Page 120 of Suffer No Fools
Coryn slammed the armory door and blocked it with earth. When Stan tried to open it, Hugo sensed her leeching the power from Stan, siphoning his weaves as he made them.
"Stop feeding her."
"Then fight her!"Stan's words were sharp in his head.
Tovey instructed him with more than words, using his own muscle memory to make Hugo's body move in ways he could never replicate. He cut at Coryn's shins and sliced upward through her cloak, severing the tie at her neck. She tossed it away and came at him with another flurry of blows.
Tovey blocked most of them with shields of air, letting the weaves dissolve the moment Coryn reached for them. She still managed to steal two. She melded them together and wielded them like a whip, latching on to Niall and trying to pull him closer toward her. Efren's stronger water weave batted her away.
She grinned and tossed her efforts into stealing his water, somehow wrapping the air whip around it and pulling it into herself.
"We need another distraction like that,"Tovey said in his head."Be ready."
Hugo didn't have much of a choice. Coryn still managed to block his blows, even when she was stealing the others' weaves. She unleashed another air whip toward Fanidra. It caught her by the ankle and dragged her halfway across the room, but left Fanidra on her back, laughing.
"What the fuck is so funny?" Coryn asked.
"You can't even recognize my power anymore to siphon it from me. I feel you trying, but you'll never get in."
"How is that possible?" Coryn's sword dipped.
"I died and Vadim brought me back to life, same as Hugo."
Coryn turned her defiant gaze on him. "So, it was true. You were dead."
He attacked instead of answering. She dodged and kicked his feet from under him.
"You'll be dead again." Instead of following through with her blade, she lashed out with air, this time leaving both Fanidra and Vadim gasping as she stole their breath. Vadim fell to his knees, grabbing his head, but he was making a strange sound in his throat as she dragged him across the room.
Laughing. Vadim was laughing.
"What have you done?" she asked as her air weaves over Vadim and Fanidra dissolved, leaving them both choking on their laughter. She shrieked as her earth weave over the door also disappeared. "What is this?"
"Those weaves didn't belong to you," Tovey said. "I took them back."
"The earth weave was mine," Stan said. "Not yours."
"You can only siphon raw power," Niall said. "You can't steal someone else's weaves without permission."
Efren's water weave knocked her backward as it raced to reunite with him.
Hugo shoved Coryn sideways with a slashing blow of his sword against her shield. He retook his place between her and the armory door.
His arms ached, and he felt weak. He'd never been a competent swordsman, and he'd already attempted to hit her while she was distracted, each time missing his mark. He hadn't touched her once, while he already sported a long cut along his left bicep and a few nicks on his right forearm. She swung lowand cut him along the outside of his calf, and he grunted from the pain.
"I will kill you again." Coryn pinned him back against the door with a sharp knock from her shield. "You will be the last fire weaver to sit this throne, as alone and unloved as any Martiz touched."
"That's where you're wrong," Hugo said, parrying her next blow and closing the gap between them so she didn't have room to swing. "I've always known love. My parents loved me. Vadim loves me like his son. Tovey and Stan love me."
"Oh, it's you, not my stolen earth weaver." She laughed and slammed her sword against his chest, knocking the air from his lungs. He almost lost his grip on his sword, catching it with the tip of its rounded guard. He forced his fingers to obey, to wrap around the hilt again.
He couldn't die like this, pressed against the armory door, unable to use any of his gifts, killed by his own lack of skill. He lashed out with one final push, allowing his fire and ice to temper his blade. He charged Coryn with a blast of earth and air, hitting her in the chest and knocking her prone. Her shield scraped the stone as it slid out of her grasp. The surprise blast prevented her from stealing his weaves for herself.
He slashed downward, his blade cutting easily through her leather armor, piercing her heart. He drove the blade as far as it would go. "My dad had a saying," he said, meeting Tovey's stunned gaze, and then Stan's. "Suffer no fools." He gripped the blade and forced more fire and ice into it. "Our family has suffered you long enough."
He felt her pulling on his power, drawing it into herself. He'd experienced something similar with the scales. Instead of fighting it, Hugo gave her everything he had. Fire and ice. Earth and air. Water and lightning through the citizens of Embertidewho had entrusted him with their safety. Finally, he poured life and death magic into her.
Coryn writhed on his blade, screaming as the power consumed her. It was too much for her body to contain. A gout of water and earth burst from her skin, splashing harmlessly to the floor as the fire consumed her.
