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.

said when I asked her. I had no idea if she was serious or

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

above the waves, as

them. I placed my hand

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

"Not as beautiful as

Smooth talker.

a soft smile.

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

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

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

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

Julian's hand and they went closer to

or me, but he decided me

Veronica didn't seem troubled that Nicholas

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

curse," Veronica said. I wanted to celebrate. That should have been good news, but her dire expression kept me from expressing my joy. "But she won't be

asked. "Do we

she said.

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

her throat. "I did not mean to undermine the importance of this, or keep it from you." He inhaled deeply. "The curse itself is tied and bound with life force, so it will take

are talking about? Like years off our

Or quality of life. And the more life force that is

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

only be me,

not

volunteer," I said at once,

It's the least I can do for my