Page 89 of Suffer No Fools
Stan gasped as Hugo pulled raw power from his core. It felt unlike anything he'd experienced. This was more invasive than sharing with Tovey, and dangerously easy. Hugo laced their fingers together and thrust their arms forward, a gout of fire extending from their fingertips to the wall of air Tovey had created. The wall burst into flames. Air didn't hold the creatures for long, but the fire kept them from retreating through the earthen barrier. One by one, they fell into heaps of ashes.
"How long can you hold this?" Efren asked.
"Until the shoal breaks." Hugo had already lit a section of the reef on fire, which wouldn't bode well for the creatures that called it home.
"We'll protect the shoal while you deal with those creatures," Nola said.
Stan's power surged as Hugo launched another steady stream of fire toward a reinforced section of the shoal. As Hugo steadily drained Stan's power, he became more aware of how he felt about Hugo and Tovey at his core. He would let them drain him completely. He didn't care if he burned out like the weavers on Stony Eel Island. For Tovey and Hugo, it would be worth it.
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Tovey
Tovey sensed the drain on Stan's power, and the rush of overwhelming devotion that came with it. Stan was power-drunk. He got that way sometimes when Tovey converted his earth power to air, but he hadn't known Hugo could give him the same high by converting his core power to undead-killing flames.
Tovey had no time to fret over Stan. Hugo's fire burned so hot and so fast, it threatened to consume all his combustible air. So much of it didn't burn, forcing Tovey to break it down into smaller parts with his weaves. He hadn't used fission weaves since he trained with the navy, and he'd never used them against an actual target. Fission had its own explosive properties. He worried Hugo's fire would only make it worse, but the added heat made it easier to break the stable components into flammable air.
"You're going to fucking kill us all," Stan muttered when he recognized the weave.
"I might destroy the shoal without meaning to," Tovey said.
"Then we'll drown," Stan said. "That's not much better than blowing up."
Tovey agreed. He'd rather die fast than from the slow press of water into his lungs. He'd never feared the water, but he respected it enough to know he didn't want to fall in.
He continued to fuel Hugo's fire while Hugo hovered, keeping them by his sides with weaves of his own. Tovey had been worried they would crash to the ground, but Hugo could balance his air and Stan's earth effortlessly to keep all three of them afloat.
As Hugo expended their power, they dipped lower in the sky until they could no longer see over the shoal. Their feet touched down on the warm sand, and Niall rushed to them with glasses of water.
Tovey greedily snatched a glass and gulped it down. Stan sipped at his glass while Hugo continued to blast everything with his gout of flame.
"Let Jasmine and me take over," Niall said. "I've figured out your air weaves, and Jasmine's fire burns hotter."
Jasmine took his cue to launch another gout of flame at Tovey's wall. Tovey nodded to Niall, and he dropped his wall of air, allowing Niall to shove another into position right behind it.
Hugo sagged to the sand at their feet, and Stan offered him the rest of his water.
"I can have another go at it," Klaus said, shoving away from Vadim's arm.
"There are still too many," Vadim said. "Let Niall and Jasmine have their turn."
"You've seen what it did to Hugo," Klaus muttered. "I won't let that happen to my girl. I refuse."
"I'll be fine, Papa."
Tovey's heart seized at hearing the young fire weaver call Klaus her papa. He'd called his own father Papa. While he longed to see his parents again, he was glad Jasmine, Renald, and Trin now had a home and parents who loved them.
"Let her do what she can." Vadim pulled Klaus back against his side and kissed his temple. "She's strong, and Niall won't let her burn out." Vadim flashed a glare in Niall's direction, but Niall was too busy creating new air and fire weaves to notice.
Tovey wanted to help, but his reserves were as low as Hugo's. Only Stan seemed to have reserves.
"How do you have power?" Tovey whispered to him as Hugo took another long drink of water.
"The tree," he said. "I was almost empty, and then it helped me defend the island."
"We can all feel it," Renald agreed. He had reinforced the shoal and repaired fire damage to the living coral while they fought the undead.
"Will Niall be able to tap into the tree's power, too?" Tovey asked.
