The Inheritance Games, #1
The Inheritance Games
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Contents
Chapter 79
Overview
Avery reels from Grayson’s confession and the possibility that Tobias Hawthorne chose Avery for no deeper reason than Avery’s birthday matching Emily Laughlin’s death date. While questioning Tobias’s motives, Avery discovers that the portrait of Tobias is actually another puzzle piece keyed to 10/18.
The hidden compartment behind the portrait yields a purple stained-glass octagon and a new verse, shifting the mystery forward instead of resolving it. The chapter confirms that Tobias’s game is still active and that the apparent final number was only a gateway to another clue.
Summary
After Grayson leaves, Oren escorts Avery back to Hawthorne House. Avery asks whether Tobias Hawthorne might have chosen Avery simply because Emily Laughlin died on Avery’s birthday, October eighteenth, but Oren admits that no one truly knew Tobias’s thinking except Tobias himself.
Avery returns through the house toward the wing she shares with Libby, shaken by the possibility that the inheritance may have been based on a trivial coincidence. Avery worries that neither Grayson nor Jameson will speak to Avery again, and Avery stops at the portrait of Tobias Hawthorne that Xander once showed her.
Studying the portrait, Avery searches for any clue that Tobias ever knew Avery or had a deeper reason for choosing Avery. Avery notices the artist’s signature, “Tobias Hawthorne X. X. VIII,” realizes the portrait is a self-portrait, and recognizes the letters as Roman numerals pointing again to 10/18.
Remembering hidden mechanisms elsewhere in the house, Avery feels behind the portrait and finds a release. The portrait swings outward, revealing a keypad. Avery tries the code 1018, and the step beneath Avery opens to expose a hidden compartment.
Inside the compartment, Avery finds a purple octagonal piece of stained glass hanging from a shimmering ribbon. Under the panel, Avery discovers a new etched verse, proving that 10/18 is not the final answer but the next step in Tobias Hawthorne’s puzzle.
Who Appears
- Avery Kylie GrambsQuestions Tobias’s motives and discovers a hidden keypad, stained-glass piece, and new clue.
- OrenEscorts Avery and offers limited insight into Tobias Hawthorne’s unknowable intentions.
- Tobias HawthorneAbsent puzzle-maker whose self-portrait conceals the next step in the inheritance game.
- Grayson HawthorneLeaves Avery emotionally shaken after his prior confession about Emily’s death.