Free The Conduit (Gryphon Series) by Stacey Rourke Page B

were coming from. She was coming this way. Something had happened to Kendall. My trip into the mountains was coming too late.
    I dashed across the room intending to track her down. It wasn’t difficult. I swung open the bedroom door, and there she stood. I couldn’t hold back a gasp at her ghostly, haunted appearance. Her normal peaches and crème complexion had turned stark white, her trembling lips a pale shade of blue. She stared past me with glassy, unseeing eyes.
    Despite the door already being open , she extended her hand and turned a knob that only existed in her mind. She shuffled into the room, completely unaware of my presence. She bypassed both beds and the chair at our desk. Instead, she zombie-walked to the farthest corner of the room. With her back pressed up against our lilac-colored wall, she slid down and landed on the floor with a heavy thump.
    “Kendall?”
    “I…I…I…” Her mouth opened and shut, but she couldn’t make it any further than that.
    I squatted down next to her and stroked her soft hair. “You what?”
    Slowly, her head turned toward me, her eyes wide and unblinking. “I flew.”
    As I had never heard a declaration like that before, all I could think to say was, “Huh?”
    She shifted her gaze back to the wall. “Nothing beneath me but air.”
    The bird -woman’s warning echoed in my mind. “The changes will start now, Celeste. Not just for you, but for Gabe and Kendall as well.”
    I shifted and sat on the floor next to my traumatized sister. With one arm around her slender shoulders , I drew her to me. When her head settled on my shoulder, I asked, “How did it happen?”
    “Keith kissed me. My first kiss…”
    “Your first kiss?” I interrupted. “Guys follow you around like puppy dogs.”
    “Just friends ,” she explained vacantly. “Keith’s special.”
    Really? Sweaty, twitchy Keith? “Okay, you kissed. Then what?”
    “He was the first to notice. He looked down and screamed. I didn’t understand why. He pushed me away from and fell. At first I thought we had somehow moved to the edge of the porch, and he’d stumbled off the edge. But then I looked down. I was floating.” Her questioning eyes probed mine , looking for a logical explanation to this impossible scenario. “How is that possible, Celeste?”
    “I don’t know , Keni. I honestly don’t.”
    “It only lasted for a second …then I came crashing down. Keith was petrified. He ran inside and locked the door behind him. He looked at me through the glass like…like I was a…”
    “Freak?” Gabe’s harsh interjection startled me. Not just because I hadn’t heard him enter the room, but also because of the sharp way he spit the word out. Hostility brewed just below the surface, barely contained.
    Kendall either missed the tone or ignored it. “Yeah, like a freak. I feel so bad for him. He was terrified. I don’t know…what happened? How…how did I…?”
    I hugged my baby sister tightly. If I hadn’t been so slow to put the pieces together, Kendall wouldn’t have had to endure this. This was my fault. “I’m so sorry,” I muttered.
    “You should be sorry ,” Gabe hissed, his voice pure venom.
    I made no attempt to hide my exasperation as I shot back, “What is your problem, Gabe? Do you have something you wanna say?”
    “You bet I do. Why don’t you tell Kendall the truth? Or are you completely incapable of that anymore?”
    “What exactly is it that you think I’m withholding?”
    “That you know exactly what’s going on,” he snarled through gritted teeth. My heart momentarily forgot to beat. He knew. I didn’t know how much. But judging by the way he was pacing, it was enough to make him fume. “I just figured it out. That’s why you’ve been acting so weird lately. But instead of cluing us in on what was going on, you left us out to dry. Oh, but not before you took a minute to accuse me of doing drugs. Plenty of time for that fun little conversation.” His body