Skin Of Pure Ice

chapter twenty three

I am awoken in the middle of the night by a bang in the kitchen. I can tell it only woke me up because Draco would've been up before the sound even occurred. Draco is always a light sleeper and I know he could've sensed I was up right now. I find it strange that he isn't awake. I try to twist and turn to wake him up but he won't budge.

"Draco," I whisper to him. "Draco, wake up." He isn't.

With the biggest feeling of hesitation and shaking fingers my hand reaches for his pulse but nothing. I can't feel his heart or his body heat against mine rising up and down. He's cold as ice. I'm trembling and my pulse is racing. I don't know what to do.

I blink and I'm in a dark place. It's familiar, too familiar. I run my hand against the floor and it's freezing stone. The ground is uneven, there's barely any light. "Hello!" I call out and it echos. For miles and miles.

There is someone in the distance and I squint my eyes to try and make out who it is but nothing is coming to view. "Draco! Please tell me that's you." No response. "Draco?"

"Worse..." The slithering voice grew closer. "Way, way worse. Your worst and antagonizing nightmare."

"Voldemort." My voice is barely a whisper and when the creature comes into view, the gray skin and red eyes that can drive into your soul, my breath comes to a halt.

"I know everything, Wood." He starts and the chill runs up my back and the bile stings my mouth. "I know about your friends plans," The image of them comes into view. "I know about your mother, your safe house, what really happened between you and Malfoy," I don't say a word. I'm in paralyzing fear. "I know about your worst fear."

"No, you don't. This isn't real. It's not happening." My brain cannot wrap around this dream. "You aren't real. You're just in my head."

"This is your only warning to you and only you, Roslyn Wood." He hisses my name. "Go back to the manor, return all your friends, and either you or Draco will get killed." I would always let it be me. "Fail to do so, and it will be everyone but you. There is always a feeling worse than death, isn't there?"

"Guilt." I say.

I wake with a gasp and Draco next to me holding the back of my head. The look on his face says it all. His eyes glanced from one aspect of my face to another. "Ross, what happened?" I feel the sweat on my face dripping and my throat closing in.

"He knows."

* * *

"What do you mean, he knows?" Theodore is pacing in my eye line. "What does he know?"

I don't know what's going on. Everything is still fuzzy. What I do know is that it is three o' clock in the morning and everyone in the house, but my mother, is up. My breath is shallow. I don't know what to think. How does he know? How could he truly know our plan?

"He knows we are plotting against him." I speak softly. "He knows about our plan."

"How do you know this wasn't just a dream, Roslyn, a nightmare and nothing more?" Narcissa's voice floods into my head. Theodore is still pacing and it's driving me crazy. Blaise is sitting on the couch across from me, his leg bouncing up and down and his eyes are on the carpet. Astoria is standing with her arms crossed next to Blaise. And Draco... Draco is beside me, his body hovering over my back with his hands on my sides.

"I could feel him. I could feel his dark magic." I try to search for the words but I can't. "I can't explain it. He was talking to me as if he was here."

"Legilimens." I hear Draco murmur next to me. "He's the most powerful wizard of all time. There should be no doubt it's him."

"What did he say to you, Ross? You said that he was talking to you?" Questions Astoria.