Morning Star

Chapter 12: the stranger | Eva

However, despite coming across a restaurant that sold raw salmon, wrapped within layers of rice and what looked like seaweed - sushi, the Earthens called it - we were unable to purchase it, for we lacked the money. Instead, we settled for eating the last of the sandwiches a short distance outside the shop, mainly because Sarah wished to keep the salmon in her sight while she ate.

She's salivating. My angel sounded amused.

I nearly choked on my sandwich. How do you know that?

I can see her the same way you're seeing her.

In other words: he was watching the world through my eyes. My ears were his; my movements were his. Suddenly, I felt nervous. He couldn't control me, could he?

I doubt I have the energy to at this point. And even so, I would never.

I frowned. What do you mean, you don't have the energy?

I'm weaker than you think. It's...it's a long story.

I wanted to press him further, but Peter spoke. "Eva? Are you okay? You've got this really vacant look on your face."

I blinked, shaking myself out of my stupor, and somehow, I felt my angel's presence recede. Strangely, I felt almost empty without him there. "I'm fine. Just thinking about what we should do next."

"We'll be in deep trouble soon if we don't somehow get some Earthen money for food. We don't have any food left; we'll starve if we don't come up with a plan, fast," Sarah warned them, swallowing the last of her sandwich. "And no, I'm not going to be singing horribly while you guys steal food. I've embarrassed myself enough."

Since no one offered an idea, we decided to scour the area to learn as much as we could about where we were, and anything that could lead us to Kelvin. We discovered that we were in an Earthen city called London. Not surprisingly, Peter had heard of London before. However, when he checked the world map from within a library, his face fell. According to him, Queen Kameron lived in Japan.

And according to the map, the distance between London and Japan was huge. We had absolutely no way to find her, or ask for her assistance.

Apart from discovering where we were, we found that the weather in London was not going to get any warmer for a while, and that the place was also ruled by a monarchy - although the Queen of England was extremely old, and she and her family didn't seem to be nearly as easy on her subjects as Queen Kameron was. However, knowledge of Queen Elizabeth II wasn't going to help us find Kelvin.

We had no idea where to start. We knew nothing about Kelvin's kidnapper, as we hadn't been able to get a good look at his face, since it had been covered by a white mask. He'd been wearing a white coat too, but I didn't see how that could help us.

We passed multiple signs that all showed a grainy picture of the same fifteen year old brown eyed boy, who was wanted dead or alive, and upon delivering the boy back to his family, a reward would be given.

Perhaps we could do that for Kelvin, I thought, except no Earthen would recognise him. It would be useless.

There's always a chance, Evangeline, my angel replied. I had forgotten he could hear.

Please try to not listen to all my thoughts.

I am. You're the one that's thinking too strongly.

Don't turn this back on me. Did I choose to have you here?

He went silent, and I instantly felt bad, hoping that I didn't accidentally hurt the angel. He'd tried to be kind and helpful to me so far. I should treat him better.