Page 20

Joey

“Good. You picked up on that,” Callum said approvingly, a small smile tickling at the corners of his lips. He took his seat again and motioned for me to join him.

“Story time again, huh?” I asked as I laid down and got comfortable once more.

“Kind of, yeah.” He tipped his head back and looked at the stars, still sparkling merrily above us.

Many generations after Cassandra and Helenus died, when their lives and the lives of their children were being talked about as legends but not yet myth, a young man from the past family line married a young woman from the present family line.

Until that point, intermarriage between the family lines wasn’t forbidden like it is today. Couples between two family lines weren’t wholly encouraged because any marriages between the lines always proved to be childless. For families that prided themselves on continuing the family lines and their resulting powers, children were typically what every couple desired.

It was believed that if two people from two different family lines were so in love that not even the thought of remaining childless could keep them apart, a benevolent Apollo wouldn’t stand in their way, and would instead honor their union.

But such a marriage had to be balanced by sacrifice, and so he would steadfastly refuse to allow them any offspring. It was said that, even after all the centuries that had passed, Apollo still held his grudge against Cassandra, and his refusal to bless such a couple with children was his way of keeping that grudge alive.

I sighed as Callum’s fingers threaded through my hair. Gods and their grudges. They all fought like children. No wonder our ancestors loved telling their tales.

This young couple in love were one of the rare few that the idea of remaining childless didn’t bother them, and so their extended families celebrated their marriage as one where Apollo had accepted their sacrifice and thus honored their union.

After many years, and to everyone’s complete surprise, the woman from the present family line became pregnant, and there was much rejoicing. Maybe, after all this time, Apollo had finally forgiven Cassandra’s betrayal?

The miracle baby was born healthy and was named Iris, and she grew to be beloved by all. All three family lines adored this child and saw her as the physical representation of Apollo’s long-awaited forgiveness of Cassandra.

I snorted. Somehow, I didn’t think that was how this story was going to go. If there was one thing I knew about the gods of old, forgiveness was extremely rare and incredibly hard won once finally given.

But yay for a miracle baby, I guess?

Iris displayed her mother’s present telepathic powers early, far earlier than anyone else in their family line. Where most powered individuals didn’t start displaying their power until they were six or seven, she was telepathically communicating with any animal she encountered from the age of two. By the time she was five, she was interacting with people from the next town over. Her mental power was immense and there were those that wondered if this increase in power was because of the two family lines mixing.

When Iris turned seven, however, everything changed.

I knew it!

On the morning of her birthday, she was presented with a new coat that her grandmother had made for her. She took the colorful coat in her hands and thanked her grandmother for the time she’d spent on her gift. Then, as if in a trance, she talked about the history of the coat: who had helped her grandmother create it, where each thread had originated, and what her grandmother had felt when she stitched it together.

This was her father’s past gift of psychometry and the first time anyone had presented two family line powers. Because Iris had already presented with telepathy, no-one was expecting her to show another power.

A shiver of dread and recognition traveled up my spine. Those were some of the same powers that Callum had. Abstractly, I knew Callum had been telling me stories that told of his family history, but this felt more real, more genuine. The previous story felt like something he’d heard around a campfire and was passing the story on to me as a matter of course. A myth told to explain how his world worked.

This story, though… This story felt raw, almost painful. A warning told from one generation to the next to make sure the mistakes of the past never happened again.

This felt personal.

At first, while her parents were astonished and took the new direction of her power cautiously, her extended family was thrilled. They celebrated the fact that someone could hold multiple powers and talk quickly turned to who her parents could marry Iris off to in order to receive the best dowry, and even began conspiring about which other children could be married off to mix the bloodlines for the best combination of powers. Her parents urged their relatives not to get ahead of themselves, but they were ignored.

While these discussions took place, her parents watched their daughter grow more and more restless. When she began complaining of a sharp pain in her head, her parents sent their relatives away so they could care for their child.

That night, the bloodcurdling sound of Iris’s pained screams could be heard from their house. By dawn of the next day, Iris’s screams had stopped, only to have been replaced by the anguished wails of her parents.

Oh, no.

