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

see a line of blinding white stretch out across the entire horizon. Then the top of

sun cresting above the waves, as

coming to stand between them. I placed my hand on Elva's

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

to my ear. "Not as beautiful as

Smooth talker.

a soft smile. He returned it

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

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

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

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

went closer to the water to recover the wet

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

her. Veronica didn't seem troubled that Nicholas had

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

good news, but her dire expression kept me from expressing my joy. "But she won't be able to

"Do we need to find

she said.

wouldn't have minded. I liked

this, or keep it from you." He inhaled deeply. "The curse itself is tied

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

the more life force that

Elva was my daughter. If anyone

could only be me,

not the means," Veronica confirmed. "She will need a donor.

volunteer," I said at once, before

an Alpha. It's the least I can do