Dragon me stopped, but didn’t look convinced. “We’ve been fighting each other for a long time, didn’t you know that?” she hissed. When I gave her a puzzled look, she actually sneered. “Don’t act dumb. You know what I’m talking about. Ever since you met that boy, that human, all you’ve been doing is fighting me. We’re not human, and he won’t be around forever. Cobalt is your life-mate, our Sallith’tahn. Why do you keep denying who we are?”

“I love Garret,” I told her firmly, realizing what this was about. “And I don’t want my choices to be defined by instinct. You keep pushing me at Cobalt, but it’s not going to change what I feel for Garret. I can’t choose who I love, anymore than I can choose the Sallith’tahn.” She watched me with blank dragon eyes, and I gave a bitter smile. “But I don’t know why I’m telling you this—love is a human thing. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

Dragon me snorted again, sounding indignant. “What the hell gave you that idea?” she demanded.

* * *

The girl glanced at me sharply, a look of confusion crossing her face. “What are you talking about?”

With a gusty sigh, I sat down, folding my wings to my back as the flames within flickered and died. I supposed it was time to stop denying it. “Cobalt is our Sallith’tahn,” I told her simply. “I don’t have to do any pushing. You feel the pull toward him just as much as I do.” I paused, waiting for her to deny it, knowing she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. “So why do you think I feel any different toward the human?”

She stared at me, an expression of shock crossing her face as she realized. “You love Garret, too,” she finally whispered.

I didn’t answer, feeling the truth burn its way into my heart as surely as the hottest flame. Yes, I did. I loved the soldier, the dragonslayer, the human, with a fierceness I’d never experienced before. Emotion wasn’t just for my other half, I could admit that now. But still, it was Cobalt who called to me, who brought the flames within to life, who made me feel like a dragon. Who understood flying and hoarding and breathing fire, things that only a dragon got. Without him, I sometimes felt that I—this side of me, anyway—would shrivel up and disappear, leaving only the human half behind.

After a long silence that throbbed like a heartbeat through the empty void, human Ember threw up her hands. “So...why are we fighting each other?” she asked despairingly. “If we both feel the same, why is this happening?”

I closed my eyes, feeling we were both rushing toward a final, inevitable conclusion. “I think,” I said slowly, “you just answered your own question.”

* * *