Page 60 of Sunflower

There were, of course, several parents who ignored Apollo’s warnings, believing they knew better than the God that had gifted them their powers, and went ahead with their plans of arranged marriages. While most marriages remained childless, just like what had happened in the past, some did indeed produce offspring. Sadly, however, every single child that wasproduced from such a union burned exactly like Iris had, and each time it happened, every single immediate family member that arranged the marriages woke up the day after the child had died with their own powers reduced from remote use to touch use.

Just as Apollo had foretold.

Thus, the powers that Apollo had bestowed on Cassandra and Helenus continued to split and deteriorate until the tempted families learned their lesson and stopped arranging marriages.

Now, a mixture of powered children and non-powered children are born in every generation. Any individual who presents with a power is forbidden from marrying another of a different sex who has also presented with a power, thereby removing the risk of a child burning and a repeat of poor Iris all those centuries ago.

The echo of Callum’s voice disappeared as he finished his story, slowly being overtaken by the noises of the small animals in the nearby trees. I kept waiting for him to continue, but it seemed like that was it.

That explained his heritage for his telepathy and psychometry, but what about his visions of the future? How did that get explained? Surely, there had to be more to the story than what he’d just told me?

Nibbling my bottom lip, I sat up and frowned at Callum. “Is that all?”

In a move that I seriously envied, Callum raised a single eyebrow at me. “Are you expecting more?”

I tilted my head to the side. “Well, to be honest, yeah?” Leaning against the top of the picnic table, I rested my chin on my palm. “I mean, that all explained your past and present powers. I assume that Iris’s sibling was your ancestor?”

He nodded. “He was her brother.”

“Right. And I get the deterioration of powers, and why some can only happen through touch, whilst others, like George’s seer power, can be done remotely.” I looked off into the distance, where a cluster of stars met the horizon. “But none of what you talked about explained how you have seer powers.”

When nothing but silence met my comment, I turned in my seat to see Callum staring past me, his eyes unfocused, but not in a way that showed he was having a vision. More like he was thinking about what I’d said.

Eventually, he shook his head slightly and refocused on me. “George calls me an anomaly. Technically, I shouldn’t exist.”

“Yeah, but you do,” I pointed out, reaching out and poking him in the cheek, only for him to bat my finger away and scowl at me. “See? I can touch you—” I poked him again in the other cheek and got the same response, this time with an added growl. “—and annoy you, which means you exist. There must have been a way for you to get your seer power without burning up like Iris did.”

As he avoided my latest attempt to poke him in the nose, he said, “George says that one of his normie ancestors married into my family bloodline.”

“Normie?” I felt sure he’d explained this in passing before, but I couldn’t remember what he’d said.

“Non-powered family member,” he explained with a shrug, like it was common knowledge, which it probably was. To him. Sometimes, I think he forgot how new to all of this I was. “Backbefore we understood things like DNA and human genomes, normies weren’t restricted the way powered family members were. If they didn’t present powers by the time they were sixteen, they were considered non-powered and could marry whoever they liked.”

Ah. “So, powers could present anytime until the age of sixteen?”

His head bobbled from side to side, both agreeing and disagreeing with my question. “That’s the age the ancients put up as part of the restriction. Mostly, powers presented in childhood, but they go through a state of flux during puberty. That’s when most powers will strengthen from touch to remote. If they’re going to strengthen at all, that is. Sixteen has always been seen as the age where we’d know the extent of a person’s powers.”

I frowned. “But puberty can last past that…”

“I know!” Callum threw his hands up in anI give upway, before he let out an exasperated sigh. “George thinks that his family’s seer power was lying dormant in my family’s line for generations until something triggered it to activate in me.” He rubbed his stomach. “Mam’s always had these gut feelings, you know?”

Nodding, I sat back and remembered all the times that Erin had just seemed toknowwhen things were going to happen. Little things, like when the phone would ring and who would be on the other end of the line, or the rare times when she’d keep me home from school, only for me to get sick later in the day. All things that could be easily explained as just an observant wife and mother. She even said that it was her gut feeling that led her to Dad.

“George thinks that’s her seer power presenting. He’s doing research to see if anyone else in my family gets the samegutfeelingsthat Mam does. I’m the first one that he knows of that has actual visions, though, like his family has.”

“And no-one has burned?” I frowned at him. “I mean, based on your story about Iris, it would make sense if someone burned from the mixing of the powers.”

He shook his head. “Nope. No-one. Not since the ancients put the restrictions in place. Of course, there has been no known mixing of bloodlines since then, either.”

“Until now…”

“Until now.” He scraped his palms down his cheeks, let out a heavy sigh, and sat back, looking around at the nothingness that surrounded us. “I should’ve burned when I had that first vision,mo lus na gréine, but I didn’t. George doesn’t know why, but…”

“But…?” Anticipation filled me as I leaned forward. “You have a theory, don’t you?”

Still avoiding my eyes, Callum pressed his lips together and swallowed nervously. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

I waited for him to continue, but silence settled around us. When I couldn’t take it any longer, I asked, “And…?”

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