Gift of Fire

is another door. All we have to do is find the mechanism that opens it. Stand back, honey. This should be a piece of cake.”
    But it was not a piece of cake. It took Jonas nearly half any hour to find the hidden lock mechanism. It wasn’t the same design as the others, and it had been embedded in the floor instead of the wall.
    “Here we go,” he said finally. He was down on his knees, his fingers probing between two stones. There was a grinding noise from the wall in front of them.
    Verity caught her breath as Jonas activated the mechanism. A wave of dank, fetid air burst from the slowly opening stone doorway. Jonas stepped back out of the way and pulled Verity with him.
    “Jonas, what if we’re about to uncover a pile of Florentine gold coins or a basket of jewels?” Verity asked breathlessly. “We’ll be able to send the kid to Harvard.”
    “No kid of mine is going to Harvard,” Jonas vowed. “We’ll worry about how to spend the goodies after we find them. You ready?” He moved toward the entrance and shone the flashlight into a small, square room.
    Verity came up behind him and followed the light. She was immediately assailed by an overpowering sense of déjà vu. This was the room she had seen last night when she had worn her new earrings, during the second psychic-awareness session.
    “Jonas, I know this room. I’ve seen it. There should be a black chest in here somewhere.”
    “Christ. You’re right. There it is.”
    A massively carved stone chest squatted in the corner of the cell-like room. Jonas went toward it cautiously.
    “It must be safe enough to approach it, Jonas. The footsteps go up to it and come back.” Verity didn’t like the look of the black chest, though. It resembled a coffin. Her earrings felt very warm against her cheeks. “It’s the chest we see in the vision, isn’t it? The one with the heaps of gold coins and gems in it.”
    Jonas reached the chest and examined it from all angles. “The lock is open. Let’s see what’s inside.”
    “Jonas, be careful.” Verity lost her nerve. A rush of anxiety came over her. “Don’t touch it. I don’t think we should open it. Forget Harvard, there are plenty of good state universities. Let’s get out of here.”
    She spoke too late. Jonas raised the lid of the black chest. In spite of her fear, Verity couldn’t resist going closer to see what was inside.
    “Empty,” she said in mingled disappointment and relief. “Damn. I wonder if whoever killed Digby cleaned it out.”
    “Probably. Still, this chest alone will be worth a fortune to some museum. Take a look at the carving. It’s magnificent. Too bad it belongs to Doug and Elyssa. All we’re going to get out of this is a consulting fee.” Jonas looked up, his features stark in the glow of the flashlight. “Let me have that sword hilt.”
    Verity’s hand tightened around the broken sword handle. “Why?” she demanded suspiciously.
    “I want another look at that vision of the man at the desk. I want to see if this is the room he was sitting in.”
    “I’m sure it is. But I’m not sure we should mess around with that particular vision. There’s something very weird about it.”
    Impatiently he reached out and took the chunk of metal from her. So much for trying to give good advice, Verity thought as the walls of the dark cell began to curve around them. People like Jonas rarely listened to good advice.
    Verity held her breath as the image shimmered and took form. Her earrings were turning hot against her skin. She started to remove them, staring at the vision of the man as she did so. Whoever he was, he had been capable of violence, she thought suddenly. She could see that much in the forbidding lines of his aristocratic features and the malevolent glare of his frozen eyes.
    The small, green, egg-shaped crystal on the desk seemed to pulse gently in the reflected glow of the flashlight. But that was impossible, Verity reminded herself. The images produced in the psychic corridor never reacted to outside illumination. They existed independently in time and space.
    Verity cried out softly as her earrings became so hot they seemed to burn her fingers.
    And then she knew.
    “Jonas,” she whispered. “The crystal. The one on his desk. It’s still here in the villa. It’s somewhere nearby. I’m sure of it.”

 
    Chapter Fifteen
     
    “What makes you think the crystal is still around here?” Jonas studied the frozen image in front of them. The sharp