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 had no idea

across the entire horizon. Then the top of the sun brought all of

above the waves, as the light painted

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

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

close to my ear. "Not as beautiful

Smooth talker.

him a soft smile. He returned

damage our eyes. By now, some of

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

her. "Let's

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

"Okay." She took Julian's hand and they went closer to the water to recover the wet sand

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

to her. Veronica didn't

see that she had made extreme progress on the book since the last time we'd talked about it. It seemed as if

celebrate. That should have been good news, but her dire expression kept me from expressing my

I asked. "Do we need to

she said. "And

me about this, Veronica," I said. Usually I wouldn't have minded. I liked the unique

He inhaled deeply. "The curse itself is

"What are talking about? Like years off

of life. And the more life force that is needed the more painful it would

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

only be

remove the curse, but not the means," Veronica confirmed. "She will

volunteer," I said at once, before Nicholas had

It's the least I can do for my pack. It's