The Shadows Within

by J.S. Wilson

Thane hoped he would be able to take a vacation on his summer break after his junior year, but waking up on the doorstep to the Kalahari Desert in South Africa was a little farther away from home than he intended. Somehow it didn't surprise him. Thane knew he was different, his mother told him he was special everyday he could remember, up until the moment she was told to leave by his father. But what mother hasn't said her child was special? Unless she knew something that no one else did and what Thane just realized was hidden from him since he was born.

Through a chance encounter with an onyx-eyed spirit in the form of a vagrant, Thane comes home from visiting his mother in Boston to an unwelcomed visit from a mysterious and aggressive man who calls himself Doctor Henslow, wanting Thane to complete a task only he can accomplish. With little more than his instincts to guide him, Thane is pulled into an endurance-testing adventure, taking him from the jungles of India to the outback of Australia as he tries to find four unique individuals like himself that harbor a dark secret, the ability to turn into animals when they choose. It is only when Thane finds the four does he learn why his nightmares keep him up at night, how his mother knows about the ability he possesses and Doctor Henslow's true intentions.

294 pages, Kindle Edition