CLAIRE DAVON

Title: Quintessence, Elementals' Challenge, Book 5
Buy the Book: Amazon
Published by: Claire Davon
Release Date: 6/2/25
Pages: 240
ISBN13: 978-1-946621-38-2
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One final Challenge looms. Two hearts carry the seed of victory…if they survive.

Tremors and distant screams rattle Eliane awake in the dead of night, but they aren’t coming from the ground. They’re rumbling through her mind, triggering the supernatural connection between her and her best friend, Joao. A connection they’ve shared since they journeyed to Argentina as children—and came away with something that makes them more than human.

Joao knows something disturbing has awakened his and Eliane’s naguals—mysterious symbiotes they each carry inside them. One of the four Elementals has suffered defeat in their initial Challenge against their Demonos counterpart. When an Elemental is defeated, all four must fight in final Challenge. A battle in which he and Eliane have some part to play.

Joao’s first instinct, to protect Eliane at all costs, wars with their mutual promise to resist the attraction between them, at least while the symbiotes’ power is untapped. But as attacks escalate, they begin to understand this Challenge isn’t about who will have the power of life or death over mankind. Defeat will spell total destruction of all humanity, and time is running out on Joao and Eliane’s one chance at forever.

Eliane woke with the cries of thousands—millions—of desperate, faceless voices echoing inside her mind, her body quivering. After several terrifying seconds, she realized that her bed was not shaking. Though the tremors still echoed in her thoughts, she was unhurt. Los Angeles was prone to quakes, but the ones that plagued her had not come from the ground under her feet. Whatever had happened was elsewhere, likely far from Southern California.

The impact of what she’d experienced surged through her on a wave. What lurked in her mind was so huge she understood this must be related to the air, earth, water, and fire Elementals, those immortal beings who fought against their counterparts every hundred years or so. Joao, her dearest and oldest friend, was fascinated with the beings, and had taught her about the paranormal world.

In the last few days, Eliane had felt the agitation of the paranormals in the city and assumed Challenge was the reason. From what she understood about the process, each Elemental had to fight its Demonos counterpart. Win, and the world was safe. Lose—just one Elemental had to be defeated—then all four faced a final showdown together against their Demonos counterparts. If they were defeated in that bigger battle, then the Demonos were allowed to take their wrath out on humanity.

Eliane hadn’t paid too much attention to the goings-on. She and Joao may not be human anymore, since their trip to Ushuaia, Argentina as kids, but that didn’t mean the events of Challenge impacted them. Joao hadn’t been expecting any battles for another decade. That they sensed Challenge coming had surprised him.

In the past few days, the Elementals had had their individual Challenges, something she and Joao had been watching since becoming aware of it happening. The horror echoing through her informed her one had lost. The way the world rolled through her mind like a quake under her feet told her who that person—or in this case, people—had to be. Sphynx.

They were the most powerful of the Elementals, but they had lost.

The earth Elemental, Sphynx, was the oldest of them all—and they had been beaten. The truth echoed through the ground that rocked under her, and the being that was part of her life.

Now what?

The entity that lived inside her touched her thoughts, but provided no answer. Eliane’s interactions with the being were often like this. They could communicate in a fashion, but not in the sense of human words. More like feelings—impressions. Joao had told her that he could understand his in a similar way.

Her phone rang, and Eliane was sure who was on the other end of the call. Joao. He was the one person who would understand what she was going through. Her trusted friend and confidante.

“It’s the middle of the night.”

Joao’s quick bark of laughter sang along her tired mind. Then he sucked in a breath. A second later, the entity she carried struck Eliane, just as his must have hit him. Terror was in that force, dread and anguish, and a sense of loss so profound she would have staggered under its weight if she weren’t in bed. It rolled through her before fading, carrying its almost tangible grief with it.

“If I woke you up, I’m sorry,” Joao said. “I figured you’d be up after all that. I had to hear your voice—you’re the only one who will understand. I just got shaken out of a dead sleep by my nagual. The Elementals—they lost.”