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 asked her. I had no idea if she was serious

look!" I turned my head just in time to see a line of blinding white stretch out across the entire horizon. Then the top of the sun brought all

sun cresting above the waves,

to stand between them. I

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

ear. "Not

Smooth talker.

a soft smile. He returned it just as

to damage our eyes. By

We'd thought of dismantling it, but... we didn't want to traumatize Elva any more than

Julian said to her. "Let's

I told Elva, to encourage her. She hadn't shown as much

Julian's hand and they went closer to the water to recover the wet sand

closer. Nicholas seemed torn about whether to follow Elva or me, but he decided me rather quickly when

Veronica didn't seem troubled that Nicholas had joined

had stretched out for herself. As I was closer now, I could see that

good news, but her

does that mean?" I asked. "Do

she said. "And

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

He inhaled deeply. "The curse itself is tied and bound with life force, so it will take

talking about? Like

quality of life. And the more life

to volunteer. Well, he could get in line. Elva was my daughter. If anyone had to sacrifice anything to save her

only

but not the

said at once, before Nicholas

"I'll do it. I'm an Alpha. It's the least