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 the top of the bar. "The book contains many

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

anything but

asked, because looking

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

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

Cóntent belong to

was beginning to suspect that

bluntness. She was never one for false hope. Although in this case, it pulled my heart out a little. I wanted her to say purple was the best color,

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

amount of power? Veronica was the only

you remove her

frown deepened. "No. Not by far." She sighed. "What I do is

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.

quickly. "This isn't on

"If I were stronger-*

vision so she could see my

with herself. I couldn't talk. I knew exactly how it

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

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've only just started. Maybe

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

little ways, wanting to give her some space. I

at my birdie!" 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, and that she loved

said to the

napkins in an attempt to replicate the

we stood side by side. We both turned to look

down," Nicholas said. "I'm