A scream broke through the woods and Lucy was scared. Very scared. Her body froze, her eyes grew alert. Her ears were tuned to her surroundings, and even that scared her; it seemed that even the slightest whisper would cause her to go mad with hysteria. Her skin had broken out in gooseflesh and everything had gone unusually cold. Any moment now. Any. Moment.

All of a sudden, the scenery grew distorted and a loud rushing sound filled her ears. The world was tipped upside-down, the way all the coins in a jar suddenly lose sense of gravity and fall in one direction, unsure of where they would land. Lucy finally collapsed in a heap and found she was covered in snow. Slowly she sat up, lost in confusion. All around her simply lay a blanket of snow, and some was still falling. Snowflakes landing in her hair, on her eyelashes, she stood up and turned around and saw a figure coming towards her. She tensed up at once and her heart almost stopped. Coming towards her was a woman of extreme height and presence, and wrapped around her was a great white, furry coat. In her hand was an ice-cold, sharp, pointy object that Lucy recognized immediately (and oh, the things she would do if that strange woman went any closer to her!). Beside the woman stood someone she recognized as well, but- it wasn't possible. It couldn't be. Not him. Not those intense brown eyes, those black curls, that pale skin, and the nose; yes, it was the nose that she recognized too. "NO!" Lucy screamed as the woman grabbed the boy by the hair, threw him to the ground and jabbed that sharp object into the boy's chest as he shouted in protest. There was a blinding flash of blue -

"Lucy! Lu! Wake up!"

She was being shaken violently, gripped by strong hands, but she still felt a kind of gentleness in them, and on hearing that voice, her eyes fluttered open. She saw those red drapes, the canopy of her four-poster bed, her wonderfully furnished room, a profile of her face hung up on the wall (painted by Mr Tumnus when he was alive), and her dressing-table. And although Lucy shouldn't have done so, on seeing those same brown eyes as she had done in her dream, staring down at her, it caused her to blush enormously and she sat up too quickly, causing a head rush. "Ow," she winced, clutching her forehead. Edmund seized her and gently held her, and wrapped one arm around her. His eyes read fear, and Lucy couldn't help feeling somewhat safe knowing that her brother was worried for her safety. She was covered in sweat, and the sheets had somehow gotten tangled around her legs.

"Ed, I'm so scared," she whimpered, leaning into his shoulder, and he held her closer, not minding the fact she was covered in sweat.

"It's okay, Lu, tell me what happened. It's okay, I know you've got a cold and all, but you'll get better all because of me in no time," he whispered, rubbing her shoulders. His breath was hot on her ear, and Lucy shivered, wondering if it wasn't just fear that was making her insides feel like jelly. She closed her eyes and tried to look past all the confusion she was feeling.

Come on, Lucy, he's your brother! It's not right! Why do you feel like this? I started feeling like this ever since the day I saw him as a reformed person. It made me feel proud; I was able to save someone's life, not just physically but emotionally as well. Ever since, I've always looked up to him when Peter's not around and I can't help it, I know what my feelings are for him, and yet these are the same feelings that will damn me to Hell. I can't even call him my brother any more. I just don't know how long I'm going to keep hiding my feelings for, and that is what scares me the most…

Lucy reopened her eyes and sat as still as a statue, trying to drink in his presence; every second was to be savoured with great consideration, as Aslan had once told her after she had become crowned Queen Lucy the Valiant. She gulped and tried not to picture his face; it was taunting her, the way a snake might hypnotise a mouse before it reveals those sharp, death-polished fangs and leave the mouse quivering in pain and fear. But somehow in her mind, she knew it was wrong to think of him as more than just her brother. It ripped at her insides, screaming to be released, for Lucy felt that if she kept it hidden for much longer, she would eventually explode from all the pain it was causing her.

"I had a nightmare," Lucy began, not sure of what to say next. And the next second, she wished she hadn't said anything at all, because at the sound of her voice Edmund had her head lowered down onto the pillow, and she was staring up at him, having forgotten what she was going to say next. Lucy was silent for a second or two, but then she exhaled loudly and continued.

"It was an awfully horrid dream. Perfectly beastly. The kind of dream you can really only have after a whole day of being stuck in this castle with absolutely nothing to do. I was stuck in a wood, somewhere, I can't be too sure if it was the woods just outside the borders of this castle or maybe somewhere in… Albania, oh, I was just so confused. And then- and then everything just disappeared and I found myself in the snow, and this strange woman came up to me with a really pointy object in her hand, and then there beside her was- was…" Lucy was beginning to get a bit carried away, and before she knew it, she was hysterical. "And then there was you! Oh Edmund, I was so terrified, I thought she was really going to kill you…"

She was in floods of tears, unable to control her tears, no matter how hard she tried to stop shaking or how hard she rubbed at her eyes. Edmund simply sat there, torn between confusion and fear. He knew who she was talking about. And when she mentioned that object in her hand…his heart froze.

"Lu-Lucy. Calm down, Lu," he whispered, rubbing his hands against her shoulders in an effort to stop himself from suddenly flipping out. It calmed him down for a bit, knowing his sister was nearby, but she was bawling her eyes out, which didn't exactly help after all. He needed to find Peter. What if she just had some kind of vision? But then again, that woman could not come back to life. It was impossible; Peter told him Aslan had eaten her after the Battle when they first came to Narnia. But … she had been a witch. Witches could do all sorts of things, like make rabbits appear out of top hats, or vanish objects into thin air, or carry around wands which could literally freeze people to death…

Edmund got up abruptly and walked no more than two steps towards the door. Lucy stopped crying and looked up with watery eyes. She became terrified and a little embarrassed when she saw that he had merely locked the door. They were alone in her bedroom. Alone.