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

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

Veronica looked anything but

asked, because

the nature of Elva's curse and the magical power level needed to remove

that 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

Cóntent belong

purple. Is that good?" I was beginning to

I appreciated her 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, that

said. "It will require the

Veronica was the only one I

her

I do

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 known

no," I said quickly.

"If I were stronger-*

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

herself. I couldn't talk. I knew exactly

the merfolk oracle," Veronica said. "She's the only one with enough power to have a

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

only just started.

of my heart. I hoped she knew how much I appreciated her. I wasn't sure she

wanting to give her some

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

Nicholas said to

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

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

cool down," Nicholas said.