Page 93 of Black Mamba

“I think it’s my sister,” I whisper, the words barely leaving my mouth. Excitement and hope—painful hope—swells in my chest, making it hard to breathe.

Lukys stares at me, his eyes narrowing. He glances in the direction of the noise. “Then come with me and stay close.”

As we leave the river behind, and with my clothes still moist from the crossing, I’m buzzing with excitement. It can’t be… can it?

“If she’s here, they got my broadcast. They got the coordinates.”

Lukys is silent as we climb the final ledges and his tail assists me up the steep slope. The last part is the hardest, with it being entirely uphill after the river.

When I see my ship through the trees, it’s not long before I spot the larger ship past it.

“It is Mateo’s ship!” I shout, my heart nearly bursting out of my chest. “She’s here! I can’t believe she’s really here,” I gasp, pausing to catch my breath. My eyes trail over the gleaming silver curve that’s the top of Mateo’s ship.

“It might not be safe,” Lukys warns with a hiss. “There could be guns.”

“There’s no guns.” I take his hand and pull him after me. “Come. I’ll show you.”

I want to see my sister.

She’s here.

She found me. Me.

More than anything, I want to wrap my arms around her and relish the fact that she’s here and alive.

I sense Lukys’s tension as we round the front of my ship and walk to the other side. I try peering into the window but only see my reflection.

I look past it to Mateo’s vessel. Instead of a meadow spread with flowery bushes, Mateo’s sleek silver spaceship encompasses it in the shape of a large arrowhead. I can’t see Greg and Levy’s ship or to the hills beyond. The ship completely covers the firepit.

Releasing Lukys’s hand, I jog to the closed hatch. Mateo’s vessel is pointed in the same direction as mine, with its front at the edge of the trees leading to Lukys’s mountain.

“Jenna! Jenna! Open up! I’m here.”

Lukys hisses and points.

The hatch to my ship is open.

Lukys joins me as I quickly walk to it and lean in. “Jenna? Jenna!”

There’s a momentary silence.

“Elena!?” Jenna screams.

I hear her footsteps as I glance at Lukys then dash inside my ship, colliding with Jenna at the turn. “Jenna!”

She cries out my name. “Elena! I finally found you! When we first got here, I was so excited seeing our parents’ ship but then when we tried to reach out, you weren’t answering. We came to search but couldn’t find you anywhere,” Jenna blurts. “Oh my God.”

I tighten my grasp on her, succumbing to the comfort holding her brings me. “I tried looking for you, that’s where I was, where I’m returning from. I sent out a broadcast⁠—”

“We got it! We’ve been listening to the radio feeds⁠—”

“Me too!” I pull back to look at her, cupping her face with my hands. Her dark hair, longer than mine by several inches, frames a tight, pale complexion and warm, dark brown eyes. Being the same height, the same size, and similar in appearance—even if I got the short straw—it’s always been clear we’re related. Seeing her now, the strain and emotion in her gaze as her own eyes brim with tears, I see myself.

“Holy crap! What is that!” Mateo shouts from behind Jenna. I glance back at Lukys at the same moment my sister sees him. She jerks out of my embrace and backs up against the wall, her expression morphing into fear. Mateo grabs her arm and yanks her to him. “Watch out!” He gazes at me like I’m about to be eaten. “It’s one of those nagas!”

“It issss.” Lukys looks at me sourly before looking at Mateo and Jenna.

I face them, shaking my head. “There’s nothing for you to be afraid of. Lukys isn’t going to hurt you.”