Gift of Fire

preparing for a powerful swing. His eyes seemed to focus directly on Jonas.
    “Are you sure he can’t see you?” Verity asked desperately. The green ribbons whirled and spun around her feet.
    “I think he designed the image to make it look as real as possible,” Jonas said. He was standing directly in front of the vision, the broken sword hilt still locked in his hand. “He found a way to lock this scene here in time. He did it deliberately. This is no accidental image caught in the time corridor.”
    “It’s so real,” she said. “More real than anything we’ve ever seen in here.”
    “Optical illusion. It’s got to be.”
    “You’ve said that before. But this time you can’t convince me.” The green crystal suddenly vibrated violently in her hand. The green glow of the vision began to expand outward, making the image appear larger. The man in the vision raised the sword higher. His fierce eyes glittered with rage. The cloak fell back to reveal powerful shoulders.
    The green light from the crystal was filling the entire room now. Verity opened her mouth to scream but it was too late.
    “Jonas, this is real.
We
’
re inside the vision itself.
”
    She was a part of it, she realized with horror. The fury of the man in the vision was palpable now. It was real. As if he had suddenly spotted her, he swung toward her and began to bring his sword down in an arc that would take off her head. He was going to kill her.
    “
Jonas.
”
    There was no response. Verity tried to drop the green crystal and discovered she couldn’t release it. She tried to move and found that she was rooted to the spot. She looked up in stunned terror as the sword began its lethal descent. She was going to die! She was caught in the vision, and she was going to be killed by a man who had waited four hundred years to do the job. Verity couldn’t even close her eyes.
    “Touch her and you die!” Jonas suddenly shouted at the apparition. “She’s mine.” Without any warning, he was there beside Verity in the vision. He held a sword in his hand, a whole sword, not just a rusted hilt. Green ribbons were coiled around one of his arms. He leaped to put himself between Verity and the man who threatened her.
    “Leave her alone, you son of a bitch,” Jonas rasped. “I’m the one you want, I’m the one who got through your damn lock.” Then he broke off and said something in Italian.
    The old man didn’t seem interested in the language problem. He maintained an eerie silence as he refocused on Jonas and swung the sword.
    Jonas ducked and slid to one side. The blade passed a scant few inches over his head. He came up from a fighter’s crouch and slashed at the figure in the vision.
    The old man took a step backward, an expression of astonishment on his face. Viciously he swung once more. This time Jonas leaped recklessly forward, driving himself up under the arc of the swinging blade. His own blade led the way and buried itself in the man’s chest. The victim opened his mouth in a silent shout of agony and rage as he toppled backward.
    The sword snapped in Jonas’s hand, leaving behind only the hilt.
    Verity wanted to scream but she couldn’t find the breath to do so. The vision was wavering. The green ribbons around Jonas’s arm were leaping for his throat.
    Verity sensed the rapacious hunger of the ribbons and knew what was happening. The raw emotional energy that had been trapped in the image four hundred years ago was now fighting to get free. Jonas was the conduit the ancient residual energy could use to get to the present.
    The emotions that had governed this scene four hundred years ago could escape only through Jonas. He would be overwhelmed by them—driven insane, or turned into a killer. It was the risk he ran every time he stepped into the psychic corridor.
    Only Verity could help him control the power, but she’d never tried to control energy ribbons that were this strong.
    Verity tightened her grasp on the earrings. Concentrating on them, she managed to unclench her other hand. The green crystal fell to the floor. With an enormous sense of relief, she focused completely on the fiery crystals of her earrings.
    She felt the fire in her hands and held them to her breast. A brilliant red glow seeped out between her fingers. The vibrations were strong and pure and powerful.
    Verity took two steps forward to where Jonas was on his knees, struggling with the living green tongues that were wrapping themselves around