Royal Reboot: Level up, Your Majesty!-Chapter 96: Capture and Release

Capture and Release

Eydis’s eyelids fluttered open.

It wasn’t the sunlight that woke her; the double blind made sure no unruly ray dared trespass. It was the faint, warm scent of butter and flour.

She arched her back, black dress sliding up her thighs, and glanced at the glowing phone: 12:03 p.m. Evidently, she and Astra had spent the better part of the night solving the universe’s existential dilemmas over cold chips, then collapsed into their respective bedrooms without bothering to change.

Rows of identical royal blue silk waited in Astra’s wardrobe. Eydis chose one, ordered Envy to bring fresh clothes, and headed for the shower. Twenty minutes later, smelling suspiciously like Astra’s cardamom and sandalwood, she ghosted downstairs.

Astra was exactly where Eydis expected her, exactly how she did not expect her: in a robe matching Eydis’s, turning something golden in a skillet. Steam curled around her, caressing her lovely face.

Had it really been more than twenty minutes? What was she cooking?

Either way, she looked more edible than anything breakfast had to offer. Eydis blinked the thought away. Honestly, her thoughts had become less manageable by the day, and very much out of line.

She eased up behind Astra, hands sliding around her waist, thumbs toying the sash. Her chin came to rest on a shoulder scented so precisely like her own it made her want to bite.

“Morning.” Her voice came out a little too rough. Or perhaps, just right.

Because Astra’s breath caught. She glanced back, lashes fluttering. “You’re… not…” Words tangled.

“I’m not?”

Colour stormed Astra’s cheeks. She tried to shift, but Eydis moved with her, silk against silk, hips nudging until Astra’s abdomen met the counter.

Astra gripped the counter hard. “You’re not wearing anything underneath.”

Ah. That tiny act of treason. Eydis had almost forgotten. The robe clung like suggestion, barely decent, and on reflection, fit just a little too perfectly.

Maybe that had been on purpose.

“They’re in the laundry,” she replied matter-of-factly, her eyes drawn to Astra’s lips.

“You could have...” Astra tried to inhale; Eydis stole the breath with a slow bite to her earlobe. “...borrowed my lingerie.”

“Wouldn’t fit.” Eydis pressed her palms to Astra’s ribs. The rise and fall beneath sped up. She willed her hands to stay firmly in place, even though curiosity begged them higher. “You should focus, chef.”

“You’re distracting.” Astra clutched the spatula like a weapon, trembling slightly when Eydis’s pinkie traced the tender line beneath softness.

“Am I?” Eydis tasted the shell of Astra’s ear, followed the curve to the delicate slope of her neck, marked her with lips and tongue.

Metal clattered as the spatula escaped to the counter. “You are ruining my—”

“Your what, darling?” The term of endearment slipped out almost too naturally. She hadn’t meant to say it, and now, she couldn’t take it back.

“Pancakes.” Astra shivered.

“Is that what we’re calling it now?” Eydis loosened the robe, exposing a graceful shoulder, and painted a second bruise there.

“They’ll collapse if you keep this up.” Astra bit her lip, tilting her head to offer more.

What a fascinating contradiction.

“So will you.”

“Eydis, behave. I’m not remaking these nightmares again.”

Nightmares?

She finally looked past Astra’s shoulder and saw them: four impossibly tall clouds, round, and trembling. “Those are clouds masquerading as food.”

Astra pulled a fresh spatula from the drawer and flipped the next pancake. “Soufflé pancakes.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Eydis observed. “Are pancakes supposed to be… hmm… jiggly?”

Astra’s lips twitched. She sliced off a bite and held it to Eydis’s mouth. “Taste the jiggly cloud.”

“Too many carbs,” Eydis muttered, but Astra’s stare killed the argument. She opened her mouth and took the bite, reluctantly.

Vanilla and egg melted, airy on her tongue. Berry and cream followed, sweet and warm, enough to drag her eyelids shut. A second bite arrived before she could speak.

“You need to eat,” Astra said. “At this rate, you’ll pass out from malnutrition.”

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Cerberus barked in agreement. Eydis rolled her eyes. Who’s the master here, again?

She nodded and licked her lips, her chest warming more than she cared to admit. There was something quietly devastating in how Astra cared. In the thoughtful details, in choosing possibly the most labor-intensive pancakes in the known universe just to tempt her into eating.

Her heart kicked in her chest. A sensation she didn’t know how to process, so she skipped past it.

It started with a kiss. Eydis was turned and lifted onto the counter, robes falling open just enough to draw a dark flash in Astra’s eyes. She stepped between Eydis’s knees, hands sliding under silk, fingertips mapping the arch of a spine, the angle of ribs.

Heat built, slow at first, then wild.

“You really shouldn’t waste time cooking for me,” Eydis murmured between kisses, her fingers threading gently through Astra’s soft, silver hair. “It gives you an unfair advantage.”

“Unfair,” Astra whispered, “is you wearing my robe and nothing else.”

“Are you jealous of your own robe?” Eydis traced Astra’s lower lip with the tip of her tongue.

