ABC Amber Text Converter

ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcepub.htmlHer heart was not sealed away behind walls.”“Look what that got her. Dead.”I stalk off ahead, down a brilliant yellow corridor. The windows open on exactly the kind of summerday Alina and I always loved. I can’t get away from her ghost! I quicken my pace.We hurry down a hall of mint, then one of indigo with French doors that open onto a turbulent stormynight, before turning onto a path of pale pink, and finally there it is—a towering arched entrance into awhite marble hall. Beyond the elegant entrance, windows open onto a dazzling winter day, ice-encasedtrees sparkling like diamonds in the sun.Peace settles over me. I’ve been here in my dreams. I loved this wing.Once, long ago on her world, a sunny day in spring was her favorite, but now a sunny day inwinter delights her more. It is the perfect metaphor for their love.Sunshine on ice.She warms his frost. He cools her fever.“You said Alina called you,” Darroc says behind me. “You said she was crying on the phone, that shewas hiding from me. Did she make that phone call the day she died?”He startles me from my reverie and, without thinking, I nod.“What exactly did she say?”I toss him a look over my shoulder that says, You really think I’m going to tell you that? If anyoneis going to be answering questions about her, it’s going to be him answering to me. I step into the whitemarble corridor.He follows me. “All you accomplish by persisting in your inane and erroneous belief that I killed Alinais guaranteeing that you will never find her true murderer. Humans have an animal of which you remindme. The ostrich.”“My head is not buried in the sand.”“No, it’s up your ass,” he snaps.I whirl on him.We glare at each other, but his words give me pause. Am I being an ostrich? Do I deny myself theopportunity to avenge my sister, because I’m stuck in a rut I refuse to get out of? Will I let my sister’sreal murderer get away, because I can’t open my mind to see beyond my preconceptions? Barronswarned me from the beginning to not so blithely assume Darroc was definitely her killer.A muscle works in my jaw. Each time I remember something about Barrons, I hate Darroc more fortaking him from me. But I remind myself why I’m here and why I haven’t already killed him.To accomplish my goal, there are certain answers I need.I eye him speculatively. There are others I just want.And once I get the Book in my hands and change things, I’ll never have another chance to ask. He’llbe gone. I’ll have killed him. Here and now is my one shot.“She said she was going to try to come home but she was afraid you wouldn’t let her leave thecountry,” I say stiffly. “She said I had to find the Sinsar Dubh. Then she sounded terrified and said youwere coming.”“Me? By name? She told you ‘Darroc’ was coming?”“She didn’t have to. What she said earlier made it clear.”“And what was that? What so thoroughly incriminated me?”I still have her message memorized. I dream it sometimes, word for word. “She said, I thought hewas helping me, but—God, I can’t believe I was so stupid! I thought I was in love with him and he’s one of them, Mac! He’s one of them! Who else could that have been? You keep telling me she lovedyou. Was there someone else she was involved with that she thought she—”“No! There was only me. She would never have sought another. I gave her everything.”“Then you understand why I believe you killed her.”“I do not, and did not. There are holes larger than Hunters in your puny human logic!”“Who else could it have been? Who else did she fear?”He turns and paces to one of the windows, where he stands gazing out at the dazzling winter day.Page 49