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?"

trick' was actually an incantation I read about in this book." She motioned toward the merfolk book on the top of the bar. "The

up and I perked up. She said 'remove them'! That should be exciting, a great sign! If the book talked about how to remove the curse, then maybe we didn't need to

Veronica looked anything but

I asked, because looking at Veronica,

of Elva's curse and the magical power level needed

own daughter no less. I'd come to accept that Jane would never come around, not to help herself or anyone else. If left to Jane,

said. Cóntent belong

that good?" I was

hope. Although in this case, it pulled my heart out a little. I wanted her to say purple was the best color, that it indicated a curse easiest to

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

Veronica was the only one I knew who

you remove her curse?" I

She sighed. "What I

had built up for myself crashed and burned all around me. It was my own fault. I should have known from Veronica's expressions that the diagnosis was not very good. "I'm sorry,"

said quickly. "This isn't

"If I were stronger-*

her line of vision so she could see

talk. I

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

again 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 fully trust her. The oracle was a stranger.

keep reading." Veronica said. "I've only just started. Maybe there's

hoped she knew how much I appreciated her. I wasn't sure she would until Elva was completely

to give her some space. I looked out over the water. The view

out onto the deck from the house. She explained in her roundabout child way that Veronica had made it and given it

said to

she rushed over to a pile of napkins in an attempt to replicate the bird. Unfortunately,

Together we stood side by side. We both turned to look out

down," Nicholas said.