if watching something that they could not see. V'Dona pressed her lips. Then looked at Iphigenia. "You poor girl." That was more emotion than Achilles had ever seen from the goddess. The Oneroi had their emotions stripped away by Zeus years ago. The fact that V'Dona was showing any shadow of emotion meant that it had to be really bad.
He looked up at V'Dona, hoping for more information, but the dream goddess shook her head. "You don't want to know Achilles. I will go to see if there is anything that I can do to help and be back in a short while."