Astra didn’t deny. Cute. “Enough to make an example.”

“And what sentence would you pass on rebellious garments?”

“Punishment by tearing.” Astra gathered the silk between her fingers, pulled it taut, drew a sharp inhale, then let it go.

“Followed by exile.”

Her dark eyes met Eydis’s.

“Right at your feet.”

The promise stole Eydis’s breath, pooling low in her belly until a cold draught curled around her ankles.

Envy coiled into view and spat out a shopping bag of freshly acquired clothes. “Your Majesty, I’ve been gone for thirty minutes and you’re still at it? Are we capturing Lust or feeding it?”

Astra’s glare sent the serpent vanishing into the shadows with a hiss of self-preservation.

Their eyes met. “Envy has a point,” Astra said.

“Do not praise the snake,” Eydis sighed, sliding off the counter. “Very well, capture Lust first.”

Her lips skimmed Astra’s ear. “We’ll let it loose in a storm once business is done. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll get your sentence. Floor included.”

Bag in hand, she headed upstairs.

The pancakes held their perfect rise: golden, proud, waiting to be devoured.

Astra stood beside them: marked, shaken, and more than willing.

Eydis perched on the corner of Astra’s desk, her pencil tracing fresh sigils across Astra’s open notebook. She was deep in the latest round of contingencies for the approaching battle with Lust.

Astra emerged from the kitchen, set a bowl of fresh berries beside Eydis, and settled into her chair. “More binding sigils? I thought the one for Lust was finished.”

Without looking up, Eydis offered a small smile. “This isn’t a Sin-Binding sigil. It’s something for when Lust breaks the leash.”

She snapped the notebook shut, eyes darkening. “I hope it never leaves these pages.”

Astra tipped her head. “And you’re not going to tell me what it does.”

“You would hate it,” Eydis said, grinning.

“Very ominous.” Astra’s fingers found the keyboard.

“No objection?”

“I trust you, Your Majesty.”

The words sent Eydis’s pulse racing. She lingered on Astra’s side profile until live global feeds flickered across the screens, each line of pandemic data updating in real time.

The house still held the warm scent of berries and browned butter from the afternoon. Productivity had vanished with their last bite and first kiss, yet after too many calm-down cups of coffee they’d dragged themselves back to the crisis at hand.

Lust’s digital grip was widening by the hour. They needed its source; without that, containment was impossible.

Fortunately, Eydis had drafted a plan two days before the date. All she needed now was confirmation. It would work. Probably. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

Astra leaned back with a frustrated sigh as half-a-dozen holo-charts lit her study.

“Tell me the new data isn’t laughing at us in binary,” Eydis asked.

“It doesn’t laugh. It repeats.” Astra flicked one chart aside, only for another to snap into place. “Even the Council’s private feeds agree: global spikes everywhere except China and Iran.”

She swivelled toward Eydis. “Still convinced it’s not coming from an adult site?”

Eydis drummed her fingers on her lips. “Show me the case demographics.”

Astra swiped through layers until a U.S. chart hovered beside her. “The noise is loudest here. A useful starting point.”

“Seven percent under eighteen,” Eydis read.

“You’re right. If Lust was hiding on an eighteen-plus platform, there shouldn’t be minors involved at all.”

“And that’s ever stopped them?” Eydis asked.

“In some countries, no. But the U.S. went full mandatory digital ID ten years ago,” Astra said. “Adult content’s locked unless you’re verified… or Adam-level hacker.”

Eydis leaned back. “So that rules out the adult‑site angle. But you can still trip over spicy abominations without trying.”

Astra glanced at her. “Meaning?”

“Random nudes on Tweeter every other scroll.”

Their gazes locked like magnets.

Eydis’s voice dropped. “Tweeter is also blocked in China and Iran, right?”

Astra typed quickly. A moment later, she glanced up. “Yes. Nationwide firewalls.”

“Surely Tweeter and the spicy sites aren’t the only items on Beijing’s naughty list,” Eydis said, not quite convinced. “What else are they blocking?”

“Plenty. State news, Goggle, Linkface…” Astra kept typing while she talked. “And since the Council’s scanners sweep all public data and haven’t flagged anything tied to Lust…”

“So the parasite’s flirting with signed-in users only,” Eydis mused.

“Clever,” Astra agreed. “Which means we’re looking for a platform that requires a login but naps through security drills.”

“Let me guess.” Eydis snapped her fingers. “Tweeter. All appetite, no immune system.”

Astra stacked heat maps. Linkface lit up in India, VidCloud glowed over Europe. Then she laid Tweeter’s usage grid over Lust’s infection spread.

Near-perfect alignment.

“To make matters worse,” Astra added, “Chimera dropped the Natalia–Tiffany duel and Thomas’s meltdown on Tweeter. Both went viral. User count’s been climbing ever since.”

Eydis chuckled. “Chimera: culprit and casualty.”

Astra’s eyes turned thoughtful. Then she murmured, almost absently, “And the cure.”

Eydis raised a brow.