{AURORA'S POV}
I never expected to run into him like this. Yet there he was, standing right in front of me, his soft voice cutting through the morning stillness.
"Hey."
Just looking at his his face brought back all the negative emotions brewing inside me. I immediately turned to walk away.
"Wait." His fingers wrapped gently but firmly around my wrist. I froze, a spark of anger flaring, but then he added, softer this time. "There's something I want to tell you."
I stopped, my heart thudding hard against my ribs. My eyes met his, and I could see the gentle insistence there, the plea. But the anger took over.
"I don't want to hear anything you have to say," I spat.
"Please. Just… hear me out," he begged, the desperation in his voice pulling at something I didn't want to admit was stirring inside me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and, after a tense moment, said harshly, "Fine. What is it?"
He looked around, his gaze flicking over the clearing. "Can we go somewhere less… open?" he asked.
"Sure. Whatever." I shrugged, letting him lead me to a tree at the edge of the sanctuary, beside a small, shimmering lake.
We walked in silence. My hands curled into fists at my sides. The world felt distant, as if nothing existed beyond the lake and the slight breeze brushing across the water. He settled against the tree, patting the ground next to him.
"Sit."
I hesitated, the instinct to turn away screaming at me, but some part of me that had been tense and restless all night, finally made me give in.
We sat there, silence stretching between us, the lake's gentle lapping was the only sound. I kept sneaking glances at him and he was always looking at me with this annoyingly soft smile on his face.
"Stop looking at me like that," I said.
"Like what?"
"Like that." I waved a hand vaguely across his face.
He laughed softly.
"What's funny? If you don't have anything important to say, I'll be on my way," I said with a harsh tone.
When he didn't say anything, I scoffed and moved to get up but his hand held mine again.
"Just sit, okay?"
I sighed and sat down next to him once again, my patience starting to wear thin.
He picked up a small pebble and tossed into the water, watching it skip once before sinking.
"I was born in a village called Oldwood," he began, his voice soft, almost brittle. "My father… he was human, and he loved my mother more than anything. Even after he found out she was a witch, it didn't change how he felt about her. He never stopped loving her."
He looked me in the eyes and continued. "They married, and then came me and my twin brother."
"You have a twin brother?" I asked.
Yes," he chuckled softly. "Aaric… we were literally inseparable from the moment we were born. If Aaric went missing, look for me and you'll find him. Look for Aaric and you'll find me." He said, with a soft smile on his face.
"We always knew what the other was feeling. If I was sad, Aaric was sad too. If Aaric was angry at someone, I'd get mad at that person too. We were like two halves of a whole."
He tossed another pebble. It skipped, danced across the water, and sank. "One day, when we were thirteen, Aaric got into a fight with some boys from the village. They beat him badly and that's when his magic awakened. Some of the boys… didn't survive."
I could feel my chest tighten. My hands curled in my lap.
"The villagers turned on us. They called the witch hunters. But while they waited, they took it upon themselves to chain us, strip us naked and parade us through the streets for everyone to see."
His voice trembled now. "Our neighbors… friends… people we trusted… people I shared dinners with…they threw rotten food at us. Spat on us. They even bathed us with buckets filled with their shit and piss. We were humiliated."
I shivered as though I could feel it.
"And then the witch hunters came and they took Aaric." Riven's eyes closed, tears finally spilling down his cheeks. "He begged for his life. He reached for me but I couldn't reach him… the chains wouldn't let me."
Riven paused to take a deep breath.
"They stoned him. He cried out in pain, he begged and begged them to stop. But they just laughed. They kept stoning him until his cries fell silent. Until life drained from his eyes. At that point, I could barely even recognize him. My brother… my other half… gone in a heartbeat."
My breath caught in my throat. "Gods…"
Riven's hands shook as he clenched them in his lap. His amber eyes were rimmed red, glistening with tears.
"They didn't know my mother's a witch. She fought back but she was outnumbered. My father sacrificed himself, held them off so we could have a chance to escape."
Riven's body shook with grief as he finally let go. He cried, letting out raw and ragged sobs.
The first tear slipped down my cheek before I could stop it. My heart ached for him. My hand hovered in the air, my head torn between keeping my distance and reaching for him. In the end, my heart won and I pulled him into my arms.
His body trembled against mine.
"It's okay," I whispered, my voice shaking. "It's okay."
He pulled back slightly, looking me in the eyes, pain etched into his features.
"I'm not like the rest of them, Aurora. I will never be. I know my hands are stained with witchblood and that kills me, every single day. But I put my life on the line to warn Morganna of the Commander's plans. I risk my life for your people in every waking moment. Witchfolk will always be the side I choose. Witchfolk will always be the side I fight for and there's nothing anyone can say or do to change that."
My anger softened, though the memory of yesterday still lingered.
"I… I'm sorry," I said. "I'm sorry for everything I said yesterday."
He smiled faintly, a shadow of relief crossing his face. "It's fine. I just wanted you to know who I really am. And for you to decide for yourself whether to go on hating me."
"I don't," I admitted quietly. "I don't hate you."
The words left my lips without hesitation but I meant it.
I didn't hate him. Not anymore.
He gave me a faint, almost shy smile, and we fell into a long silence. The wind rustled through the leaves, water lapped gently against the lake's edge, and for the first time since the chaos, I felt a fragment of peace.
We sat like that, side by side, in the quiet aftermath, letting the lake absorb everything we couldn't yet say.
And for now, that was enough.