The Gorgon's Gaze - Julia Golding

Julia Golding's The Gorgon's Gaze is the second book in the Companions Quartet.

Mallins Wood is under threat from developers as the Axoil company wants a new, faster access road to its oil refinery. However, unknown to everyone but the members of the top secret Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures, Mallins Wood is the home of the last gorgon, the creature so deadly she can kill just by looking at you. The gorgon's Companion (ie. the human that has a special bond with the gorgon) is Col's mother, and she's determined to save it. So determined is she, that she is willing to take aid from the evil shape-shifter Kullervo, even if it means having to sacrifice her son to him. But Col's mother doesn't realise that Kullervo wants more than to just help the gorgon - he also wants universal power, and to achieve that he needs Col's best friend, Connie.

In the meantime, Connie has her own troubles. Her parents have heard about Connie's escapades regarding the Axoil refinery nearly a year ago and they've decided that Connie's membership of the Society is endangering her. They send Connie's Great Aunt Godiva and Great Uncle Hugh to look after her, instead of her aunt Evelyn (who's a Companion to Banshees). Godiva is determined to "stamp out" the nonsense (shades of the Dursleys, methinks !) and claims that the Society is some sort of cult that has brainwashed Connie into thinking she hears voices. Connie thus finds her intended training as a Universal Companion won't be taking place as she is locked up at Lionheart Lodge (Godiva and Hugh's old home). But there's something more to Godiva than she's admitting. Why are there no wild plants, trees or wild animals in her garden ? Why does she know so much about the highly secret Society ? And why won't she have anything made of wood near her ?