Queen vs. Burning Fever

2

----------------------------------------

Astra stood in the doorway, the moonlight gilding her features with an almost inhuman sharpness. She was still, her expression blank in a way that wasn’t quite neutral.

“Am I interrupting?”

The question was quiet, smooth, yet it slid under Eydis’s skin. The sensation that followed was unwelcome. Something uncomfortably close to guilt, though she had no reason for it.

She barely had time to process it before Natalia let out a soft, unsteady breath. With a final shudder, she collapsed fully against Eydis, fever-drunk and unconscious.

“Natalia!”

----------------------------------------

Golden light shimmered in Astra’s palm before sinking into Natalia’s flushed skin, disappearing without effect. Her forehead remained searing to the touch, body shivering despite the heat radiating from her.

Eydis stood behind them, arms crossed. Watching. Thinking.

This wasn’t normal.

The flu? Again? Even for a Fire-affinity Gifted?

A voice slithered into her mind, silk-smooth and insufferable.

‘Thomas also experienced… staffing issues during his election campaign,’ Raven cooed. ‘Such a fowl flu season.’

Eydis arched a brow.

‘Yes,’ the second Raven added, ‘watching him squawk for replacements was rather entertaining. But no alarms, no headlines, because—’

‘Because of the chaos you two orchestrated,’ Eydis shot back.

Silence. Then an indignant squawk. She dismissed them before they could argue.

But her mind remained sharp, cutting through memories, observations; things she had ignored. Too many students had fallen ill recently. At first, she had dismissed it as another pandemic scare. This world’s history was riddled with them. Something about lab-grown viruses, human error, the same mistakes on repeat.

But now, watching Natalia tremble, her lips parted in a weak gasp, a different kind of unease settled in her stomach.

Colette. Birgit. Now Natalia.

A Sin.

She should have noticed sooner. Why hadn’t she? Where was it hiding? And how had her Sin gone… viral?

“Is this one of your Sins?”

Astra’s voice was calm. Too calm. But something dark coiled beneath it.

“I think so,” Eydis admitted. “Has she cooled?”

Astra’s fingers brushed against Natalia’s throat, checking her pulse. A moment later, she sighed.

“She isn’t physically wounded,” she said. “Didn’t help.”

Eydis took a step closer, looking down at Natalia’s face. Sweat beaded at her temple, crimson strands of hair clinging to damp skin.

She pressed the back of her hand to Natalia’s forehead. Still too hot. Her mind combed through each Sin, dismissing them one by one. Not Pride—Natalia had always been humble, almost to a fault.

Wrath? No. The thought alone felt absurd. But if not Wrath, then what?

Eydis pressed her fingers to her temples, frustration mounting. The answer was right in front of her. She just wasn’t letting herself see it.

So Astra said it for her.

“Could it be… Lust?”

The words landed softly, but they struck hard.

Eydis went still.

Something about the question felt wrong in Astra’s mouth, as if even she wasn’t certain she believed it. But deep down, Eydis knew…

Astra wasn’t wrong.

“…Lust?” she repeated. “That’s not possible.”

The lie was weak. More for herself than for Astra.

Astra’s eyes flicked upward. “Isn’t it?”

Eydis tried to reach for reasons. Facts. “Lust can only infect the mind of—”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

She stopped, suddenly finding that Astra’s gaze burned hotter than the fever beneath her palm.

“Whose mind, Eydis?”

It wasn’t a question.

Eydis straightened, unbowed. “The Sins work by feeding on desire,” she continued. “They whisper. They tempt. Some corrupt with a touch. Others simply wait.”

“And Lust?” There was nothing overtly pointed in Astra’s tone, only patience, the kind that left no room for escape.

Eydis hesitated.

She had hunted the Sins her entire life. She had bound them, understood them better than anyone.

Except Lust. She'd dismissed it as a shallow indulgence of lesser minds, the hunger that lived in stolen glances and lingering touches. Inconsequential. Beneath a queen.

“It tempts. It preys on hunger,” she admitted after a pause. “Not for food, not for wealth. But—”

She faltered. The words resisted her, unfamiliar on her tongue. She did not look at Astra. She could not.

Astra finished the thought for her. “Physical hunger.”

Eydis said nothing. There was nothing to say. Her gaze flicked back to Natalia, watching the way she shifted, restless, her fingers having reached for Eydis without thinking.

Astra’s voice was softer now, though no less cutting. “And Natalia just happened to collapse in your bed.”

Eydis’s shoulders stiffened. “Our rooms are close.”

One excuse after another.

Astra let out a quiet breath, something close to a laugh. “Ah. Proximity, then. That,” she stated, “explains only what you allow it to explain.”

The weight of Astra’s words pressed into the cracks she refused to acknowledge. She had been teasing Natalia. She teased everyone. It was a habit, a reflex, a way of speaking to keep the world at arm’s length.

But she had never thought—

“But aren’t the two of you…” Astra trailed off, her frown slight but telling.

“What do you mean?”

Astra did not meet her gaze. “Close.”

A simple word. And yet, somehow, it settled wrong.

Eydis hesitated. “We are… friends.”

