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.

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

the sun cresting above the waves, as the light painted the

and Nicholas, coming to stand between them. I placed my hand on

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

to my ear. "Not as beautiful as you,"

Smooth talker.

a soft smile. He returned it just

to damage our eyes. By now, some of the others had awakened.

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

on," Julian said to her. "Let's make our

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

said, "Okay." She took Julian's hand and they went closer to the water

to follow Elva or me, but he decided me rather quickly when Veronica added, "I want to tell you about what I found

Veronica didn't seem

closed the book, then stood 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 time we'd talked about it. It seemed as if she was nearly

to celebrate. That should have been good news, but her

mean?" I asked. "Do we need

she said. "And

I liked the unique way

or keep it from you." He inhaled deeply. "The curse itself is tied and bound with life force, so it will take a considerable amount of life force to

asked. "What are talking about? Like

end. Or quality of life. And the more life

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

only

Oracle has the power to remove the curse, but not the means," Veronica confirmed. "She will need a donor. Or

at once, before Nicholas had a chance

I'm an Alpha. It's the least I can do for my