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?"

read about in this book." She motioned toward the merfolk book

perked up. She said 'remove them'! That should be exciting, a great sign! If the book talked about how to remove the curse,

anything

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

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

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

Cóntent belong

I was beginning to suspect that it

She was never one for false hope. Although 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

amount of power? Veronica was the only

her curse?"

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

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

No, no," I said quickly. "This

"If I were stronger-*

her. I dipped my head into her line of vision so she could see my face and know that

couldn't talk. I knew exactly how it felt to not

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

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

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

the bottom of my heart. I hoped she knew

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

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 it and its

Nicholas said to the

waned fairly quickly after that and she rushed over to a pile of napkins in an attempt to replicate the bird. Unfortunately, Veronica

stood side by side. We both turned to look

down," Nicholas