She had long considered Natalia her friend. She had never expected—

A scoff cut through her thoughts. “But I heard the sound you ma—” Astra stopped herself, jaw tightening.

“You heard it wrong." Eydis quickly cut in. She didn't like this. Not whatever this accusation was about. Not when Astra looked like this. Too sharp. Too wounded.

"We are friends.” She repeated, with much more conviction this time. “Just friends.”

Astra studied her, something unreadable flickering behind that icy crimson gaze. Then, quietly, almost as if testing the words aloud. “Is that what Natalia thinks?”

Eydis had no answer.

“…You really didn’t notice?”

Astra’s words were sharp, but beneath them was something else. Hesitation. A hint of softness.

Then it was gone.

“Or maybe you did notice,” Astra continued, her voice turning cold, “but decided it wasn’t worth acknowledging. Too small. Too insignificant. Beneath your royal attention.”

Eydis’s jaw clenched involuntarily. She wasn’t sure if Astra was still talking about Natalia. She wasn’t sure if it even mattered. Because Astra was right. She couldn’t deny it.

Astra was still watching her. Her posture was relaxed, but it was a lie. The tension in her shoulders, the deliberate way she spoke, the restraint in her tone.

“If Natalia had been a man,” Astra continued, her voice quiet yet piercing, “would you still deny the very nature of the Sin controlling… her? Would you still pretend you never noticed how she felt?”

Eydis’s heart missed a step. No book, no ancient scroll, no royal education had prepared her for this. “I simply didn’t want to make such a baseless assumption.”

Astra’s chin lifted, her crimson eyes steady, but something delicate cracked just beneath her voice.

“Baseless assumption?” she repeated. “Would you still be pretending it meant nothing? That every touch was just… air? That every glance was just a performance for your own amusement?”

Astra's words trembled at the edges with something that wasn't anger but hurt… a confession disguised as accusation.

Without thinking, her hand reached out, her fingers brushing the soft cascade of Astra’s hair, an automatic gesture. A reflex, as though this touch could erase the tension between them, as though it could somehow fix everything. Make everything right.

The words slipped out, quieter than she intended.

“I’ve never thought about it, Astra. Men or women.”

A half-truth. Or less than half.

Eydis hadn’t been thinking about gender, not really. That wasn’t what this was about. She hadn’t been thinking about Natalia, either, not in the way Astra implied. Their friendship had always been simple, uncomplicated… easy. But that didn’t mean Eydis wasn’t thinking.

The only thing on her mind—had always been on her mind lately—was her.

Astra.

And yet, even now, Eydis couldn’t let herself face it. She reached for something, anything, some explanation to hold on to, some rationale that could make sense of this tangled mess.

She had rewritten every rule before. So why had she left this one standing?

What was it, exactly? Some ancient law that dictated what was right and what was forbidden? Stories of princes and princesses, of fate-bound lovers, of tidy, uncomplicated endings.

No.

Not all boundaries had been forced upon her.

Some, she had drawn herself.

Ah…

Astra’s laugh was quiet, but it wasn’t real. Like something inside her had snapped just a little bit.

Then, deliberately, Astra stepped back.

Back to her side of the room. Her side.

The divide between them felt suddenly more apparent than ever.

Astra’s voice was steady when she finally spoke, but there was no mistaking the hint of resignation.

“Would it be easier if I let you keep pretending?”

A sharp pang bloomed in Eydis’s chest, something close to panic. Astra had stepped forward, just one step, pushing her without pushing too hard.

So devastatingly brave.

And Eydis… she could pretend. She could keep deflecting, dismissing, sidestepping the truth before it could take root. Or—

She could let herself see it.

Let herself feel it.

Her lips parted.

Nothing came out.

Coward.

The word burned through her. And for the first time, she felt a sharp disappointment in herself. It was terrifying, this prospect of letting someone in. A lifetime of armor, of control so absolute she had never stopped to question what it was protecting.

Her heart.

Astra’s gaze softened, as if she could see the war raging inside Eydis, the words she couldn’t bring herself to say. But there was a fleeting look in her eyes, almost like she might reach for her, might close the distance that had grown between them.

But then, just as quickly, Astra breathed in deeply, smoothed her expression, and stepped back further.

“It wouldn’t just go away on its own, would it?” Her voice was steady again, controlled. “Whatever’s affecting Natalia.”

Eydis didn’t know whether to feel relieved or alarmed at the shift.

Because Astra was right.

The truth about Lust? To bind it, to control it, she needed to pinpoint where it had taken root. And it seemed to be everywhere. A force unlike any other Sin she had faced. Disorienting. Spreading like wildfire, its power only growing stronger the longer it went unchecked.

It would take time… time that Natalia didn’t have.

Eydis glanced back at her friend, noting the flush creeping up Natalia’s face, the way she struggled to breathe, the tension that bled into every movement. The way her skin burned, as if she were waging a war against herself.

There was one way to help Natalia. A fast way.

To deny Lust what it wanted. To give Natalia what she needed.

Eydis knew, with a sinking weight in her chest, that Astra wouldn’t like it.