Free Sleeping Dragons Book 1: Animus by Ophelia Bell Page A

empty, yet still holding the lingering, spicy scent of whatever substance it had once contained.
    Her father had died wondering, and Erika had vowed afterward that she would find it for him. And here she was, about to cross the threshold with the same familiar smell from her father’s old bottle filling her lungs with each breath.
    The opening displayed a dark corridor lined with smooth, pale stone. She reached inside and slid her fingertips across the rock. In spite of the cooler air beyond the threshold, the ethereal warmth of the walls sank into her fingertips. Once the door stopped sliding open with a heavy cachunk , a series of recessed sconces that lined the corridor began to glow one by one.
    “Whoa,” Eben said. “Magic?”
    “Engineering, most likely. Old school… I bet there’s a trigger somewhere in that door pocket that lights these up when the door is opened. Hey, Corey!” she called back behind them. “You’ll love these lights. Get up here and document how they work.”
    The athletic, dark-haired figure of her tech nodded from behind the digital camera he held. “You got it, boss.”
    She held her eagerness in check for the time being. Instead of giving in to the urge to run inside and begin exploring, she took over camera duty for Corey and let him do his job. He diligently tested the air quality and gave her a swift thumbs-up indicating all was good on that front. The glowing sconces, on the other hand, caused his dark eyebrows to arch high on his tanned brow.
    “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “They come pretty close to light bulbs, but we both know better than that. Take a look…” He reached a leather-gloved hand into one of the half-moon-shaped recesses. What he pulled out continued to glow brightly when he held it up before her. Heat radiated off the oblong shape. It was round and bulbous at the lit end, dark and tapered at the end Corey held. The others circled around murmuring in awe while the glow gradually subsided. When it emitted only the brightness of a low-burning ember she reached out a tentative finger to touch it. Heat still lingered in it, but it felt solid, more like a stone than a fragile glass bulb.
    “See,” Eben said. “ Magic. ”
    She rolled her eyes and took the odd stone from Corey, her first artifact from the temple. Corey grinned at what she was sure had to be a giddy expression on her face. She certainly felt like a kid on Christmas morning.
    “Ready to conquer the dragon temple?” Corey asked with a quirk of his mouth and a wink. The epitome of professional behavior and honorable to a fault, Corey had always felt like the protective older brother of the group. She eyed him curiously now. Even though he’d traveled with three very attractive, intelligent single women for months, not once had he given any hint of flirting. Until now.
    Dismissing his odd behavior as a side effect of the same excitement that afflicted her, she returned the camera to him. She turned back to the doorway and with a deep breath stepped slowly into the wide opening, caressing the pale stone walls as she went. The lights illuminated the translucent stone in a warm glow and she could just make out the beginning of a staircase several yards ahead.
    “Jesus, this place is paneled entirely in jade.” She paused to study a section of the wall, noting the faint green and gold coloring that threaded through the white stone in amorphous serpentine patterns. Her footsteps echoed in the wide space as she went further in. She reached the end of the corridor and paused to stare down at what appeared to be an endless staircase.
    “You guys ready for this?” she asked the group behind her. Of course they were ready, she chided herself. But was she ready? So far the place had exceeded her wildest dreams and she was barely in the door. How deep would it go? What kinds of wonders would she find inside? And the biggest question that occupied her mind: Would her father’s research