The World Veil
an excerpt

Even before Carrie opened her eyes, she knew that something was terribly wrong. Everything was quiet and the air smelled sweet—not signs that usually indicated things gone awry. And yet she had an unmistakable gut-deep knowledge that this was not right. As she became aware of her surroundings, she realized that she was on the ground, splayed out, her face pressed into the earth. When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring dully at blades of grass, green grass, a meadow of some sort. Taking inventory, she realized that her whole body ached. If she let herself notice, she thought there might also be some sharper pain, but she pushed that out of her mind for the moment.

She found herself taking inventory of her surroundings. Grass. Dirt. Trees. What was going on? Why did her every sense twang with a feeling of—not exactly calamity, but wrongness?

Unwilling to move, fearful of something, Carrie closed her eyes again. In an instant, she felt an incredible sense of vertigo, felt herself moving fast, way too fast, saw the tree, heard the shriek of bending metal. With a sucking gasp of air, she bolted straight up. The car! She must have been thrown from the car!

“Milady? Milady? Caeron?!!” A voice came ringing through the woods. Yes, the woods. Sitting up, Carrie could see quite clearly that she was in a clearing, a small clearing in the forest. No car. No road. No… What was going on?