The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games #2)(91)

My eyes widened as I took in the contents of that workshop. “Is that…”

“Life-sized re-creations of the three most lovable droids in the Star Wars universe.” Xander grinned. “For Max.”





CHAPTER 88


You beautiful beaches.” Max was beyond pleased with Xander’s offering—enough so that it took her a moment to shoot me a reproving look. “I feel obliged to warn you, you’re looking a little pale, and the great Dr. Liu is not going to be pleased.”

I took that to mean that my doctor would have been really displeased to know what I’d actually been up to in the last twelve hours. “Thank you.” I waited until Max looked at me before I continued. “For bringing your mom here.”

I knew enough about my best friend to know that it hadn’t been an easy call to make.

“Yeah, well…” Max shrugged. “Thank you. For getting blown up.”

For giving you a reason to call—and giving her a reason to pick up. “Do you think you’ll be headed home soon?”

I didn’t want Max to leave, but at the same time, my best friend had her own life to live, and I couldn’t help thinking that she’d be safer doing that far away from Hawthorne House. Away from me, from the Hawthorne family, from everything I’d inherited along with Tobias Hawthorne’s billions.

Poison tree and all.





When Thea called, I almost didn’t pick up. That was why Xander had given me her number. And yet…

“Hello?” I said darkly.

There was a moment of hesitation, and then: “I did some digging and found out who vandalized your locker. It was a freshman. You want the name?”

Silly me. I’d been expecting an apology. “No.” I was tempted to leave it there, but I couldn’t. “Is Rebecca okay?”

“She’s shaken, but fine.” Thea’s voice was soft, but she spoiled the effect by scoffing audibly. “Fine enough to yell at me for putting you in danger.”

“Yeah, well…” I shrugged, even though Thea couldn’t see me. “Rebecca’s one to talk.” That I could joke about this was a true testament to how far Rebecca and I had come.

“I had a choice.” Thea’s voice shook. She was diabolical and complicated and about a thousand other things, but she wasn’t evil. She’d been worried about me. “I had to choose her. Can you understand that, Avery?” Thea didn’t wait for my answer. “For me, it’s always going to be Rebecca. She doesn’t believe that, but no matter how long it takes, I’m going to keep choosing her.”

I had never understood what it felt like for one person to be your everything, to look at that person and know. I’d never believed myself capable of that. I hadn’t wanted to be capable of it.

When Thea and I hung up the phone, I went to see Grayson.





CHAPTER 89


I told Grayson what had happened to his father. I didn’t tell him about Eve. The entire time, his face was like stone. “You look like you want to hit something,” I told him.

He shook his head.

I made him look at me. “How about swinging a sword?”





Grayson corrected my stance. “Let the blade do the work for you,” he reminded me, and in that moment, I was reminded of more.

Of the first day I’d met him. How arrogant he’d been, how sure of himself and his place in the world. I thought about the first time I’d caught him really looking at me, and the way he’d told me that I had an expressive face. I thought about bargains struck and promises made and stolen moments and words spoken in Latin.

But mostly I thought about the ways that the two of us were alike. “I had a dream,” I told him. “When I was in the coma. You and Jameson were fighting. About me.”

“Avery…” Grayson lowered his sword.

“In my dream,” I continued, “Jameson was angry that you didn’t run toward me. That I was lying there at death’s door, and you couldn’t move. But, Grayson?” I waited for him to look at me, with silver eyes and the weight of the world on his shoulders. “I’m not angry. I’ve spent my entire life not running toward anyone. I know what’s it like to just stand there—to not be able to do anything else. I know what it’s like to lose someone.”

I thought about my mom, then Emily.

“I am an expert at not wanting to want things.” I held my sword up for a moment longer, then lowered it, the way he’d lowered his. “But I’m starting to realize that the person I need to be, the person I’m becoming—she’s not that girl anymore.”

I’d been given the world. It was time to stop living scared, time to take the reins.

It was time to take risks.





CHAPTER 90


Ms. Grambs, you understand that if you are emancipated, you will be considered a legal adult. You will be responsible for yourself. You will be held to adult standards. You are literally signing away the rest of your childhood.”

In the past six weeks, I’d been shot at, blown up, kidnapped, and paraded around as the living, breathing embodiment of Cinderella stories. To the world, I was a scandal, a mystery, a curiosity, a fantasy.