The Luna Choosing Game

Chapter 0550

Elva glanced up at Veronica and her laughter stifled. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Veronica startled a little, then tried to smile again. It wasn't as big as before. It barely twitched her lip, and certainly did not meet her eyes.

"Nothing's wrong," Veronica said. "I'm glad you liked the trick."

*How long does it last?" I asked, though as soon as the words left my mouth Elva's purple glow began to fade.

"Aww," Elva said, looking at her hands. "Do it again!"

"Elva, honey," I scolded lightly. "We don't demand things from people."

"I'm tired now," Veronica said. "Maybe another time."

Elva tucked her chin down, disappointed. But she said, "Okay."

*Thank Veronica for the magic trick," I reminded Elva.

Elva kicked her feet on the ground. "Thank you..." she mumbled.

"You're welcome," Veronica said.

Elva lifted her folded bird again. She glanced at me, as if for permission.

"Go on," I said. "Have fun."

Nearby I saw the nanny coming up onto the deck. Elva saw her too, and ran toward her, holding up the folded bird. With Elva thoroughly distracted, I turned to Veronica, looking for an explanation. "What just happened?"

"That magic trick' was actually an incantation I read about in this book." She motioned toward the merfolk book on

book talked about how to remove the curse, then maybe we didn't need to wait for the oracle to

anything but happy

good news?" I asked, because looking at Veronica, I

the nature of Elva's curse and the magical power level needed to remove it. It's easier, of course, if

won't happen," I said. Jane was the one to make the curse, on her own daughter no less. I'd come to accept that Jane would never come around, not to help herself or anyone else.

Cóntent belong

purple. Is that good?" I was beginning to

in this case, it pulled my heart out a little. I wanted her to say purple

curses," Veronica said. "It will require the highest amount of magical power

Veronica was the only one I knew

her curse?"

Not by far." She sighed. "What I do is mere child's

dropped down to the ground. Any false hope I had built up for myself crashed and burned all around me. It was my own fault. I should have known

said quickly. "This isn't on you at

"If I were stronger-*

my head into her line of vision so she could see my face and know that I'm earnest. "We wouldn't even know any of this if it weren't

head, clearly dissatisfied with herself. I couldn't talk. I knew exactly

need the merfolk oracle," Veronica said. "She's the only one with

to me when I had removed doubt from my heart. I wanted to arrive, to help Elva, but I still didn't know if I could

said. "I've only just started.

meant it from the bottom of my heart. I hoped she knew how much I appreciated

her some space. I looked out over the water. The view was pretty good from

out onto the deck from the house. She explained in her roundabout child way that Veronica

Nicholas said

to replicate the

way over to me. Together we stood side by side. We both turned

down," Nicholas said. "I'm