Hello! Here's the first chapter, hope you enjoy! :)

I. Elerie

Doctor Elerie Taylor had always been drawn to the 'otherworldly' the beyond, had always felt its pull. She believed wholeheartedly in the supernatural and had been searching for answers her whole life.

A couple-hundred years ago she would have probably been called a witch and burned at the stake for her doings, investigating spells and rituals, visiting mystical sights. Her ex-husband, when they were still together, used to jokingly call her a witch as she 'meddled with magic'.

She'd always had this strange sensation when visiting places of the past - a strong feeling of presence other than the life around her. Who then, was it she sensed? What was it? The dead? Perhaps. Either way she had always felt a strong connection to the ancients. It was hard to explain, but basically she summarized it as having some sort of reassurance that there was something more, something beyond.

Could she speak with ghosts? No, but she could sense them, their presence. That of civilizations and worlds long since passed. But despite possessing this 'gift', she still had many questions and not enough answers.

Following her divorce she hadn't gone out into the field much, leaving that to her colleagues, who would go conduct the excavations and digs and then bring the findings back to the museum to be examined - besides, she had always been a bit against removing the items from their hiding or burial places. They had been put there for a reason, why disrupt it?

She worked as an archaeologist through the Natural History Museum in London. Some may think that someone like her, so deeply engaged in the supernatural, myths, and magic, wouldn't be working at a museum of natural history, a place of scientific fact. But it was from there that she could conduct her investigations, alongside her friend and colleague Doctor Halsey.

The strange 'gift' of hers had helped lead them to some of the greatest findings of their careers - ancient manuscripts covered in spells and symbols, slabs of broken stone bearing carved rituals. All with connections to something beyond, and once fully examined Jenny would take them to her department of 'special collections'.

Now here they were, all the way in Iraq, searching for what could be their greatest find yet. Finding the lost tomb of an ancient cursed princess whose existence had tried to be erased would prove everything she believed, prove there really was something else.

Below them stretched seemingly endless desert. As the helicopter neared the golden ground, the uneasy feeling deep within the pit of Elerie's stomach swelled, something that always happened when she was following the trail of some supposedly enchanted antiquity. With it was the feeling that they were about to discover something truly great, but she had yet to discover what.

"Just think El," Jenny called over the roaring of the helicopter propeller. "This could be it."

At last they touched down by an abandoned, ransacked village, and the archaeologists emerged into the beating sun. The village had been surrounded by United States military personnel. She and Jenny approached the man who looked like he was in charge, standing with two of his soldiers.

When she saw them, Elerie stopped and stared. Her first thought was, shit.

Suddenly, the uneasy feeling just got a lot worse.

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter and introduction to my character! Thanks so much for reading! :)