brutal | grayson hawthorne

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Supercut by Lorde
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"A very risky gamble," Liz repeats, slightly amused as she rolls the dice for her turn in Settlers of Monopoly (Catan combined with Monopoly).

"And then he gave us letters, one for you too, even though I guess you didn't need to be there when we discovered it," Grayson pulls out an envelope from his back pocket.

The two found themselves debriefing in the Game Room after Grayson came to find her as soon as him and his brothers and Avery unlocked the final piece of the mystery in the tunnels.

He told her how all four brothers needed to come together, Avery's name is an anagram, Grayson finally realized his grandfather wants him to stop feeling like the fate of the world rests on his shoulders, and Skye was the one who wanted Avery dead and is now exiled from Hawthorne House.

Liz takes the letter as she places a hotel down on her ore mine.

"So, now what?" Liz tosses the dice to Grayson to take his turn, moving his sliver dog piece to the desert.

"What do you mean?" Grayson says, focusing hard on what he wants to spend his money on.

Technically, him and Liz are at the point in their relationship where they can finally start over again, without feeling pressure on their souls every time they're within ten feet of each other, but neither have really brought that point up yet.

Before Liz can make a move, both in the game and in real life, Xander burst into the game room, on a mission.

"Have you read your letter yet?" He stares expectantly at Liz.

She looks a little wide-eyed, holding up her unopened envelope to show Xander.

"Ugh," he groans dramatically, stomping out of the room.

Liz and Grayson share a look, utterly lost, when Grayson immediately moves over the board to be next to her, knocking over a couple pieces with the action as Liz doesn't hesitate to rip open her letter.

Hawthornes and Hawthornes-adjacent are never ones to turn down the next adventure.

Elizabeth,
Welcome to the game.
Tobias Hawthorne

"Invisible ink," the two look up at each other, a rush going through their veins either from the excitement of whatever the letter means or from their close proximity. Either way, Settlers of Monopoly and whatever conversation they were going to have next was long forgotten as they start a mission of their own.

The rest of their morning consists of lemon juice, UV lights, matchsticks, filter paper, salt, ironing, and any other tactic the two could think of to reveal hidden messages.

"I'm sure Xander's figured it out," Grayson says as he holds the paper up to the sunlight outside the pool for the millionth time, hoping something will come out of it as Liz lies on her stomach on the pavement around the water, running her hands through the chlorinated substance, staring at her reflection in the pool.

"It's not fun if we ask him, though," Liz knows she sounds a little whiny, but after forfeiting her rights to be a part of the mystery of the inheritance when it meant spending too much time that wasn't good for her mental health around Grayson, she's a little too excited for the next adventure the old man will send her on.

"Here," Grayson hands her the letter, moving to sit next to her, not giving up, his arm just gets tired.

"Wait, let me dry my han-" Liz doesn't finish her thought before accidentally getting the corners of the paper wet in an effort to keep it from dropping into the pool completely. "Damn," she gently rests the partially ruined paper on the ground between her and Grayson as to not do anymore damage.

"Wait, look," Grayson gently spins the paper so both can more clearly see the splotch of ink on a once blank portion of the paper.

"Here goes everything," Liz gets her hands more wet, then allowing them to drip over the paper, knowing this will ruin the whole thing if it doesn't work.

Find Tobias Hawthorne II

is what reveals itself on the last line of the letter where Liz assumed was just the old man signing his name.

"Lunch," Nash announces, walking out to the pool area to call in Liz and Grayson.

Both are glad the paper falls apart as they wordlessly start following behind the oldest Hawthorne brother after sharing the briefest of glances.

Liz doesn't know much about Grayson's uncle, the old man's third child and only son, other than the fact that he 'died' in a fire 20 years ago and no one in Hawthorne House talked about him except for Nan who carried a photograph of him in a locket around her neck.

Lunch was fitting to Liz's mixed mood: Xander, Thea, and Rebecca were on one end of the table, whispering amongst each other and shooting quick looks down the table to Liz and Grayson who were sitting silently, pretending they weren't eavesdropping on Nan's words as Avery and Jameson looked at her like she held the answers to the universe, Nash and Libby across from each other at the middle of the table, shooting grapes into the other's water glasses.

Everyone could feel something in the air - the electricity of something new starting up - but no one makes a move to say anything about it, rather eating their grilled cheese and fruits like it's just another day in Hawthorne House. I guess, in a way, it is.

Liz is so caught up in what this all means she almost doesn't notice the way her leg is pressed up against Grayson's under the table. Almost.

a/n:
ok super fun story I haven't read the third book in the series bc I only have the paperback of the first and second so i was waiting for the paperback of the third to buy it but I just found out that there's going to be a fourth book and that one will come out in hardcover first so I'll have to wait a year after the hardcover release before I can buy the paperback of the fourth one so I just bought the hardcover set of the first three books and when the fourth one comes out I'll buy that hardcover and when the third one paperback comes out I'll buy that copy so basically I'll have the same exact series one in paperback one in hardcover anyway see you soon for pt 2 :)) also long live by taylor swift