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Chapter no 29

The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games, 3)

Aย person stopped breathing when they were awestruck or terrified. When they were hiding and any sound could give them away. When the world around them was on fire, the air thick with smoke.

Jameson and I scoured every single smoke detector in Hawthorne House.

โ€œYouโ€™re smiling,โ€ I told him, disgruntled when the last one turned up nothing.

โ€œI like a challenge.โ€ Jameson gave me a look that reminded me that Iโ€™dย beenย a challenge for him. โ€œAnd maybe Iโ€™m feeling nostalgic for Saturday mornings. Say what you will about my childhood, but it was never boring.โ€

I thought back to the balcony. โ€œYou didnโ€™t mind being set against your brothers?โ€ I asked.ย Against Grayson?ย โ€œBeing forced to compete?โ€

โ€œSaturday mornings were different,โ€ Jameson said. โ€œThe puzzles, the thrill, the old manโ€™s attention. Weย livedย for those games. Maybe not Nash, but Xander and Grayson and me. Hell, Gray even let loose sometimes because the games didnโ€™t reward perfection. He and I used to team up against Nash, at least until the end. Everything else our grandfather didโ€”everything he gave us, everything expected of usโ€”was about molding the next generation of Hawthornes to be something extraordinary. But Saturday mornings, those gamesโ€”they were about showing us that we alreadyย were.โ€

Extraordinary, I thought.ย And a part of something.ย That was the siren call of Tobias Hawthorneโ€™s games.

โ€œDo you think thatโ€™s why your grandfather left me this game?โ€ I asked.

The billionaire had set my game to start if and only if I met Eve. Had he known that I would start questioning his almighty judgment in choosing me the moment she showed up? Had he wanted to show me what I was capable of?

That I was extraordinary?

โ€œI think,โ€ Jameson murmured, relishing the words, โ€œthat my grandfather left three games when he died, Heiress. And the first two both told us something about why he chose you.โ€

 

 

Donโ€™t breathe.ย We didnโ€™t solve the clue that night. The next day was Monday. Oren cleared me to go to school so long as he stuck to my side. I could have called out sick and stayed home, but I didnโ€™t. My game had proven an effective distraction, but Toby was still in danger, and nothing could keep my mind off that for long.

I went to school because I wanted the paparazziโ€”that my opponent had so kindly set on me like dogsโ€”to take a picture of me with my head held high.

I wanted the person who had taken Toby to realize that I wasnโ€™t down.

I wanted him to make his next damn move.

I spent my free mods in the Archiveโ€”prep school forย library. I was almost done with the calculus homework Iโ€™d ignored over the long weekend when Rebecca came in. Oren allowed her past.

โ€œYou told Thea.โ€ Rebecca stalked toward me.

โ€œIs that such a bad thing?โ€ I askedโ€”from a safe distance. โ€œShe isย relentless,โ€ Rebecca muttered.

Proving the point, Thea appeared in the doorway behind her. โ€œI was under the impression that youย likedย relentless.โ€ Only Thea could make that sound flirty in these circumstances.

Rebecca grudgingly met her girlfriendโ€™s eyes. โ€œI kind of do.โ€

โ€œThen youโ€™re going toย loveย this part,โ€ Thea told her. โ€œBecause itโ€™s the part where you stop fighting this, stop fighting me, stop running away from this conversation, and let go.โ€

โ€œIโ€™m fine, Thea.โ€

โ€œYouโ€™re not,โ€ Thea told her achingly. โ€œAnd you donโ€™t have to be, Bex. Itโ€™s not your job to beย fineย anymore.โ€

Rebeccaโ€™s breath hitched.

I knew when my presence wasnโ€™t necessary. โ€œIโ€™m going to go,โ€ I said, and neither one of them even seemed to hear me. In the hallway, I was informed by an office aid that the headmasterโ€™s office was looking for me.

The headmasterโ€™s office?ย I thought.ย Not the headmaster?

On the way there, I made conversation with Oren. โ€œThink someone tipped the school off about my knife?โ€ I wondered how seriously private schools took their weapons policies when it came to students who were on the verge of inheriting billions. But when Oren and I got to the office, the secretary greeted me with a sunny smile.

โ€œAvery.โ€ She held out a packageโ€”not an envelope, but a box. My name was scripted on the top in familiar, elegant writing. โ€œThis was delivered for you.โ€

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