The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games #1)(97)

“Are you sure, Heiress?” Jameson was right beside me now. I’ve seen the way Jameson looks at you, Grayson had said. “Are you absolutely certain?”

I looked at Jameson. This didn’t feel real. I have a secret, I could hear my mother telling me, about the day you were born.…

I reached for Jameson’s hand and squeezed hard. “I’m sure.”





EPILOGUE


Xander Hawthorne stared down at the letter, the way he had every day for a week. On the surface, it said very little.


Alexander,

Well done.

Tobias Hawthorne



Well done. He’d gotten his brothers to the end of the game. He’d gotten Avery there, too. He’d done exactly as he’d promised—but the old man had made him a promise, too.

When their game is done, yours will begin.

Xander had never competed the way his brothers did—but oh, how he’d wanted to. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Avery that, just once, he wanted to win. When they’d made it to the final room, when she’d opened the box, when he’d torn open his envelope, he’d been expecting… something.

A riddle.

A puzzle.

A clue.

And all he’d received was this. Well done.

“Xander?” Rebecca said softly beside him. “What are we doing here?”

“Sighing melodramatically,” Thea sniped. “Obviously.”

That he’d gotten both of them here, in the same room, was a feat. He wasn’t even sure why he’d done it, other than the fact that he needed a witness. Witnesses. If Xander was being honest with himself, he’d brought Rebecca because he wanted her there, and he’d brought Thea because if he hadn’t…

He would have been alone with Rebecca.

“There are many types of invisible ink,” Xander told them. In the past few days, he had held a match to the back of the page, heating its surface. He’d bought a UV light and gone to town. He’d tried every way he knew of unmasking a hidden message on a page, except for one. “But there’s only one kind,” he continued evenly, “that destroys the message after it’s revealed.”

If he was wrong about this, it was over. There would be no game, no winning. Xander didn’t want to do this alone.

“What exactly do you think you’re going to find?” Thea asked him.

Xander looked down at the letter one last time.


Alexander,

Well done.

Tobias Hawthorne



Perhaps the old man’s promise had been a lie. Perhaps, to Tobias Hawthorne, Xander had only been an afterthought. But he had to try. He turned to the tub beside him. He filled it with water.

“Xander?” Rebecca said again, and her voice nearly undid him.

“Here goes nothing.” Xander laid his letter gingerly on the surface of the water, then pressed down.

At first, he thought he’d made a horrible mistake. He thought nothing was happening. Then, slowly, writing appeared, on either side of his grandfather’s signature. Tobias Hawthorne, he’d signed it, no middle name, and now the reason for that omission was clear.

The invisible ink darkened on the page. To the right of the signature, there were only two letters, equating to one Roman numeral: II. And to the left, there was a single word: Find.

Find Tobias Hawthorne II.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


Writing this book was a challenge and a joy, and I am so thankful to the incredible teams (plural!) that have supported me through every step of the process. I worked with two fantastic editors on this project. I am so grateful to Kieran Viola for recognizing that this was absolutely the book I needed to write next and for helping me bring Avery, the Hawthorne brothers, and their world to life. Lisa Yoskowitz then guided the book to publication, and her passion and vision for this project, along with her market savvy and grace, have made the process a dream. Any author would be lucky to work with either one of these editors; I am incredibly blessed to have gotten to work with both!

Huge thanks go out to the entire team at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, especially Janelle DeLuise, Jackie Engel, Marisa Finkelstein, Shawn Foster, Bill Grace, Savannah Kennelly, Hannah Koerner, Christie Michel, Hannah Milton, Emilie Polster, Victoria Stapleton, and Megan Tingley. Special thanks go out to my publicist, Alex Kelleher-Nagorski, whose enthusiasm for this project has made my day more than once; to Michelle Campbell, for her incredible outreach to librarians and teachers; and to Karina Granda, for her work on the most beautiful cover I have ever seen! I am also in awe of and indebted to artist Katt Phatt, who created the incredible artwork on the cover. Thank you to Anthea Townsend, Phoebe Williams, and the entire team at Penguin Random House UK for their passion for and work on this project, and the team at Disney ? Hyperion, who saw the potential in this book in 2018, when it was just a four-page proposal.

Elizabeth Harding has been my agent since I was in college, and I could not ask for a wiser, more incredible advocate! To my entire team at Curtis Brown—thank you, thank you, thank you. Holly Frederick championed TV rights for this book. Sarah Perillo did incredible work on foreign rights (in the midst of a pandemic, no less!). Thank you also to Nicole Eisenbraun, Sarah Gerton, Maddie Tavis, and Jazmia Young. I appreciate you all so much!