But also, how? If this girl had presented with the same powers as Callum but died, how did Callum exist? I shuffled restlessly in place, trying to focus on the soothing scrape of Callum’s fingernails against my scalp as he talked.

After her distraught parents were finally dragged away from their daughter’s body, Iris was examined thoroughly. It was discovered that introducing the second power had burned her mind from the inside out. Her body couldn’t cope with the additional drain the second power had on her and took the fuel for that power the only way it could: by boiling her brain until there was nothing left.

Although Iris’s extended family mourned the loss of her presumed dowry, they continued to plot the arranged marriages of other powered children together in order to create more dual powered offspring. Their greed of what the future could bring blinded them to everything else.

Iris’s parents were left to grieve their miracle child alone.

Those pricks. I hoped there was some retribution coming the extended family’s way, because focusing on anything other than the death of a child felt all sorts of wrong.

But I guess that’s what the world was like. Even now, profit ruled everything. People never learned.

Three days after their daughter was laid to rest, Iris’s parents visited her grave only to find Apollo and his twin sister, Artemis, waiting for them.

Wait. What?

Three days later? Apollo and Artemis?

What?!

I went to sit up and ask the many questions that this raised, but Callum simply chuckled and gently pushed me back down onto his lap again with a shake of his head.

“Patience, mo lus na gréine . Let me finish.”

“Fine,” I grumbled and tried to relax again.

Both Apollo and Artemis had taken pity on them, telling the parents that their grief was so loud and their love for Iris and each other so pure that they had been called down from Olympus to aid them. They sat with the parents next to their daughter’s grave and talked with them for hours.

As the sun was nearing the end of its travels for the day, Apollo snapped his fingers, and Iris appeared in front of her parents to say goodbye. Once she had hugged her parents for the last time, Artemis took Iris’s small hand in her own and promised them she would look after their daughter until they could join Iris in the afterlife, decades from now.

Artemis made note of the multi-colored coat Iris was wearing and, knowing that it was a source of deep sorrow for her parents, blessed the garment so that it would be able to transport Iris from place to place. Every trip Iris would take with her multi-colored coat would leave behind colorful traces in the sky, so her parents could see evidence of their daughter enjoying her afterlife and hopefully bring some comfort to their never-ending grief.

Artemis and Iris then bade goodbye to Iris’s parents and left for Olympus, carried forward by the appearance of a variety of vibrant colors in the sky above them and on into the distance.

And thus, the first rainbow was created.

Aw, that was kind of sweet, actually. That meant that every time the parents saw a rainbow, they could think of their daughter playing in the misty rain.

Apollo comforted Iris’s parents and told them he would leave them to their grief for now, but would return to them before the next winter would take hold. As the sun finally set, Apollo vanished.

Months later, Apollo reappeared as promised. The young couple woke up to find him pottering around in their kitchen, making himself at home. He sat them down and presented them with a hearty breakfast that he’d cooked for them, which they all enjoyed. Once their hunger had been sated, Apollo sat back with a knowing smile and congratulated them on falling pregnant again.

The couple were astounded. When they had decided to marry, they had done so understanding that they would have no children. Iris had been a miracle child, and when she’d passed, they assumed they would return to a childless marriage.

Apollo agreed with their assessment and told them that normally that would be the case. Nevertheless, he had decided to grant them one more child to make up for the horrifying way they had lost Iris, but this time he would ensure that the child would survive well into adulthood and have children of their own.

Ah, that’s how Callum came to exist. This was his ancestor.

The new child would share both parent’s powers, just like Iris had. This time, however, those powers would be limited to only being available whilst touching the subject of their focus. Until this point, where most powered individuals grew their power from touch use in childhood to remote use in adulthood, this child would be limited to touch use only. It was the only way that both powers could co-exist and not burn the body up, like what had happened with Iris.

He warned that although their relatives would welcome this pregnancy, it would be for all the wrong reasons. This would make things very difficult for them both, but he would help them where he could. Apollo then wished them both well and took his leave, vanishing in front of them once more.

