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?"

took a breath. "That magic trick' was actually an incantation I read about in this book." She motioned toward the merfolk book on the top of the bar. "The book contains many sections on curses and how to properly evaluate and

heartbeat kicked 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 wait for the oracle to appear again after

anything but

asked, because looking at

"The purpose of the incantation is to show the nature of Elva's curse and the magical power level needed

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

Cóntent

purple. Is that good?" I was beginning to

this case, it pulled my

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

amount of power? Veronica was the only one I knew who could do

remove her curse?" I

sighed. "What I do is mere child's

all around me. It was my own fault. I should have known from Veronica's expressions that the diagnosis

no. No, no," I said quickly. "This isn't

"If I were stronger-*

of vision so she could see my face and know that I'm

talk. I knew exactly how it felt to

"She's the only one with enough power to

oracle had said she would appear 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. This magic was foreign, even to Veronica. How could I be certain I could

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

bottom of my heart. I hoped she knew how much I

her book, and I walked off a little ways, wanting to give her some space. I looked out over the water. The view was

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

said to the

attempt to replicate the bird. Unfortunately, Veronica didn't notice to be able to

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

cool down," Nicholas said. "I'm