The Inheritance Games, #3
The Final Gambit
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Contents
CHAPTER 60
Overview
Xander tries to cope with the revelation about Isaiah through humor and food, then chooses to speak privately with the father he was kept from. Isaiah identifies Toby’s mysterious disk as one of Vincent Blake’s five family seals, symbols of power and possible claims to Blake’s fortune. The discovery reframes the disk as enormously valuable and raises a new mystery: why Tobias Hawthorne possessed a Blake family seal, especially as Avery learns Blake’s missing son was named Will Blake.
Summary
Rebecca and Thea bring Avery to a doughnut shop, where Xander is trying to distract himself by building and eating a tower of doughnuts. Avery gently acknowledges that Xander has just learned the Hawthornes faked a paternity test to keep Isaiah, a father who wanted him, out of his life. Xander admits he does not want to talk to Avery about it, so Avery simply stays with him until Oren signals that they have been spotted.
The group returns to Isaiah’s garage. Xander asks Avery for the small metal disk and approaches Isaiah with two questions: Isaiah’s opinion on Rube Goldberg machines and whether Isaiah recognizes the disk. Isaiah identifies the disk not as an artifact but as Vincent Blake’s “family seal,” a calling card that granted its holder Blake’s blessing, status, and power within his empire.
Isaiah explains that Blake had five seals, and only family members—blood relatives or relatives of Blake’s late wife—could hold them. If a holder displeased Blake, the seal and the power attached to it were taken away. Isaiah also says the seals were especially valuable because Blake’s son left years earlier, leaving no direct heir; rumor claimed that anyone holding a seal when Blake died would receive a stake in the family fortune.
Avery realizes the disk could be worth around one-fifth of Blake’s fortune and connects that to Toby’s old instructions to her mother about something he left in Jackson and what it was worth. Avery concludes that Toby Hawthorne stole the seal from his father more than twenty years ago, but she cannot understand why Tobias Hawthorne had a Blake family seal if Blake would never willingly reward a man who betrayed him.
Isaiah says he has told Avery what he knows, but his uncertainty toward Xander opens the door for a private conversation between father and son. As the others leave, Rebecca asks the name of Vincent Blake’s missing son. Isaiah remembers that the son was named Will Blake, and Avery immediately connects the name to William Blake and the poem “A Poison Tree” inscribed in Toby’s wing of Hawthorne House.
Who Appears
- Avery GrambsSupports Xander, questions Isaiah, and connects the seal to Toby and Will Blake.
- Xander HawthorneUses humor to cope, then chooses to talk privately with Isaiah.
- IsaiahXander’s father; identifies the disk as one of Vincent Blake’s family seals.
- Rebecca LaughlinAccompanies Avery and asks the crucial question about Blake’s son’s name.
- Thea CalligarisHelps bring Avery to Xander and accompanies the group to Isaiah’s garage.
- OrenSignals that Avery and Xander have been spotted in public.
- Vincent BlakeAbsent antagonist whose family seals represent status, power, and possible inheritance.
- Toby HawthorneAbsent but central; apparently stole a Blake family seal from Tobias years earlier.
- Tobias HawthorneAbsent figure whose possession of a Blake family seal deepens the mystery.
- Will BlakeVincent Blake’s missing son, newly named and linked to William Blake imagery.