The Luna Choosing Game by Jane Above Story



Chapter 0550

Elva glanced up at Veronica and her laughter stifled. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Veronica startled a little, then tried to smile again. It wasn't as big as before. It barely twitched her lip, and certainly did not meet her eyes.

"Nothing's wrong," Veronica said. "I'm glad you liked the trick."

*How long does it last?" I asked, though as soon as the words left my mouth Elva's purple glow began to fade.

"Aww," Elva said, looking at her hands. "Do it again!"

"Elva, honey," I scolded lightly. "We don't demand things from people."

"I'm tired now," Veronica said. "Maybe another time."

Elva tucked her chin down, disappointed. But she said, "Okay."

*Thank Veronica for the magic trick," I reminded Elva.

Elva kicked her feet on the ground. "Thank you..." she mumbled.

"You're welcome," Veronica said.

Elva lifted her folded bird again. She glanced at me, as if for permission.

"Go on," I said. "Have fun."

Nearby I saw the nanny coming up onto the deck. Elva saw her too, and ran toward her, holding up the folded bird. With Elva thoroughly distracted, I turned to Veronica, looking for an explanation. "What just happened?"

breath. "That magic trick' was actually an incantation I read about in this book." She motioned toward the merfolk book on the top of

'remove them'! That should be exciting, a great sign! If the book talked about how to remove the curse, then maybe we didn't need to wait for the oracle

Veronica looked anything but

I asked, because looking at Veronica, I was

to show the nature of Elva's curse and the magical power level needed to remove it.

one to make the curse, on her own daughter no less. I'd come to accept that Jane would never come around, not to help herself or anyone else. If left to

"Yes," Veronica said.

Is that good?" I was beginning to

said flatly. I supposed I appreciated her bluntness. She was never one for false hope. Although in this case, it pulled my heart out

intricate of the curses," Veronica said. "It will require the highest amount of magical

power? Veronica was the only one I knew who

you remove her curse?"

"No. Not by far." She sighed. "What I do is

up for myself crashed and burned all around me. It was my own fault. I should have known from Veronica's expressions that the diagnosis was not very

No, no," I said quickly. "This isn't on you at

"If I were stronger-*

into her line of vision so she could see my face and know that I'm earnest. "We wouldn't even know any of this if it weren't for

her head, clearly dissatisfied with herself. I couldn't talk. I knew exactly how it felt to not believe you were

oracle," Veronica said. "She's the only one with enough power to have

me when I had removed doubt from my heart. I wanted to arrive, to help Elva, but I still didn't know if I could fully trust her. The oracle was a stranger. This magic was foreign, even to Veronica. How could I

only just

my heart. I hoped she knew how much I appreciated her. I wasn't sure she would until Elva was completely

her some space. I looked out

onto the deck from the house. She explained in her roundabout child way that Veronica had

Nicholas said to the

pile of napkins in an attempt to replicate the

we stood side by

down,"

from our discussion, but I didn't think he had anything to