Months passed, and with Apollo’s warning in mind, the parents tried to hide the pregnancy from the rest of their families. Eventually, however, there came a time when the young mother had no choice but to show her swollen belly. Much to their dismay, Apollo’s prediction came true: every one of their relatives took the new pregnancy as a sign that the barren unions of the past were over, and arranged marriages between family lines could begin in order to create superior mixed power family lines.

I grimaced and rolled my eyes in exasperation. Creating superior bloodlines had always worked out so very well in the past, hadn’t they?

Sighing, I shifted onto my back, getting comfortable in Callum’s hold so I could clearly look up at the dancing stars again, letting his voice quietly drift over me, weaving a tale older than some of the stars I was now looking at.

The young parents tried to explain to their families what Apollo had told them, but their relatives refused to listen, instead insisting that the young couple were lying, even going so far as to accuse them of blaspheming against Apollo and tossing their heritage away like the non-powered public. Finally giving up, the parents withdrew as much as they could, until the mother went into labor.

Much to the astonishment of the relatives, both Apollo and Artemis appeared next to the parents. While Artemis helped the mother through her labor, Apollo lectured the relatives for not believing the young couple. He reiterated that everything they had told their relatives was true, and that this was the only time he would ever allow two powered people from different family lines to produce an heir that would survive into adulthood.

He warned that should the relatives ignore what he was saying and continue their path of insisting on arranged marriages between powered children, any offspring that would result from said marriage would burn just like Iris had. Furthermore, he would restrict the powers of any parents that knowingly offered their children up as part of an arranged marriage with the primary purpose of producing a super-powered child.

Strangely, I was with Apollo on this. It felt like there had to be a balance in the world for such power to exist. Too much power in one individual could corrupt not only that person, but everyone around them. Better for there to be known consequences so people weren’t tempted to play God.

I chuckled to myself. Play God. Back in the day, Apollo was that God.

And if Callum’s stories were true, Apollo was still that God.

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 was produced 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. “Back before 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 an I give up way, 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 to know when 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 same gut feelings that 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…?”

“It’s mad.” He chuckled as he shook his head. “Totally crazy.” His hands rested on the edge of the table-top and he leaned back. “It was something I said to George the day after I left.”

Infuriatingly, he fell into silence again. I leaned forward and poked him in the sternum, making him startle and push my hand away. “And?!”

Grumbling, he rubbed at the spot where I’d prodded him. “I said that he was lucky I was gay and didn’t want kids of my own.” He shrugged. “I figured Apollo allowed me to survive, because he knew I wasn’t planning on continuing my family line, and there was no way for me to father an oops baby.”

Shocked, I sat back, blinking hard. Callum didn’t want children? For some reason, that thought saddened me. It was far, far too early for me to even think about having children, but the idea of never seeing little mini-Callum’s running around all carefree and joyful left me feeling cold. “You don’t want children?” I asked, my voice strangely quieter than I had meant it to sound.

Alarmed, he turned to face me and reached over to grab my hands when he saw the look on my face. “ Mo lus na gréine , you misunderstand. I want to raise children, but I’ve always wanted to adopt or foster.” He looked deeply into my eyes, holding my gaze, pleading for me to understand. “You have to remember that I’ve always known I was gay. I knew from a very early age that if I wanted a biological child, I would need to spend thousands of dollars on IVF and a surrogate that would take months or years to get any sort of result from. It all seemed like such a waste when the money could be better spent on looking after a child that already existed and needed someone to love them immediately.”

As he explained, my heart melted, and I felt my eyes well up. He did want children, just not in the conventional way.

Instantly, my fuzzy vision of little mini-Callum’s running around blurred and shifted clearly into a phone screen appearing in front of my eyes. A reflection of an older, bearded version of myself was laughing and leaning into an older version of a grinning Callum, before I murmured, “I love you, sweetness.”

A tiny Asian girl of around six and a slightly older bespectacled Black boy were happily roughhousing in a bouncy castle behind us. As this older version of myself tapped the screen to take the family photo, a sense of fulfillment, love, and affection for these unnamed children and the man standing next to me filled me near to bursting.

