The Inheritance Games, #3
The Final Gambit
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Contents
CHAPTER 84
Overview
Blake honors Avery’s victory but banishes her from Legacy Ranch, while Toby’s lost wager forces him to remain tied to Blake as Tobias Blake. Eve learns that Avery and possibly Toby let her win, souring her inheritance of Blake’s empire because it fails to give her the validation she wanted.
Toby chooses not to run because breaking his wager could endanger Avery’s victory and because he wants to try to save Eve as Hannah once believed he could be saved. The chapter turns Avery’s win into a bittersweet departure, separating her from Toby while leaving future conflict with Blake and Eve unresolved.
Summary
After Avery wins the wager, Vincent Blake agrees to honor it but orders Avery, Grayson, and Alisa removed from his property and the press cleared away. When one of Blake’s men grabs Avery, Toby knocks the man down and insists on escorting them himself. Blake allows it, pointedly calling him Tobias Blake, a reminder that Toby lost his own wager and now belongs to Blake’s world.
Before the group can leave, Eve stops them. Eve realizes Avery let her win the tournament and suspects Toby may have done the same. Avery says Eve still got what she wanted: all five seals and Blake’s empire. Eve reveals that she wanted to prove she was worthy and wanted Blake to see her, but now believes Blake will only see Avery’s manipulation when he looks at her.
Grayson tells Eve that he saw her and that she could have been one of them. Eve briefly seems affected, then hides behind cruelty and claims the girl Grayson knew was a lie. Eve orders Toby to take Avery’s group away, then reminds him that he will return, underscoring that Toby has no real choice under the terms of his lost wager.
At the truck, Avery asks what happens next, and Toby says he becomes Tobias Blake. Avery urges him to run, but Alisa warns that if Toby breaks the terms, Blake could claim all the wagers are invalid. Toby refuses to run because he is staying for Eve as well as Avery. When Avery objects that Eve helped Blake kidnap him and used them, Toby compares Eve’s actions to his own past guilt in the fire that killed Hannah’s sister and says Hannah believed he was redeemable.
Toby tells Avery there are many things he would change if he could, but Avery reflects that Tobias Hawthorne’s game did not make her extraordinary; it revealed what she already was. Toby assures Avery that Blake will not keep him locked away and that their worlds will cross again. He gives Avery a small wooden cube he made while captive, then asks Grayson to watch out for her. At the gate, Oren and his men are waiting, along with Jameson, and Grayson promises that he and Avery will take care of each other.
Who Appears
- Avery Kylie GrambsWins Blake’s wager, confronts Eve’s anger, and struggles with losing Toby again.
- TobyAccepts becoming Tobias Blake, protects Avery, and chooses to stay partly for Eve.
- EveNew heir to Blake’s empire; furious that her victory was given rather than earned.
- Grayson HawthorneControls his reaction to Eve, tells her she could have belonged, and vows to protect Avery.
- Vincent BlakeHonors the wager but banishes Avery from his property and claims Toby by name.
- Alisa OrtegaWarns that Toby running could let Blake invalidate the wagers Avery won.
- Jameson Winchester HawthorneWaits at the property gate for Avery and the others after the press is cleared.
- OrenWaits at the gate with his security team after Blake’s people disperse the press.