Page 50 of The Grip of Death
I licked my lips, studying the sneakers hungrily. “Maybe if he ever comes knocking, we can outrun him in these.”
He squinted, then leaned over, reaching for another gift in a more unusual shape. Maybe that was a polite way to put it. The gift had been wrapped in a ball of newspaper. Random pieces of yarn and string were draped over it, though none of them were actually knotted enough to hold the thing together.
“What in the world is this?” Xander shook the bundle, holding it up to his ear. “And who’s it from? There’s no card. Very, uh, avant-garde way to wrap a wedding gift.”
He opened up the bundle, the bits of string falling to the floor. It was as if the package had been wrapped by someone with only an approximate understanding of gift-wrapping — or by someone who lacked opposable thumbs.
Xander held up the mess of paper, peeled back like the petals of a crumpled newsprint flower. Sitting in its center was a familiar rock.
I swallowed hard. “Xander. That’s from Zephyr. It’s his favorite rock.”
His face scrunched up so tightly I thought he was going to cry. I bit on my lower lip. I didn’t know enough about gryphon culture, but that had to be the sweetest thing a five-hundred-pound mythical prey animal could have done for us.
Suddenly, Lore’s hovering crystal body lit up like a firework. Pots and pans clattered as his appendages dropped them all at once.
“Oh my goodness. Jackson? Incoming transmission. It’s an echo from your parents.”
Thin shafts of light radiated from Lore’s crystal, scanning across the living room until they converged into the familiar ghostly blue holograms of Luciana and Octavian Pryde. My throat felt thick. Xander’s hand found mine and squeezed. I squeezed back.
Octavian waved. “Kiddo, if you’re seeing this, that means that you, Lore, and Whitby have all leveled up somehow.”
“I leveled up,” Whitby whispered, his voice and his crystal bright with delight.
“I’m not sure what that means,” Dad continued. “Or maybe I do. Whatever this is that you’ve all accomplished — congratulations. Or something. Luciana, what are we even doing here?”
Mom rolled her eyes. “What your father is struggling to say, Jackrabbit, is that you’ve probably achieved new heights that you never thought previously possible. Whether that’s in terms of your career or your personal life — or both — we can only guess.”
“Yeah, what she said. We have the AIs periodically analyzing your metrics — all three of you, that is — and that’s how these echoes know when to trigger. This means that your Pryde particles are at maximum capacity.”
I laughed. “Mywhat?”
“Your Octavian atoms are at peak performance. And your Luciana lasers are super hot right now.”
“Octavian, please! What your father is trying to say is that you’ve all clearly done something worth celebrating. You must be so, so happy, and we’re absolutely delighted for you.”
“There.” Dad beamed, perfectly pleased with himself. “Exactly what I said. I did it after all.”
“Good work, sweetie.” Luciana chuckled as she patted his hair. Dad leaned into her touch. With a bittersweet twinge, I realized I was leaning my head the exact same way.
“But there’s only so much more you might accomplish,” Mom said, “which means that we might not have enough of these echoes to last you a lifetime.”
“Oh, there’ll be plenty more,” Dad said, chuckling. “Even some solo ones from me. But you can always ask the AIs to bring up any of the echoes for you if you want to watch them again.”
Mom waved. “Always, Jackrabbit. Any time you want to see us. We love you so, so much.”
Dad pulled off a sharp salute. “Until we meet again, kiddo. Tune in next time.”
The image flickered, then faded. So much warmth in my chest, and yet it all seemed crowded out by a sudden heaviness. I’d been dreading this from the start. The echoes would run out eventually. Of course they would. I hated to seem so spoiled, to see the negative in getting so many wonderful memories from my favorite people from beyond the grave.
But was it really so selfish of me to hope for a little more?
The words came so softly from my lips. “Is that the last one? You know. Before they — ”
My voice trailed off. I couldn’t put it into words.
“Hardly, Jackson,” Lore replied. “Your parents spoke the truth. I’m unable to access their contents at the moment, but it appears there are quite a few more echoes to unlock.”
Xander squeezed my hand again. “And we’ll cherish every one, no matter how many are left. Right, Jack?”
