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?"

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

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 wait for the oracle to appear

anything but happy

I asked, because looking at Veronica, I was

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

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. If left to Jane, the curse on Elva would

Veronica said. Cóntent belong to

was beginning to suspect that it

hope. Although in this case, it pulled

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

power? Veronica was the only one I knew

her

frown deepened. "No. Not by far." She sighed. "What I do is mere child's play

built up for myself crashed and burned all around me. It was my own

said quickly. "This isn't on you at

"If I were stronger-*

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

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

said. "She's the

heart. I wanted to arrive, to help Elva, but I still didn't know if

"I've only just started.

hoped she knew how much I appreciated her. I wasn't sure she would

to her book, and I walked off a little ways, wanting to give her some

She showed her folded bird to Nicholas, who had just stepped out onto the deck from the house. She explained in her roundabout child way that Veronica had made it and given it to her,

Frank," Nicholas said to

attention waned fairly quickly after that and she rushed over to a pile of napkins in an attempt to replicate the bird. Unfortunately, Veronica didn't notice to be able

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

cool down," Nicholas said. "I'm