The Dark Beast's Love

The next day, Riven reminded me that the full moon was tonight.

The hair on my neck rose when he casually told me it while he walked past me, and I almost grabbed his hand to yell at him for being so insensitive. The full moon was tonight, and Riven was still alive and impossible to kill, which meant that I had failed the one opportunity I had been given, which meant that another one was going to die tonight.

I don't know if Theo has sensed the shift in the atmosphere today, or if it was only my knowledge that caused me to hallucinate, but everything seemed out of place. Riven skipped most of his chores today, to disappear into all types of places, which shouldn't even be possible since we are stuck with no way out. I noticed that the chickens weren't as active as they usually were and nor were the crops as many.

I was even the one who ended up making breakfast, lunch and dinner today, because Riven was nowhere to be seen and I didn't trust Theo to handle the kitchen just yet. It was nothing too extra, but I still made sure to leave a plate out for Riven in case he decided to show up, a mirrored gesture to all the times he'd left out food for me.

I was hoping to catch him somewhere on his path, to talk to him about how this worked and what we were supposed to do. The beast as far as I know has only killed, and that was a policy that applied to everyone in his way, everyone except for me. I wanted to ask him if Theo and I were safe if we remained out of his way. Or if we should expect this to eb our last night alive as well.

I couldn't get over the warning that Riven gave me last night.

Theo knew nothing about Riven's curse. By now I had told him about almost everything. About the magic that kept this place alive, the chickens that didn't age until there were others to take their places, about the crops that grew twice as fast as they would have in any other land and about the river that allowed fish to jump in but prevented them from getting out again. I told him about how this place kept us alive. And when I was done, I told him about my own life, about the town where I had grown up and the strange traditions my family had every year that was invented as a distraction to hunger during one of our toughest years. He told me nothing about his own, and every time the conversation seemed to head that way, his face paled and his eyes widened in something best described as panic, so I avoided the topic, if only to ease his pain a little.

With the possibility that this was our last day in mind, I allowed Theo to do almost anything he wanted, from climbing the high trees to sneak eating the cherry tomatoes behind my back when he thought I didn't notice and then freely running around the grass and just enjoy whatever life the mountains could offer. It was heartwarming to see that he had regained enough energy these past days to be a child again. He still avoided the river at all costs, but the rest of the place was his own paradise to the extent where his imagination turned everything into magic. I mainly watched as he ran around, staying close by to keep him company but rarely participating in the activities myself. A part of me wondered what I would be like to be a child again as I watched him swing from one branch to another. I was an active child myself and when we were younger, boys and girls played alike, which might have been the best years of my life. But my longing for childnessess was not enough for me to take the step, so I remained watching on the ground.

It wasn't until the world started getting noticeably darker that I finally ushered Theo inside, explaining that we would need to remain here tonight, and that he'd have to trust me. Inside, I did my best to keep him occupied, but the house was not designed for the younger. We told stories and ate fruit, but even those activities could not last a lifetime.

Riven's plate remained untouched on the table and I tried to ignore it, but Theo had other plans. "Where's Riven?" Theo asked, brow furrowed and face frowning. "He hasn't been around all day."

Despite how distant Riven was towards Theo, the boy had still taken a liking to him, and would sometimes run up to him to thank him for the meal on days when Riven remained outside while we ate. The first time, Riven had been so caught off guard that he forgot that he was supposed to hate the boy, so he'd smiled and said that it was no problem. The other times, he'd only muttered a distant response and then told Theo to run back to me. But Theo was left unfazed by Riven's attitude and continued sticking to his polite manners.

"I don't know," I replied, looking out the window where the dark had started to settle. "Don't you worry about him tonight, okay? Just stay with me."

Theo raised his brow but said nothing, he just returned to his wood carving and continued carving it until it looked like something suspiciously close to a rabbit, even if its nose was too misshapen and its ears were too big it was impressive for a boy his age.

