With a growl, Riley shoved his gun into the man’s forehead, his eyes dangerous. “Keep talking,” he snarled as all color drained from the human’s face. “Give me a reason to blow your brain through the back of your skull.”
The scientist froze. From the corner of my eye, I saw Mist direct her two clones to guard the doors before motioning the remaining scientists against the wall. The men obeyed, holding up their hands. They didn’t look like they would try to stop us, which was good, as my entire focus was getting Ember out of here.
The last of the straps were removed, and I gathered her in my arms, lifting her shoulders off the mattress. “Ember,” I murmured, and pressed a palm to her cheek. It was cold, ashen, and my heart gave a violent lurch. I felt for a pulse, nearly collapsing with relief as I felt the faint flutter of life beneath my fingers. Whatever had happened to her, whatever horrible things they had put her through, at least she was alive. “Hey,” I tried again, shaking her gently, desperate for her to open her eyes. “Ember, wake up. Can you hear me?”
There was no answer. The girl remained limp and unresponsive in my arms, and my desperation grew. “Ember...”
Against the wall, the lead scientist shook his head. “She can’t hear you,” he said, making Riley turn on him with a growl. “I doubt she can hear anything now, and don’t snarl at me, dragon. I’m not the one responsible for this.” He glared at Riley and myself, his thin face taut with anger. “You fools don’t know what you have done,” he snapped. “This was a delicate procedure, and you’ve gone and blundered into it without knowing what was at stake. You can’t just yank the plug without risking permanent damage to the subject’s mind.”
“What were you doing to her?” Riley asked in a hard, dangerous voice.
“I don’t think I can tell you that.”
“No?” Riley pressed the muzzle of the gun harder to the man’s forehead, his eyes glowing yellow in the brightly lit room. “Then I guess we don’t need you, do we?”
“All right, all right!” The scientist held up his hands. “I’ll tell you, for all the good it will do now.” He leaned back from the gun and ran a hand over his face, seemingly unaware that the rogue was fighting hard not to Shift and tear him into tiny pieces. The Dractylpromazine was starting to wear off, because the flicker of a dark blue dragon suddenly overlapped with Riley for the barest of seconds, gold eyes blazing in fury as they glared at the scientist. Who, dangerously for him, didn’t notice.
“Ms. Hill was...is...the Elder Wyrm’s vessel,” the human went on. “That is why she is so important to the organization. As one who shares her blood and DNA, she was genetically engineered to house the memories and consciousness of Talon’s CEO.”
“Wait, what?” Riley gaped at the scientist. “Shares her blood? Are you telling me that Ember is—”
“The daughter of the Elder Wyrm, yes.” The scientist nodded and glanced at Ember, not seeing Riley’s pale face, the shock filling his eyes. “She and her brother are the heirs to Talon, though it was always the Elder Wyrm’s intention to raise a daughter for the sole purpose of extending her own life. We were extracting Ms. Hill’s memories so that the Elder Wyrm’s presence could take over her mind without opposition.” He frowned then, shaking his head, and glared back at the rogue. “Of course, now that you and your friends have quite literally pulled the plug on this fragile operation, there is no telling what state of mind she will be in when she revives. If she wakes up at all.”
Horror flooded me. I looked down at Ember’s body, willing her to wake up, to open her eyes. She lay like a doll in my arms, her head lolled back and her hands limp at her sides. With shaking arms, I gathered her close, pressing my forehead to hers, praying my thoughts would reach her.
Wake up, Ember, I thought, fighting the despair clawing at my insides. You’re too strong to let this beat you. Come back to me, dragon girl.
Ember didn’t respond.
EMBER
I raised my head, and found myself alone. The beach was gone. The ocean was gone. I was in the middle of a black void, darkness surrounding me like a vacuum. It wasn’t nighttime; there were no shadows clinging to the ground or hanging in the air. There was no ground. No sky. Just...blackness.
“Where am I?” I whispered.
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.