The Luna Choosing Game by Jane Above Story

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.

"Magic," Veronica said when I asked her. I had no idea if she was serious or not.

line of blinding white stretch out across the

cresting above the waves, as the light painted

between them. I placed my hand on Elva's

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

close to my ear. "Not

Smooth talker.

him a soft smile. He returned it just as

we were unable to look at 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 us

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

her. "Let's make

could be fun," I told Elva, to encourage her. She

they went closer to the water to recover

decided me

to her. Veronica didn't seem troubled that Nicholas

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

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

does that mean?" I asked. "Do we need

said. "And perhaps

liked the unique way Veronica's mind seemed to work. But this time,

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 a considerable amount of life force to

"What are talking about? Like

And the more life force that

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

could only be

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

said at once, before Nicholas

the

didn't belong to the same