A soft growl echoed out of the darkness. “I think the better question,” something said behind me, “would be who. Also, what the hell?”

Spinning around, I came face-to-face with a dragon. With...myself.

* * *

The human gaped at me, green eyes widening. She looked like a startled deer in headlights, dazed and frightened. Like prey. I saw my own reflection in her eyes, my wings partially open, my neck raised to gaze down at her. It was a strange sensation; I’d only seen myself, my true self, maybe once or twice. The human face I saw much more often, gazing back at me from mirrors and shiny surfaces, the girl who had become the real me.

“What...the hell?” she stammered, taking a step back. “What is this? What’s going on?”

I snorted. I had been awake for only a little while, and even now, I felt groggy and disoriented. Every time they stuck me with one of those damned needles, I blacked out and didn’t know anything for a time. “I have no idea,” I told the girl—me, I supposed. Other me. The one who cried and loved and followed emotion rather than instinct. The one who insisted we love a human, instead of our Sallith’tahn. I curled a lip at her. “I’ve been asleep. You’re the one who has been awake through all of this. You tell me.”

Other me shook her head. “This has to be a nightmare,” she muttered, putting a hand to her face. “It can’t really be happening. I can’t be standing here, having a conversation with myself.”

“Why not?”

“Because...it’s impossible!” She ran the palm down her face, her eyes a little glassy. “I’m dreaming,” she muttered again. “That’s all. You’re a nightmare, a figment of my imagination. I just have to wake up.”

I growled, the sound vibrating through the void around us. “From where I’m standing, you’re the hallucination,” I told her through bared teeth, and she flinched back. “I’ve always been here. From the beginning. You’re the human part that won’t accept who we are.” She shook her head, denying it, and my anger flared. “If anything, I’m the real one. And maybe if I get rid of you, everything will be as it should.”

* * *

I backed away as the dragon stalked forward, eyes blazing against the void. Okay, maybe this wasn’t a hallucination. And even if it was, being attacked and torn apart by my dragon, quite literally myself, would probably screw up my head pretty bad.

“Stop it,” I told her, forcing myself to stand my ground. “This is crazy. We can’t fight each other.”