The stone room stayed absolutely still.
Aria stared down at Cress.
“So what you’re telling me is I don’t get a total reprieve. I keep one piece. And three other witches take the other three.”
“Exactly.”
“For how long.”
“Until the day you die, most likely. But it’s one piece, Aria, not all four. A quarter of the crushing weight. With three other pairs of hands helping you carry the rest. Sharing the burden means the magic won’t slowly hollow you out from the inside the way it destroyed Morwen. Imagine four witches holding a single piece each, stationed in four separate chairs, able to ride out and visit one another, able to rotate the watch. You can survive that. You can actually have a life that way. Carrying all four pieces in one single chair isn’t a life at all. It’s just slow exec
