Witchlight [Hardcover]

The ninth book in L.J. Smith’s beloved bestselling Night World series is now available as a special collector’s edition!

Keller, a shapeshifter, has been chosen to protect a new Wild Power. When she’s not a panther, Keller is a tough, no-nonsense seventeen-year-old. But she meets her match in Iliana Harman—a clueless blonde who may really be the legendary Witch Child. Will Keller get annoyed and kill her before she can convince her to join Circle Daybreak? And what about the dashing and romantic Galen? Keller is falling in love with him—but he’s destined to be the Witch Child’s soulmate.Witchlight

CHAPTER 1

The mall was so peaceful. There was no hint of the terrible thing that was about to happen.

It looked like any other shopping mall in North Carolina on a Sunday afternoon in December. Modern. Brightly decorated. Crowded with customers who knew there were only ten shopping days until Christmas. Warm, despite the chilly gray skies outside. Safe.

Not the kind of place where a monster would appear.

Keller walked past a display of “Santa Claus Through the Ages” with all her senses alert and open. And that meant a lot of senses. The glimpses she caught of herself in darkened store windows showed a high-school-aged girl in a sleek jumpsuit, with straight black hair that fell past her hips and cool gray eyes. But she knew that anybody who watched her closely was likely to see something else—a sort of prowling grace in the way she walked and an inner glow when the gray eyes focused on anything.

Raksha Keller didn’t look quite human. Which was hardly surprising, because she wasn’t. She was a shapeshifter, and if people looking at her got the impression of a half-tamed panther olóL