In that moment, when knowledge of this future slammed into my present, I knew, without any doubt, I would do anything to keep these individuals, my family , safe and cared for. They meant everything to me.

And it all started with the wide-eyed young man sitting in front of me, wrapped in a ratty blanket, telling me the legends about how his family came to be while we waited to be discovered by a crazy jackass.

“Oh, my God… Yes ,” Callum whispered in awe. “That’s our future.”

Coming back to myself, I blinked, my eyes clearing enough that I could see his still slightly glazed eyes peering back at me. “You saw that? How…?”

He shook his head, his mouth open in shock. “I don’t know. You shouldn’t be able to see what I see. It shouldn’t be possible.”

Still reeling from the images in my head of those two perfect children and an older Callum, I surged forward and kissed him with everything I had. The pure love and contentment that I’d felt in those precious few seconds rushed through me, and I needed Callum to feel what I’d felt in that vision.

What I still felt now, back in the present.

All the adolescent emotions I’d thought I’d felt so strongly for him over the past few years were now nothing but shades of gray. The explosion of a vibrant cacophony of color overtook my senses and the unerring certainty that I loved this man with every fiber of my being, and that he loved me back with every beat of his heart, nearly stole my breath away.

Was this more of what he’d seen all those years ago? Had he been feeling the same unbridled adoration currently rushing through my blood all this time? How had he survived being away from me? After experiencing this riot of emotion for Callum, even for just a moment, I didn’t think I could bear the thought of being separated from him for more than a few minutes.

As I climbed into his lap, my knees straddling his thighs, he met me, kiss for kiss, breath for breath, each heartbeat solidifying our love for each other even further.

Letting go of my blanket, I cupped my hands on his cheeks and pulled away just enough so I could gasp for some much needed air. “Callum,” I breathed, my forehead resting against his. “My God. Is that how you’ve been feeling all this time?”

Tears filled his wild eyes as his shaking fingers traced over my face, desperation filling every movement. “Ever since that first touch, mo lus na gréine .”

“Oh, sweetness…” My hands explored his heaving chest, his shoulders, before settling on the back of his head so I could angle him in a way that I could drag my nose along the ridge of his ear, making him shiver in my arms.

“I love you,” I whispered, just a little louder than a breath. “My God, how I love you. How I will continue to love you. I had no idea... You don’t have to hold back anymore, baby. Let yourself love like you were always supposed to. I’m right there with you, sweetness.”

A heaving sob wracked him as he threw his arms around me and held on tight, his fingertips clawing desperately into my back. He buried his head into my neck, and I felt his tears fall as the barriers that he’d had to build up around his emotions just so he could scrape by in this crazy world crumbled into nothing but dust.

“I love you so much, mo lus na gréine ,” he murmured, still crying into my neck. “Words can’t describe what I feel for you. What I’ve felt for you.” He pulled me even further into him, like he couldn’t bear being separated from me, and if he could only squeeze us together hard enough, we could merge into one. “But you know now.” His breaths came heavy and hard as the realization that he didn’t have to hide anything from me anymore rushed through him. “You know now…”

“I do, baby.” With my fingers threading through his hair, I held him close as he continued to sob, until all the tension finally drained from his body. “I do.”

As the stars slowly traversed the sky above us, we sat there quietly on the hard timber picnic bench. I held Callum while he settled into what would hopefully be his new normal, rocking him ever so slightly from side to side whenever he started tensing up. A few murmured words along with the gentle swaying motion, and his anxiety evaporated.

Finally, when I couldn’t ignore the chilly night air any longer, I kissed him on the top of his head. “Come on, sweetness. Let’s go home. I think by now it’s safe to say that we lost the jackass.”

A small huff of laughter puffed against my neck before Callum nuzzled into me one last time and pulled away. “Yeah, I think you’re right.” He leaned back so he could look hopefully into my eyes. “Back to my place? Stay the night?”

Smiling gently, I pressed my lips against his forehead before saying softly, “Home is wherever you rest your head, Callum. And if it was up to me, I’d stay with you forever.”

His eyes lit up as a beaming smile spread over his gorgeous face. “I want you with me, mo lus na gréine . Always.”

“Then take me home.”