"You're extremely talented at that!" I complimented as I examined his work closer. "Just remember to only use the edge when we want these thinner and deeper carvings, it'll give your rabbit more details and certainly make it more alive." Theo grinned at the compliment and did as I suggested, using the edge of the knife to carve whatever details he could remember from his past encounter with the small rabbits. The carving in my hand had the shape of a bird, a raven to be exact but my carving skills are not good enough for anyone to distinguish the animal's specific species so it was just easier to say that it was a bird of some kind.

That's when we heard a growl from outside the house, and the hair on my neck rose as my entire body froze. Outside the window, the full moon was lighting up the place like magic and whatever secret the dark held would be revealed tonight. The window itself was too narrow for any of us to see anything from where we sat, only when you came close to it did you have a full view over the place in front of the house.

Before I could stop him, Theo was out the door with his face pressed against the cold glass, his breath fogging up parts of the glass. I feared that he would let out a scream, revealing that whatever I suspected was on the other side of the glass was true, but when he didn't I finally moved. I heaved up from the floor and stood behind him, peering over his little head to see what he was looking at.

"It's Riven," Theo said when I'd just spotted his tall silhouette. "I thought you said we needed to stay inside today?"

I could not reply as I watched Riven suddenly bend over himself, one arm in the soft ground and the other around himself as he fell on his knees. Even from a distance, I could see the blood dripping from his side, and I clenched my jaw to stop myself from gasping when I realised how much it was.

"His hurt," There was clear distress in Theo's tone. "We have to help him!"

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And before I could grab his hand and stop him, Theo had managed to slide under me and dart for the door. I ran after him and screamed his name, but he let his heart carry his feet, not his logic, so I had no chance of catching up with his healthy boyish energy.

"Riven!" I heard Theo yell as he came closer to the bleeding boy. "Come inside, we can help you."

The growl that Riven responded with caused every cell in my body to scream in horror.

"Theo!" I tried again desperately, but the boy paid no mind to me, he only inched closer to Riven. "Riven?..."

The sound of snapping bone caused Theo to stumble back, and when the beast turned violently, its talons dug into the boy's chest, causing him to let out a high-pitched scream I knew I would never be able to forget.

By now, Riven was no longer himself but instead the beast that I laid my eyes upon a month ago. He'd grown a head taller, and the wound on his side was no longer there, but it was unmistakably Riven's body the beast had taken over, the traces of him revealing himself in the white fur that covered the body and the familiarity of the eyes that stared right at me.

I threw myself over Theo before the beast even got the chance to think about it and covered his entire body with mine. If what Riven had said was true, and I was the werewolf's mate and therefore it would not harm me, then it would leave me and Theo alone, since it would not be able to finish its job without hurting me in the process. It didn't take long for the wolf to realise it, so it howled in the night before running off to the mountains, using its strength and large size to climb the mountains and get over the edge.

When he disappeared out of sight, I looked back at Theo who was gasping underneath me, blood painting his clothes red as his hands desperately clung into whatever he could hold on to.

"Liliana," He managed to say my name between his rapid gasps. "It hurts."

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"I know," I said as I felt the tears well over my eyes. "I know. I'm sorry."

"It hurts, I want it to stop hurting," His pleas only broke my heart further.

"I can't.. I wish I..." Nothing seemed right to say. "You'll be okay, Theo. You'll find peace."

"I should have listened to my mother," The boy was now sobbing in my arms, his entire body trembling as a result. "She... She warned me. She told me not to go too close to the river. I should have listened. I should have listened. I should have listened. I want to go home."

By now he was just rambling with whatever strength he had left.

"I want to go home. I have to apologise to her. I have to apologise to my brothers," Theo's breaths were becoming more and more shallow. "I just wanted to prove to them that I was as tough as them. That I was better. I have to..." He stopped mid-sentence.

"Don't bury me in the river, Liliana," He whispered. "I don't want to drown forever."

"I won't," I promised and placed a kiss on his head. "I won't."

"Tell them I'm sorry. Tell them I'm..."

And with that, Theo was dead.