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, almost too polite, yet it slid beneath Eydis’s skin. The sensation that followed was unwelcome, close to guilt, though she had no reason to feel 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. 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 dismissed them before they could argue.

  But her mind kept circling back to the observations she had once ignored. Too many students had fallen ill recently, a sickness they blamed on yet another pandemic scare. This world’s history was riddled with them. Something about lab-grown viruses, human error, some conspiracies, the same mistakes on repeat.

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

  Colette. Birgit. Now Natalia.

  Magic—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.

  “I think so,” Eydis admitted. “How is Natalia?”

  Astra’s fingers brushed against Natalia’s throat, checking her pulse. “She isn’t physically wounded,” she sighed. “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?

  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.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “…Lust? That’s not possible.” The lie was weak. More for herself than for Astra.

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

  “Lust can only infect the mind of—” Eydis stopped, suddenly finding that Astra’s gaze burned hotter than the fever beneath her palm.

  “Whose mind, Eydis?”

  It wasn’t a question.

  “The Sins work by feeding on desire.” Eydis straightened. “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. Phys…” The words resisted Eydis, unfamiliar on her tongue. She did not look at Astra.

  Astra finished 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.”

  “Our rooms are close.”

  One excuse after another.

  “Ah. Proximity, then. That,” Astra stated, “explains only what you allow it to explain.”

  Her words slid into the seams Eydis tried not to notice. She had been teasing Natalia. She teased everyone. Habit, reflex, a way to keep the world at arm’s length.

  She never imagined it would land like this.

  “But aren’t the two of you…” Astra frowned.

  “What do you mean?”

  Astra did not meet her gaze. “Close.”

  “We are… friends.” Eydis had long considered Natalia her friend. She had never expected—

  “But I heard the sound you ma…” Astra’s jaw tightened.

  “You heard it wrong." Eydis 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, softly, almost testing the shape of the phrase, “Is that what Natalia thinks?”

  Eydis had no answer.

  “You really didn’t notice? Or,” Astra continued, her voice turning cold, “Or maybe you did notice, but decided it wasn’t worth acknowledging. Too small. Too insignificant. Beneath you.”

  Eydis’s jaw clenched involuntarily. She could no longer tell whether they were still speaking of Natalia. Did it even matter? Astra was right.

  Astra was still watching her. Her posture was relaxed, but it was a lie. “If Natalia had been a man, would you still deny the very nature of the Sin controlling… her?” She said almost bitterly. “Would you still pretend you never saw how she felt?”

  Eydis’s heart missed a step. No book, scroll, or royal tutor prepared her for this. “I refused to make a baseless assumption.”

  “Baseless assumption?” Astra’s chin lifted. “Would you still be pretending it meant nothing? That every touch was just… what, 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.

  “Well, I’m not amused,” Astra said under her breath.

  Eydis’s hand moved before thought; fingers brushed the silk of Astra’s hair, an instinct. “I’ve never thought about it, Astra. Men or women.”

  Half?truth. Less than half. She hadn’t been thinking about gender at all, nor about Natalia the way Astra implied. Their friendship had always been easy. But that didn’t mean Eydis wasn’t thinking.

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

  Astra.

  And yet, even now, Eydis couldn’t let herself face it. She groped for any tidy rationale to hold on to, and to make sense of this tangled mess. She had rewritten every rule before, so why leave 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 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. She stepped back, back to her side of the room. Her side.

  The divide between them felt suddenly more apparent than ever.

  Astra’s voice sounded like a resignation when she finally spoke. “Would it be easier if I let you keep pretending?”

  Panic rose in Eydis’s chest. 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, but nothing came out.

  Coward.

  And for the first time, she felt a sharp disappointment in herself. It was terrifying, this thought of letting someone in. She had built her life on control, routine, structure. She had never questioned what all of it was guarding.

  Her heart.

  Astra’s gaze softened, as though she could see the conflict playing out behind Eydis’s silence. For a heartbeat Eydis expected her to bridge the space, say something, reach out. To decide. Instead, Astra inhaled and retreated another step.

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

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

  Because Astra was right.

  Lust could be bound only by tracing its root, yet it seemed everywhere, swelling stronger each moment. Finding it would take time… time that Natalia didn’t have.

  Eydis glanced at Natalia’s fevered face. There was one way to help her. A fast way.

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

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