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.

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

of the sun cresting above the waves, as the light painted

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

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

close to my ear. "Not as beautiful as you,"

Smooth talker.

smile. He returned it just as

soon, we were unable to look at the sunrise any longer, not wanting to damage our eyes. By now, some of

made for her. We'd thought of dismantling

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

decided me rather quickly when Veronica added, "I want to

closer to her. Veronica didn't

that she had made extreme progress on the book since the last time we'd talked about it.

should have been good news, but her dire expression kept me from expressing

I asked. "Do

said. "And perhaps

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

of this, or keep it from you." He inhaled deeply. "The curse itself is tied and

asked. "What are talking about? Like years off

likely, yes," she said. "Or health, near the end. Or quality of life. And the more life force

he could get in line. Elva was my daughter. If anyone had to sacrifice anything to save

only be me,

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

at once,

the least I can do for my

didn't belong to the same