Cress took her place by the seat when dawn broke.
She didn’t grab the seal itself. That wasn’t the point of this. Aria stayed right there in the chair, fingers locked around the heavy metal, while Cress dropped to her knees right next to it. It looked exactly like the way Aria had knelt by Morwen’s side back on that third day. The old woman pressed her wrinkled palm against the scarred wood of the armrest, shut her yellow eyes, and just let herself feel.
Aria caught the exact moment it happened.
That part felt bizarre. Through the metal of the seal and the wood of the chair, Aria could actually trace the old woman’s mind drifting along the borders of the binding. It was cautious, practiced stuff. Cress was testing the structural tension the way a carpenter thumps a main support beam bef
