The Glass Ballerina Who Danced On Knives

Seeking Vengeance

We file one by one, back into the corridor and push open the door to reveal a small table with a box on it.
How anti-climatic.

We step up to the table and I notice that scrabble tiles are lined up on the top.

Avery Kylie Grambs

The tiles are golden.

"It's an anagram." So Avery has learned something from her time here.

"Try laying them out in alphabetical order." The suggestion, something simple for me, practically instinct when tasked with an anagram shoots out of my mouth.

Avery slides one of the blank tiles in between Avery, resulting in A very. Grayson steps up and organises the remaining letters A, B, E, G, I , K, L, M, R, S, Y.

A very risky gamble.

Glad to see people are catching up to what I noticed on the first day.

Avery rearranges the tiles at wart speed and the box clicks open to reveal a single packet of sugar, the cheap kind at diners.

The room goes dead silent as Avery closes her eyes.
Awkward silence permeates.

Nash reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder. "You're not a player kid. You're the glass ballerina - or the knife."

And just like that, the game's over.

But no game of granddads would be this simple.
When night falls, I slip into Avery's room via the convenient passage I learned from Jameson, but can't find her. Confused, I wander into Granddad's study, where I find her muttering under her breath.
"This game isn't over."

She jumps in her chair. "What the hell, Trinity!"
I shrug, "What can I say, I love dramatic entrances."

"I've noticed." She mutters dryly. "What makes you say this game isn't over?"

I close my eyes. "Granddad would never have made it that easy."

Avery groans and slams her head onto the desk. "Are you saying that the riddles and clues I've been deciphering for the past three weeks are easy?"

"I didn't say that- well, not exactly."

She sighs."Do you think I'm just a piece of this game?"

"Well, you're certainly not just a pawn," I state reassuringly.

"You're avoiding the question."

I smile. "Or maybe I'm just waiting to see if you'll figure it out."

Then I leave, because I love dramatic exits just as much as entrances.

Right now, I want to focus on my own riddle before they discover Tobias the second.

I wander down halls, trying to find something, anything I could have missed on my harried search earlier. I'm about to give up and eat lunch when I notice something in between the wings of an Angel in a niche in the wall.

A triangle carved in the stone. Which also happens to be the symbol of the holy Trinity. Seeking Truth is carved onto the base.
I push down.

Click.

The halo breaks into two and slides across the hair. The staff that the Angel had been holding nobly is now a sword, the pieces of stone that had rounded it retracted into the base of the statue.

The truth stone flips around.

Seeking Vengeance.

Even her facial features are less than angelic now.
Before me stands a fallen Angel, a devil seeking vengeance.

A piece of paper has been folded into the cavity of the triangular hole.
Hesitantly, I pull it out.

52 chances. a war of clubs and spears,
The ego's greatest fear
The devil's vice
In which the Angel attempts to stop the dice.
Six sides with 21 eyes

"Rolled twice." I whisper. A deck of cards, Gambling, loosing, divine intervention, dice. And a specific game that could hold the answers to this next step of puzzle.

Estatic, I think of the one person I can turn to, despite all that's happened and run to Xan's room.

Xander is looking at a piece of paper, Rebecca and Thea around him. Quietly, I sneak behind them and read the paper.

Alexander,
Well done.
Tobias Hawthorne

Well done. Well done? Why did my stack of letters not have a single thank you? I was the one who helped get my brothers and Avery here.

"Xander?" Rebecca says softly beside him. "What are we doing here?"

"Sighing melodramatically," Thea snipes "Obviously."

"Classic." Rebecca and Thea both whip their heads to face me but Xander remains focused on the letter. I can see his smile.

"Wondered when you'd announce your presence.
There are many types of invisible ink," Xander tells us, moving on from my entrance. "But there's only one kind," he continues 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. Xan doesn't want to do this alone. I reach out and put a hand and on his trembling shoulder.

"What exactly do you think you're going to find?" Thea asks him. Xander looks down at the letter one last time.

"Xander?" Rebecca says again.

"Here goes nothing." Xander lays his letter gingerly on the surface of the water, then presses down.

Then, slowly, writing appears, on either side of granddads signature. Tobias Hawthorne, he'd signed it, no middle name, and now the reason for that omission was clear.

The invisible ink darkens on the page. To the right of the signature, there are only two letters, equating to one Roman numeral: II. And to the left, there's single word: Find.

Find Tobias Hawthorne II.

Well, we can see where I get my flair for the dramatic.

OHMIGOD WE DID IT. Guys!!!!!!!!!!! I love each and every single one of you guys and I want to thank you so so much for reading and encouraging me on the way. I'm going to link a survey in the comments and on my profile. Cant' wait for you to see the suprises that are coming in the Hawthorne Legacy!!!!!!
Love you!
<33333
Sky(lar)