Young adult story with celtic mythological creatures, and people who acted as mediums for them

I only remember reading it as a child, so not sure if it was published in 90's or 2000's. In it, a girl is aware of mythological creatures and people who feel an affinity to them, such as banshees, unicorns, harpies or kraken. Each kind of creature is assigned an element, so kraken is water, harpies are air, dragons are fire etc. The girl thinks she discovers her creature and the medium society leaves it at that, but then she discovers she has affinity to another creature, then another, then she finds out she's this universal medium for all kinds of mythological creatures.

There's a big baddy who wants her for her powers, but I can't remember his ultimate goal.

Anyone remember reading anything similar? Cheers.

Answer

This is the Companions Quartet, by Julia Golding.

To quote Wikipedia:

Each person in the Society has a compatibility with a specific mythical creature. Connie finds out that she is a universal companion, someone who had compatibility with all mythical creatures, and that she is the first one in almost a century. The Society's main purpose is to protect mythical creatures from being exposed to humans, something which has become increasingly harder. Along with this problem, they also have to find a way to stop an evil shareholder shapeshifter called Kullervo who wants to wipe out all of humanity to make way for mythical creatures and he wants Connie's help to do it.

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