Companions Quartet Series

When 11-year-old Connie is sent to live with her eccentric aunt by the sea, she’s not expecting anything great - not to make friends with Col, the coolest guy in town, and certainly not to discover that mythical creatures still exist, that an ancient society has protected them for centuries, and that a dark and treacherous force is lurking in their midst. Most of all, she doesn’t expect to learn that she has the rarest of talents, greater even than her secret ability to communicate with animals. 

Magical Mallins Wood is under threat from developers. Unknown to everyone but the members of the top-secret Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures, the wood is the home of the last gorgon, a creature so deadly she can kill with a look. Col's difficult mother is the gorgon's Companion - a human with a special bond with the gorgon - and she's determined to save it. So determined that she'll allow the evil shape-shifter Kullervo to help her, even if it means having to sacrifice her son to him. But Kullervo wants more than to help the gorgon. 

Connie is a member of the Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures and the only one who can talk to animals and the mythical creatures she has vowed to protect. But now something dark is calling her, giving her a dangerous power. When her strange behavior means Connie is rejected by the secret society, she runs away and finds solace among the wounded mythical creatures the Society and the world have long since forgotten. But even here, she can't block out the dark voice in her head. Who is it and where does it come from?

Connie is the world’s last Universal–the only person who can communicate with all creatures; the only person who can keep peace between humans and the hidden mythical beings being destroyed by pollution. But the shapeshifter Kullervo craves her power. He wants to wipe out humanity. During a long, hot summer, as the sun beats down and the earth gets dryer, Kullervo prepares for war. The serpent-like chimera is just one part of his frightening army.