She was being followed. She knew it -she could feel it. It was him again. It always was.
He lurked in the shadows and bright lights of her vision, more than a ghost, but not quite human.
"Leave me alone!"
She spun wildly, shooting flames that could not find their target into the fog around her.
"Fight me!"
All her games had ended, she assured herself. Clever words sharper than blades wouldn't take him down even if she had been able to conjure them. But he was there, hiding, the coward, but there. It was time for him to meet his end.
The soporific fog seemed to slow her body from the inside out as if it were invading her with every breath, heavy in her chest, compressing her heart and lungs. It took her mind as well.
Only one coherent thought shone through the haze and she clung to it with all she could. The only thing she could ever be sure of, not love, not friendship, not any other person, was that he was the enemy and always had been and he was going to take away everything she had ever worked for.
He was the crying child taking her mother's embrace, the elder heir taking her throne, the shining hope taking her uncle's affection, the dramatic traitor taking her father's attention. The disgusting incubus taking Mai's loyalty. He was to blame for all her suffering.
His demonic, pale gold eyes replicated Father's even through his disfigurement. It was funny almost, in a cruel kind of way, that that horrible girl she'd called a friend had always told her that she had beautiful eyes when they were truthfully dull, plain, almost bronze compared to his. After all, what did it matter if she hadn't the best? A million could be almost.
The blue flames betrayed her as well as they finally licked his skin, but did not burn, did not ignite him. His smirk pulled a whining shriek from her that cut her throat.
"Fall!"
The lightning bounced off of him, exploding in the distance. He kept moving towards her, menacing and cold as if his very presence were snuffing out her inner fire. She shot again, stumbling backwards as she did.
"Why won't you fall?"
A course of adrenaline swooped through her stomach and settled in her heaving chest. She rose slowly, lifting her head from the sweat soaked pillow, and didn't bother to fix her tangled hair. She glared around the room; Whatever had caused the swish of motion she had seen from the corner of her eye would be revealed as she sparked a blue light in her hand.
"Show yourself. I know you're there."
No one responded. she let the flame die and lied back down, pulling the silk sheets over her throat.
The walls and curtains and shadows whispered, just like the servants. She couldn't banish the walls.
She tried to ignore the heaviness and ache of her eyelids. Gossiping shadows could not compare to the recurring antagonist of her subconscious.