The Conduit The Gryphon Series - By Stacey Rourke Page 0,26

not before you took a minute to accuse me of doing drugs. Plenty of time for that fun little conversation.” His body language dared me to challenge him.

My mouth fell open to say…what? I couldn’t deny it, he was right. I hadn’t even thought that his recent growth could be mystical, but it had to be. My chin fell to my chest. “I don’t know much yet.”

Kendall’s head whipped back and forth between Gabe and me. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Kendall and I have turned into freaks. What about you? Are you a member of the freak brigade?”

“Wait! You can do weird stuff, too?” Kendall perked up at the idea that she wasn’t the “lone freak”.

“Yes. Try to keep up.” Gabe snapped.

I grabbed my sister’s hand to comfort her, and then fixed my gaze on my pushy brother. “I can feel people’s emotions, and I think I may be able to alter what they’re feeling.”

A smug smirk spread across Gabe’s face. “Doesn’t that put a fun twist on this story. You could even feel the confusion and stress we were going through as we…” he struggled to find the right word, “changed. Still you said nothing.”

I jumped up off the floor, stood on my tiptoes, and went nose to nose with my monstrous brother. “What did you want me to say, Gabe? That night I came home from the woods covered in blood, should I’ve told you that the real reason I fell was that I saw a feathered woman in the clearing? And that she told me stuff was going to start happening to all three of us. What do you think you would’ve said if I had done that?”

“You still could’ve given us warning…”

“What would you have said?”

His mouth snapped shut. The fire in his eyes simmered down to embers. “I would’ve told you that you were crazy.”

“Exactly. Truth be told, I thought I was. So I didn’t feel inclined to announce it to the world. And just so you know, I just put all the pieces together tonight.”

Gabe rubbed the back of his neck. Even a casual motion like that caused his giant pecks to dance. “I was just looking for someone to blame. Sorry. But, you can change how people feel? Really? That’s kinda cool.”

“HOLD ON A SECOND!” Keni scrambled off the floor. “Feathered women? Feeling peoples’ emotions? What the heck is going on?”

Gabe’s head jerked in Keni’s direction. “Can’t you use your voodoo to calm her down or something?”

“I’m not real sure how I did it the first time.” I shrugged.

“I don’t need to be calmed down!” Kendall stomped her foot. “What I need is for you two to tell me what is happening and why I am suddenly able to float!”

I didn’t know how to explain it, especially when I really didn’t understand myself. To the best of my ability, I started at the beginning and laid out the whole story of my experiences over the last week. I ended by declaring that to find answers we needed to find the bird-woman.

Gabe peeked into my backpack, inventorying what I’d packed. “It took you this long to figure all that out? Little slow on the uptake?”

“Definitely, yes.”

“That’s sad.” He taunted. “So, we need to go back to that spot in the mountains and look for her. When do we go?”

“Tonight. After Grams crashes for the night. We’ll head up to the clearing. Hopefully, she’ll be there.”

With resolute nods we all agreed.

“Wait, I have a question.” Kendall plopped down on her bed and grabbed her big stuffed zebra, Mr. Hoofington that she’d had since she was four.

“Just one?”

“To start with.” She looked up at Gabe as he zipped my backpack. “You didn’t say what you could do.”

“In addition to this…” He made a flippant gesture at his new alarmingly frame. “I’m wicked strong.”

“Cool.” She picked a fuzzy off Mr. Hoofington, and cocked her head to the side. “Wait. In addition to what?”

Now it was Gabe’s turn to look puzzled. “What do you mean ‘what’? This!” He extended his arms and pointed blatantly at himself.

Kendall sucked in a shocked breath. I bit down on my lip to stifle a laugh. “Holy crap Gabe!” She exclaimed. “You’re huge!”

“You both suck.” He grumbled.

CHAPTER 12

Extended cab or not, all three of us crammed into the front seat of my truck. Uncertainty made togetherness mandatory. As we piled out into the deserted parking lot, I eyed the entrance to the path. It seemed more menacing at night. Billowing trees arched