Birth by Fire's Embrace (the Amethyst Series)

A taut fantasy for all ages, Birth by Fire's Embrace explores how drastically things can change when the world that lies just beyond our senses begins to surface. When all that is familiar vanishes from Shar's life, she begins to look inside and find the strength and courage to carry on in a harsh world, and look towards another world that lies ahead.
At the beginning of the summer she was doing so well; done with school, a promising promotion in the works, the best boyfriend a girl could ask for, and the chance of a lifetime at the Academy. Then he came and it was all ashes. He had cost her everything, the job, the boy, the acting school, and even her family. He had cost her the world. What Shar didn't know was that the stranger was actually there to protect her from another dark intruder in her world. Caught in a deadly game between two lethal adversaries, she comes to know that there are forces around her that she has only dreamt of. Forces that will bring her to the edge of death and back again, that will show her a new realm to fill the void left by the one she has lost.