Curse of the Gargoyles (Gargoyle Guardian Chronicles Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

way Kylie had departed. She and Elsa were out of sight. In the enormous park, it was just the full-five squad, one half-grown gargoyle, a trapped gargoyle, and a very out-of-place midlevel earth elemental.
    “Have you ever linked before?” Seradon asked.
    “No.” I’d worked in tandem with other people, sometimes close enough to feel like we were linked, but large projects that required linking always went to someone stronger than me.
    “It’s pretty simple.” Seradon squared off in front of me and I had to look up to meet her brown eyes. She smiled encouragingly, but I didn’t try to smile back—fear had frozen my features. “Open yourself to equal parts of every element, then feed it to me. I’ll adjust mine to harmonize with yours; then I’ll pull you into the link.”
    “Okay.” It sounded simple. I gathered earth, air, fire, wood, and water in equal amounts. My ability to manipulate air and water was limited, not even midlevel, which meant I barely held any wood, earth, and fire when I matched up their levels. I eased this thimble of power into Seradon, fidgeting with embarrassment. She was used to linking with other full spectrums. She probably didn’t have much practice in thinning down her power to my meager levels.
    I held my magic softly, the same way I would when testing a sick gargoyle, and Seradon’s stream of elemental energy merged into mine, linking us with a subtle hook.
    “Good. Smooth,” Seradon murmured.
    The world dropped open inside me as magic flooded into me. I’d expected linking to be like accepting a gargoyle’s enhancement. Their natural boost increased my own elemental strengths, giving me access to more magic, but with gargoyles, I remained the sole person in control. I hadn’t anticipated how crowded the link would feel.
    Five magical signatures pressed against the periphery of my awareness, but I couldn’t pinpoint an individual. The link also had shape and intent. Layers of elements wrapped and wove through each other to create the shield, and I could see every strand and how it had been assembled. The purifier beat against the underside of the shield, and in paying attention to the tension in the shield, I became aware of the strain in the link. Holding the shield taxed the squad—or some of them. I couldn’t tell if it was only Winnigan and Marciano becoming fatigued or all of them.
    Magic blossomed anew inside me, and I recognized it this time. Oliver had joined us, enhancing the magic in our link. Awed by the amount of power available to me, it wasn’t until Seradon gripped my elbow that I remembered I had a body. Oliver trilled, and I rediscovered my hearing. The young gargoyle’s carnelian eyes glowed like small suns, and with his wings flared and his posture flexed with his intent focus, he looked majestic. Through the link, he cycled more magic than he’d access if he spent a week atop the library. If he hadn’t been balanced earlier, he would be after this.
    “It’s disorienting the first time,” Seradon said. I pivoted to look at her, and the park blurred in my vision. Inside the link, someone poured water into the cracks in the shield, shoring up weak points. Magic moved through me—pulled through me—without me using it, and the sensation spiraled my focus inward.
    “I’d like to give you more time to get adjusted, but we need to work fast.”
    I nodded to show I understood, then closed my eyes when the horizon moved with my head.
    “I’m going to pull you through the shield,” the earth elemental continued. She’d taken my hand at some point, and her fingers tightened on mine. I squeezed back.
    Somehow, Seradon collected me from the linked energy. With a feeling like she tugged the elements through me, she gathered my contribution and dipped it through the shield.
    “I’ll use the purifier’s pathway to get us to the gargoyle,” Seradon said. “Then it’s up to you once we reach the quartz.”
    I opened my eyes and squinted at the