As hero after hero falls before the walls of Troy, Achaean and Trojan alike, two reluctant warriors–neither remembered as a hero–must sacrifice themselves for the sake of the people they love.
Prince Paris has all the fame he ever wanted, anointed by the gods, honored as a youth for both his bravery and judgment, and gifted the most beautiful woman in the world by Aphrodite. If his theft of Helen results in a war, surely he is not meant to stop it. Let all the world burn to ash; so long as Paris has Helen, he is content to leave the destinies of kings and nations in the gods' hands. But to keep Helen, they must survive. Paris must survive.
Even as a grandson of Zeus, Polypoetes is a king of little consequence—his kingdom beyond the long-armed reach of Mycenae in ordinary times, yet forced still by oath and duty into a war he doesn't want to fight. Desperate to save his lover Leonteus and protect the rest of his people, left behind in Thessaly, Polypoetes struggles to keep his forces out of harm's way, even if it means making himself an enemy of Achilles.