Page 17 of Phoenix Fated (The Phoenix Guardians #4)

They begin to move about the half-moon clearing in synchronized step, stomping and carving the earth to form a complex beat, rising like a quickening pulse.

They stay connected at all times, a part of their body always touching the other's.

They twirl around each other, clasping hands and reversing their direction with such intensity and speed that I'm certain they are about to collide and crumple into a pile in the rising dust cloud.

But they don't. Each movement is complimented and matched in an incredible give and take, so precise it's as though they share the same mind.

Their music is then joined by an almost imperceptible reply. It's the energy in the valley. I can feel it trembling beneath my feet, like a deep, groaning yawn.

"Oh," Jackson says, looking around in alarm. "Alright, I think I get what you mean by something being here."

"You feel it?"

"Uh-huh. It ain't happy."

A dark shimmer forms across the distant sand, like the ripples on a sun-soaked rock.

It begins to look like a low-lying black smoke pooling up from different places in the ground, and it spreads across the valley in thick, billowing puddles.

Azin and Onar slow their movements, and Azin drops to his knees in the center of the half-moon boundary and thrusts his hands into the soil.

Onar circles around him with precise footwork, occasionally reaching out to touch Azin's body.

"I think Azin is acting as a medium to the Shimat," I say. "He's allowing Onar to communicate with them."

"Communicate what?" Jackson asks.

Suddenly, the ground jolts with enough force to throw me forward a step, and the distant smoke erupts like a geyser.

Bits of rubble and stray bones fly into the sky, and black liquid spurts out from the crater like blood from a wound.

Jackson and I recoil in alarm as more of the fountains spew out across the valley and meld together in a great syrupy mass that shimmers like a rainbow along its black surface.

The aura that emanates from the Shimat is oppressive, and the effect on my spirit is immediate.

I can sense its source. It's somewhere deep under the ground, deep in the heart of the elemental.

Like a rotting corpse at the bottom of the well, this dark seed has poisoned the Shimat and is spreading through everything it touches.

It slithers over the earth and thrusts a tendril high into the air. It does this again and again, like water bouncing when being hit by rocks. It's seeking the source of its disruption.

"Fuckin' hell, I don't like that," Jackson says.

Neither do I.

The Shimat's arms swivel suddenly, and the blob surges in our direction. Azin and Onar quickly begin their dance again, this time with more force behind their moves, and the Shimat stops. It quivers slowly, as though dazed.

There's a strain in their movements, and sweat drips from both their faces.

They add complexity to the dance, stomping forward towards the edge of the boundary, as though trying to drive the Shimat backward.

It retreats for a moment, flattening into a docile puddle, but then seems to break free from their pacifying hold.

It erupts into chaos again and then bursts towards us in leaps and dives that make it look like some kind of horrible black fish.

Azin and Onar dance with a new ferocity, but nothing they're doing is slowing it down.

"Jackson..." I say, reaching for his arm. Our eyes are held firm on the creature tearing through the valley.

"Y-yeah, time to go," he says, turning for the hill.

"Onar!" I shout. "Azin!"

I don't want to interrupt their concentration, but this is not looking good. Jackson pauses at the base of the hill and looks back at me. In that moment of panic, what I see written plainly on his face is a furious unwillingness to leave without me.

"Go!" I shout. "I'm behind you."

"Come on, Airos, goddammit!" Jackson bellows.

Then, Azin trips over Onar's leg and falls flat onto the ground. The Shimat reacts, surging out with an even greater ferocity. Onar grabs Azin and hauls him back to his feet. The two position themselves to start again, but how can they possibly stop this monster now?

They can't. There's no chance.

"RUN!" Jackson and I yell.

As the four of us scramble out of the valley, I reach to summon the small amount of phoenix power I've recovered.

All I need to do is give them enough time to get away.

But as we haul ourselves across the top of the hill, the Shimat reaches the half-moon boundary and explodes against it like a wave hitting an invisible wall.

Its form breaks, and it sloshes backward as nothing but a lifeless inky water pooled on the surface of the desert.

It remains incapacitated for only a moment. The cursed elemental gathers itself and immediately surges against the boundary again. It edges the wall with its body until much of the valley is covered with the black liquid.

"It's not stopping," Jackson says. "Why the hell isn't it stopping?"

We watch as it manages to break through and slowly push across the line in the sand, encroaching into the territory that was supposed to be safe.

"It has grown," Onar says. He's white with shock.

As I watch the foul shape bubbling its way up the valley wall towards us, my thoughts immediately return to the phoenix hunter insects.

We've made a terrible mistake.

"Can you stop it?" I ask Onar. "Can you try again?"

Onar speaks to Azin in a flurry of hushed, urgent tones, and their faces grow increasingly grave as they gesture toward the advancing black mass. Azin shakes his head vehemently, but Onar grips his arm, his expression pleading. After a moment of tense debate, they both turn back to us.

"Our dance... not enough," Onar says, his voice strained. "Shimat too angry now. Break free."

Jackson rubs his knuckles into his forehead. "So it's gonna keep going? There's gotta be something we can do."

"We have to return to the camp," I urge. "We have to warn them."

"No!" Onar says. "We cannot!"

Onar translates for Azin. Both of them look reluctant to leave.

"This isn't your fault," I tell them. "It's because of us. We shouldn't have come here."

"No," says Onar. "Shalkek can cleanse Shimat."

"I don't know if we can," I say.

All I can see in my mind is the encampment destroyed by the Shimat.

Everything torn apart and left scattered across the desert, along with the bones of those swallowed by the darkness.

An unfamiliar panic is rising through my body.

I feel it eroding me from the inside out, overtaking my senses.

I can't have another village on my hands. Not again.

Jackson's fingertips squeezing into my forearm drag me back from the brink.

"We have to try something ," he says to me, his eyes blazing with fire.

"We can't do anything without power," I say. "And we're far too weak right now. By the time we recover, the Shimat will have overrun the village."

"Alright, then talk with me," he says, firmly holding my gaze with his. "If we can form a game plan, then maybe we can find a way through this thing."

My calm is returning.

"We go back to the camp," I say. "We speak to Niah, have her move the tribe somewhere safe. It's the first thing we must do."

"Okay. I trust you."

I give him a look. It feels odd to hear him say such a thing to me.

"What?" he says, and scowls at me before turning away. "Just fuckin' saying, man. You've got that big brain."

Jackson and I turn for the gryphs, but Onar and Azin don't move.

"Onar, we have to go," I urge.

"Our presence keeps Shimat here," he says. "We cannot leave."

They're still working their magic on the elemental. Slowing it down.

"Jackson and I will return to the camp," I say. "We'll figure out a way to stop it."

Onar nods. "Shalkek will succeed. I know it."

I mount the gryph, and Jackson, instead of climbing onto the second, grabs my saddle and hauls himself up in front of me.

"If they need to get out of here, they're gonna need that gryph," he says. "So let's go."

"Are you going to be okay with me riding behind you?" I ask him. "You trust me that much?"

"Learn when to stop talking," he mutters to me, and then turns to Azin and Onar. "We're gonna be back and stop this thing. I promise you guys. Whatever it takes."