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.

when I asked her. I had no idea

white stretch out across the entire horizon. Then the top of the sun brought all

the waves, as the light painted the

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

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

leaned close to my ear. "Not

Smooth talker.

a soft smile. He returned

the sunrise any longer, not wanting to damage our eyes. By now, some of the others had awakened. Soon, Julian had found us and joined

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

her. "Let's make

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

as she said, "Okay." She took Julian's hand and they went closer to the water to recover the wet sand needed for

seemed torn about whether to follow Elva or me, but he decided me rather quickly

her. Veronica didn't seem troubled that Nicholas

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

said. I wanted to celebrate. That should have been good news, but her dire expression kept me from expressing my joy. "But she

that mean?" I asked. "Do we need

said. "And perhaps

me about this, Veronica," I said. Usually I wouldn't have minded. I liked the unique way Veronica's mind seemed to work. But this time, I needed clarity. "This concerns Elva.

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

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

she said. "Or health, near the end. Or quality of life. And the more life force that is needed the more painful it would be for...

volunteer. Well, he could get in line. Elva was my daughter. If anyone had to sacrifice anything to save her and give her a better life, it

could only be me,

the power to remove the curse, but not the means," Veronica

at once,

It's the least I can