Page 32 of The Inheritance Games

“Invincible,” someone else chimed in.

I thought about Jameson, dropping down from a second-story balcony the day we’d met, Grayson sitting behind Principal Altman’s desk and banishing him from the room with an arch of his brow. And then there was Xander: six foot three, grinning, bleeding, and talking about robots exploding.

“They aren’t what you think they are,” Thea told me. “I wouldn’t want to live in a house with the Hawthornes.”

Was this an attempt to get under my skin? If I left Hawthorne House—if I moved out—I’d lose my inheritance. Did she know that? Had her uncle put her up to this?

Coming into today, I’d expected to be treated like trash. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the girls at this school had been possessive over the Hawthorne boys, or if everyone, male and female, had resented me on the boys’ behalf. But this…

This was something else.

“I should go.” I stood, but Thea stood with me.

“Think what you want to about me,” she said. “But the last girl at this school who got tangled up with the Hawthorne brothers? The last girl who spent hour after hour in that house? Shedied.”

CHAPTER 25

Ileft the cafeteria as soon as I’d choked down my food, unsure where I was going to hide until my next class and equally uncertain that Thea had been lying.The last girl who spent hour after hour in that house?My brain kept replaying the words.She died.

I made it down one hallway and was turning toward another when Xander Hawthorne popped out of a nearby lab, holding what appeared to be a mechanical dragon.

All I could think about was what Thea had just said.

“You look like you could use a robotic dragon,” Xander told me. “Here.” He thrust it into my hands.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” I asked.

“That depends on how attached you are to your eyebrows.” Xander raised his one remaining eyebrow very high.

I tried to summon up a reply, but I had nothing.The last girl who spent hour after hour in that house? She died.

“Are you hungry?” Xander asked me. “The refectory is back that way.”

As much as I hated letting Thea win, I was wary—of him, of all things Hawthorne. “Refectory?” I repeated, trying to sound normal.

Xander grinned. “It’s prep school forcafeteria.”

“Prep school isn’t a language,” I pointed out.

“Next you’ll be telling me that French isn’t one, either.” Xander patted the robotic dragon on its head. It burped. A wisp of smoke rose up from its mouth.

They aren’t what you think they are, I could hear Thea warning me.

“Are you okay?” Xander asked, and then he snapped his fingers. “Thea got to you, didn’t she?”

I handed the dragon back to him before it could explode. “I don’t want to talk about Thea.”

“As it so happens,” Xander said, “I hate talking about Thea. Shall we discuss your little tête-à-tête with Jameson last night instead?”

He knew that his brother had been to my room. “It wasn’t a tête-à-tête.”

“You and your grudge against French.” Xander peered at me. “Jameson showed you his letter, didn’t he?”

I had no idea whether or not that was supposed to be a secret. “Jameson thinks it’s a clue,” I said.

Xander was quiet for a moment, then nodded in the opposite direction from the refectory. “Come on.”

I followed him because it was either that or find myself another random empty classroom.