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Old wood, soaked in magick, heavy with age and rot, groaned as I braced myself beneath it. My shoulders screamed. My back wailed. My everything protested. I was Sloth, for fuck’s sake—I wasn’t built for this.

But her wing twitched again.

And I kept lifting.

Because the world was waking up.

And—for once—so was I.

“I need you to scoot back,” I said through gritted teeth. “Just a bit, alright?”

She whimpered but nodded. Brave little thing. Her tiny foot caught on a hunk of masonry. She gasped, her body trembling.

Screw this.

I shoved harder. A crack split through the air as the shelf shifted. I jammed my shoulder beneath it and heaved, stars dancing behind my eyes.

She crawled free.

I dropped the shelf with a loud thud and collapsed beside her.

“I hate this,” I groaned. My arms felt like noodles. Burnt ones.

“You saved me,” she whispered.

“Unfortunately,” I muttered.

She crawled over to me, still shaking, and threw her arms around my middle like I was some kind of divine savior.

Hugs. Ugh.

But I let her stay. Even patted her on the back. Once.

“You’re safe now,” I told her, as awkwardly as humanly—or sinfully—as possible. “Sloth’s got you.”

She looked up at me, eyes wide. “Are you one of the heroes?”

I snorted. Loud. “Gods, no.”

“But you’re helping,” she insisted. “I’m Kiva.”

Kiva. The name hit something soft in my chest I didn’t like to think about.

“I guess...sometimes even lazy people get tired of watching everything fall apart,” I said.

I looked down at her, gazing up at me in adoration. It made me uncomfortable, and I searched for an immediate change in topic.

“How the fu–er, how did you end up here?” I asked.

She held her arms up to me, and I bent down and picked her up. She was dreadfully thin. Good thing G had just restocked the house on crisps and biscuits.

“The bad men had me. I didn’t like where they were. So I wished to be somewhere else,” she said, as if it were all perfectly logical.

Fae magick was powerful, yet unpredictable, especially a child fae in danger. We’d have to be very careful.

I took her back to the manor, her weight pressed against my side.

“Where are you parents?” I asked.