Page 46 of The Grandest Game

SWORD.Lyra moved her hand from the beginning of the word to the end, drawing theSonce more. And just like that,SWORDbecameWORDS.

“An anagram.” Grayson was suddenly right there beside her. “Like the dates on the quarters.”

“The magnets, Scrabble…” Lyra said, thinking out loud. “They’rewords.”

This, she could do. This was so much easier than anything else having to do with Grayson Hawthorne.

“Our one and only correct answer,” Lyra continued, “is an anagram of a word that describes two of the objects in our set.”

Grayson swept the Scrabble tiles and magnet poetry to the side and focused wholly and completely on the remaining objects. “The plate,” he said urgently.

Lightning tore through Lyra’s brain. “And the petal.”

“Two objects.” The intensity radiating off Grayson’s body came out in his tone. “Each an anagram of the other.”

“Is there another anagram?” Lyra matched that intensity. “Same five letters.Plate.Petal.”

Odette moved with impressive speed for a woman her age. She made it to the screen and began to type. “P-L-E-A-T.”

Pleat.The screen flashed green, and a chime sounded—another correct answer.

Lyra and Grayson looked back down at their remaining objects. The velvetpouch. The poetrybox.Thequarters—and thepaperthey’d been rolled in. The Soniccup.

Lightning struck Lyra again. “Sonic,” she whispered.

“Andcoins,” Grayson finished.

Sonic and coins and…

“Scion,” Lyra breathed. Grayson said it, too, the same word at the same time, his voice low and clear, hers husky, their tones blending together in a moment so intense that Lyra couldfeelit, like a fire burning inside her, like a hollow place suddenly filled.

Odette entered the answer. There was a flash of green, a chime, and then bells, an entire melody’s worth.

They’d gotten all three answers. They’d solved the puzzle. And as much as Lyra tried to keep herself firmly grounded, she felt like she was standing on the peak of a mountain. She felt untouchable, like nothing could hurt her.

A section of the mazelike wall dropped, revealing a hidden compartment exactly where Odette had said there would be one. Inside that compartment, there was an object. Lyra reached for it before she’d even processed what it was.

A sword.The hilt was simple but beautifully made, gold at the ends, silver for the grip. Lyra closed her hand around the hilt andpulled the sword from the compartment. The action triggered something, and a larger section of the wall began to part, revealing…

A doorway.

“You know how to hold a sword.” Grayson was looking at her in the oddest way—like she’d surprised him, and his highness wasn’t quite sure how he felt about surprises.

“My mother’s a writer,” Lyra replied. “Her books can be kind of stabby. Sometimes she needs help blocking out fight scenes.”

“You’re close to her.” There was something… notsoft, exactly, but tender and deep about the way Grayson said that. “Your mother.”

Another second passed, and he turned and gestured—gallantly, of course—toward the now-open passageway. For the first time, Lyra noticed how old-fashioned the tuxedo he was wearing was, like it had been lifted straight from another era, likehehad.

“After you,” Grayson said.

“No.” Lyra gave the sword a test swing. “After you.”

Chapter 35

GIGI

The Hearts just solved the whole damn puzzle.” A pseudo-Southern accent snuck its way into Knox’s voice, which Gigi guessed was probably a warning sign that the nicknameGrumpy Knickerswas getting ready to prove itself a total understatement.