Page 55 of Sunflower

We went past a few more junctions, where roads seemed to appear out of nowhere, until we made a slow, sweeping U-turn and saw what I assumed would have been a giant parking lot from sometime in the past. We hadn’t made any other major turns, but as we’d been driving for a while, we were probably on the other side of the quarry to where we’d entered.

“This’ll do.” Callum stopped somewhere in the middle of the parking lot and, while he was fiddling with the overhead dash light, he turned off the engine and the headlights.

Darkness immediately enveloped us.

I heard him flick a switch and then the sound of a door opening.

“Come on,mo lus na gréine. We need to get away from the car.”

Okay. I could do this. I couldn’tseeanything, but I could do this. Fumbling with my door, I eventually found the handle and pushed it open. A frigid blast of air hit me full force, making meshiver. “Um, Callum, do we have any blankets or something? It’s fucking freezing.”

“Yeah,” he said, somewhere to my left. “Hold on.” Another car door opened, before more scrambling, then the door shutting again. “Got some. Shut your door and place your hands on the side of the car. I’ll come to you.”

“Okay.” I followed his instructions and waited. A sudden urge to play Marco Polo reared its head, but I refrained. Barely.

The crunching sound of sneakers on gravel crept closer until I felt Callum’s hand touch my torso. “Found you,” he murmured. His hand slowly slid up my chest, fingertips toying with the sweater I was wearing, before he reached the neckline. Icy fingers wrapped around the back of my neck, drawing me into him. Soon enough, he’d pressed his body up against mine from shoulder to thigh.

“Hi,” I said softly, my eyes finally equalizing enough with the darkness to the point where I could see him. The moon was almost full and there were light clouds in the sky, which meant there should be enough reflected light to naturally see where I was going. My eyes just needed more time to adjust.

Callum had one blanket thrown over his shoulder and another in his hands, using it to wrap me in. He tugged it closed, his hands bunching it around my neck and shoulders and making sure I had it secure before he grabbed his own blanket and threw it around his shoulders. “Come on,mo lus na gréine. Let’s find a place to sit and chat for a little while.”

Gripping the blanket around myself, I looked at the tightly packed gravel we’d found ourselves on. Wherever we ended up, it wasn’t going to be comfortable.

I followed Callum and eventually we came across a few picnic tables, and a… “Wait. Is that a barbecue?”

He chuckled. “Looks like it. Maybe they turned this into a park? It’d explain why there was no closed gate at the entrance.”

“Huh.”

“This’ll do.” Callum settled on one of the slatted seats, his back to the tabletop so he could look towards where I assumed the entrance was. After he’d made sure that his blanket was where it needed to be, he looked up at the sky, smiled, and patted the spot next to him. “Mo lus na gréine, lay your head on my lap and look up. The view is incredible.”

Looking up to see what he meant, my breath caught in my throat with a gasp. A thick cluster of twinkling stars loomed above us, so much clearer than anything I’d ever seen before. The masses of stars immediately above us and trailing to the horizon gave me a clear picture of our own galaxy, leaving me breathless at the thought of how insignificant we truly were in the universe.

It was humbling and terrifying in equal measure.

Tearing my eyes away from the magnificent view above us, I took his advice and lay down on the seat, my head placed carefully in Callum’s lap. I wiggled my blanket into place, then relaxed when Callum began running his fingers through my hair. Apart from a few owls hooting in the distant trees, it was so silent. There was no electricity nearby, so even the constant hum of household appliances that most of us were used to hearing in the background was gone.

“Earlier, you asked about everyone’s powers,” Callum said lowly so as not to scare me, but I still twitched at the sudden sound of his voice in the otherwise silent quarry. “It might be easier if I tell you a story first. A story I was told when I was young.”

Chapter Nineteen

Joey

Curiousnow,Iturnedmy head so I could see Callum. He was still leaning against the tabletop, one elbow now resting to the side, while his other hand played with my hair. Even after the crazy night we’d had, he looked remarkably calm.

In the old tales, outgoing, auburn-haired Cassandra and her quiet, dark-haired twin brother, Helenus, were both born royals of Troy, but as neither were directly in line for the throne, they became a priest and priestess in a temple dedicated to Apollo. After a time, they both promised Apollo favors in return for a divine gift.

Apollo agreed and gifted them both the power of prophecy.

Helenus abided by his promise. Cassandra, however, did not.

Furious, but unable to reverse the gift he’d already given to Cassandra, Apollo cursed her so that no-one would believe anything she predicted.

I rolled my head back so I could stare at the stars as Callum told the story. I knew a little about the Greek epics, but it had been years since I’d read them. Something told me this was going to differ from what I’d read in those old children’s books.

Around the same time, the royal Greek brothers, Agamemnon and Menelaus, married Clytemnestra and Helen, respectively.

One of Cassandra’s other brothers, Paris, saw Helen and fell madly in love with her. Cassandra advised him that if he went to Helen and brought her back to Troy, their beloved city would be destroyed.

---