Page 81 of Suffer No Fools
"You were going to take her out by yourself," Tovey accused when Hannah called him up to the navigation deck.
"Aye. I can move her with my water weaves well enough." They glanced at him. "I wanted to test a theory."
"Oh, what's that?"
"I think you can cool a storm, same as Frost."
Hannah and Frost had been sending storms to the east each week since they'd returned from Hearthstone. Tovey was excited to try his hand at it, too. "You think I can use Hugo's powers, the way he can use mine and Stan's."
"It makes sense," they said.
He glanced around the deck. "I haven't tried ice, and we're missing the key component to Hugo's success. We're not in any danger."
Hannah laughed. "I suppose I should have knocked you on the head and taken you captive before I brought us out here, then."
Tovey laughed with them. Their roguish smile always put him at ease. "It's worth a try."
"I'll start with the storm. I'll need cold first, and then wind to push it away."
He waited his turn while Hannah worked their magic, pulling water from the ocean and charging it with their lightning as thick clouds formed overhead.
"Too much," they said. "I will need a bit of wind first, so we don't lose the ship."
Tovey laughed as he shoved a gust of wind against the mass of charged clouds to get them moving to the east. "It's still a work of art," he said.
"Thank you." They grinned and took a bow. "Now I can add more water to even it out, and you can cool it down."
Tovey swallowed hard. He wasn't sure he could. He knew how ice worked, thanks to the hours of overhearing Frost training Hugo, but he'd never expected to use ice himself.
Before he'd bonded with Hugo, he'd thought it impossible. Weirder still, did his bond with Stan mean he was balanced in air and earth now?
Before he could think through the questions in his head, Hannah waved their hand in front of his face. "Your turn!"
He stepped up to the prow and glanced at the dark clouds swirling overhead. The storm was magnificent, but he could feel its warmth. If Hannah let it go, it would threaten to melt the ice pack between them and Embertide's mainland.
Tovey didn't have Hugo's depth of sadness to draw upon. His parents and brother were still alive. He'd had one nasty breakup in his life, but that fueled his rage, not his sorrow. His deepest sadness had also brought him his greatest joy. Stan.
He could only imagine how badly it would hurt if Stan left him now, or worse, if Hugo and Stan decided they didn't need him anymore. He claimed to love being alone, but he hated it. Life without Stan and Hugo would be worse than being alone. He'd experienced pure joy with them. If they cast him out, he would be left with bittersweet memories.
Worse, he would have only himself to blame.
Rage tried to consume him, but he refused it, focusing instead on the vulnerable parts beneath, the parts he usually hid because they didn't suit his air weaves.
He delved into his sorrow. Gods, he'd ignored how much Stan had hurt him with his falsehoods for too long. He knew the facts, but he still didn't understand the reasoning behind them. Why had Stan been so certain Tovey would push him away?
Because that was what Tovey's ex had done to him.
Tovey could imagine fresh sorrow if Stan and Hugo left him in the future, but nothing hurt as badly as his past. He'd been so excited to fall in love with an officer on his first naval ship. He'd been certain his feelings were reciprocated. They'd been sweet to him, and he'd fallen so hard in love, only to be spurned for another air weaver a few months later. They'd been his commanding officer, too, and they'd sent him to another ship without warning.
"Tovey?"
He opened his eyes to find a water bubble of protection around Hannah. Ice crackled along its outer edge. Inside, fog clouded the sphere. Around them, the deck of the ship was white with frost.
Tovey drew the errant weave back to himself, and Hannah broke through their bubble, laughing.
"You should have seen your face!" They pointed at the clouds. "Now direct that energy up there."
Unlike his air, which he had to grasp and wrangle to make it obey, the ice seemed to flow into his veins and through his weaves at his request. Along with his own pain, he felt Hugo's grief guiding him and showing him how to use this new power to twist the clouds into a frozen playland. The surrounding temperature dropped, and flakes started to fall from the sky. Thunder pealed from the clouds, and an arc of lightning twisted along the underside of the giant storm.
