The Inheritance Games Chapters 79–85 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Chapters 79–85

Chapter 79

Once Grayson leaves, Avery asks Oren if he believes that Tobias Hawthorne would have randomly selected her to inherit his fortune because of her birthday, and he admits that he has no idea. She walks back through the house and stops to examine the painting of Tobias Hawthorne hanging in the hallway. Noticing the signature on the self-portrait, Avery realizes that the Roman numerals next to his name make the numbers ten and eighteen. She then reaches behind the frame and discovers a button that allows it to swing open, revealing a keypad on the wall. Avery enters 1018 as the code, and when the secret compartment opens, she finds a purple octagon and a rhyming clue.

Chapter 80

Convinced that the game is far from over, Avery sets out to find Jameson and Grayson the next morning. Jameson is in the solarium, but he initially refuses to talk to her. When she tells him about the purple octagon, he retorts that the numbers ten and eighteen are hidden all over the house. Jameson points to a pile of purple octagons as proof and insists that he no longer wants to play the game. Avery then goes to search for Grayson but finds Nash instead. He tells her that she needs to give him some time. Returning to gaze at the portrait once more, Avery desperately wants to be someone special.

Chapter 81

Avery ponders the riddle she found accompanying the octagon, and she comes to realize that the first half of the clue refers to noon. The second half of the clue, however, continues to confuse her. Xander finds her and, after she shows him the octagon, has an idea about where they might look for answers next.

Chapter 82

Xander and Avery head to the Great Room and see that, built into the massive stained-glass window, there are two purple octagons that resemble the one she found behind the painting. Using a ladder, Avery climbs up to twist and flip them as the clue instructs. Doing so creates two beams of light that intersect, but when Xander goes to that spot, nothing happens. They realize that the angle of the light depends on the time of day, and since it is not noon as the instructions require, the intersection is not quite right. Avery and Xander investigate areas of the floor nearby, however, and they find a dial hidden under a floorboard. Turning it causes the entire floor to lower, putting them beneath the Great Room and at the entrance to one of the house’s secret tunnels.

Chapter 83

Making their way through the tunnels, Xander and Avery come to a point where the path splits in three directions. Avery notices a gargoyle pointing the way, but they reach a dead end when they follow its suggestion. As they retrace their steps, they realize that a metal grate on the ground has the letters M and E engraved on it, leading them to believe it is the “me” that the clue references. Avery manages to pull the grate up, and she and Xander drop down into the hole. Once there, Avery sees her initials etched into the wall as a facial recognition device enables the wall to split in two and open. Behind this wall are four touchpads, each with one of the boys’ initials on them. Xander can open his, but all of the brothers must participate in order to advance in the game.

Chapter 84

Avery waits down in the tunnels while Xander attempts to find his brothers. Suddenly, she hears footsteps overhead and sees who she believes to be Rebecca blocking her only escape route.

Chapter 85

Rebecca asks Avery what she is doing down in the tunnels, but before she gives her a chance to answer, she begins talking about Emily. She explains that she told her parents about the risks Emily was taking and that they forbade her from seeing the Hawthorne boys as a result. On the night she died, Emily found Rebecca and Thea together and became upset about their relationship. She claimed that Thea cared about her more, and to get back at her, Rebecca played for Jameson a recording of her sister talking about the boys, keeping score of their competitive affections, to convince him to break up with her. Rebecca apologizes to Avery, and all Avery can think is that she had a hand in the shooting. While she insists that she was not involved, Rebecca does reveal that on the day of the shooting, she saw Drake along with Skye in the tunnels.

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