The Luna Choosing Game

Chapter 0593

The next morning was the final of our time on the island, so I made sure to set a personal alarm to wake me up just before dawn. When it finally went off, I grumbled a minute, before remembering my plan and forcing myself out of bed.

I turned toward Elva and shook her gently, rousing her.

"Mommy?" she asked, peeking open one eye.

"Would you like to watch the sunrise, honey?"

That woke her up right away. "Yeah!"

I shushed her gently. "Let's not wake Nicholas," I said.

"I'm already awake," he said from his air mattress on the ground.

I had tried to tell him late last night, after we had very diligently cleaned up after ourselves and finally came upstairs to sleep, that he didn't have to guard us now, with Ronan in jail and Bridget under supervision.

But Nicholas would not be talked out of it.

And now, thusly, he had been woken up before dawn.

I rolled over on the bed to peer down at him with an apologetic glance. "Sorry," I said.

He rubbed his eye with his forefinger. He huffed a small exhale as he shook his head. "I wouldn't want to have missed this," he said. "I'm glad I was here."

We all rolled out of bed. Since it was so early, we didn't bother changing out of our pajamas as we descended the staircase and made our way out onto the deck. We had to come around the house to face east.

Already the sky was lighting up in warm oranges, the sun near the horizon.

To my surprise, Veronica was already there, reading the book she had borrowed from the merfolk. She had a tiny book light clipped onto the top of the book. I marveled for a minute at how it could do so without bending the pages.

I had no idea if she was

line of blinding white stretch out across the entire horizon.

above the waves, as the light painted the sky with

them. I placed my hand on Elva's

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

leaned close to my ear. "Not as

Smooth talker.

him a soft smile.

were unable to look at the sunrise any longer, not wanting to damage our eyes. By

the sandcastle Bridget had made for her. We'd thought of dismantling it, but... we didn't want to traumatize

said to her. "Let's

encourage her. She hadn't shown as much interest in sandcastles since receiving

took Julian's hand and they went closer

me, but he decided me rather quickly when Veronica added, "I

to her. Veronica didn't seem troubled that

from the beach towel she had stretched out for herself. As I was closer now, I could see that she had made extreme progress on the book since the last

Elva's curse," Veronica said. I wanted to celebrate. That should have been good news, but her dire expression

does that mean?" I asked. "Do we

said. "And

this, Veronica," I said. Usually I wouldn't have minded. I liked the unique way Veronica's mind seemed to work.

you." He inhaled deeply. "The

force?" I asked. "What are talking about? Like years off

end. Or quality of life. And the

was my daughter. If anyone had to sacrifice anything to save

only

has the power to remove the curse, but not the

volunteer," I said at once, before Nicholas had

it. I'm an Alpha. It's the least I can