As their lips twined together, the memories Cassandra held of her past life travelled through the bond and entered Siroos’s consciousness, flooding his brain like a water-filled channel. He already knew they were lovers in the past and now he was acquiring those precious memories.
Siroos gasped into Cassandra’s mouth as the snippets of their lovemaking sessions in the meadows surfaced. Laying on the grassy fields amidst the flowering bushes Siroos had slowly and sensually invaded her soft wetness.
The memory was so vivid that he felt he was living it right at that moment. His hands slowly slid up and down Cassandra’s bare back as he glided his full lips over her soft ones, sponging more of those cherishable memories she held.
His movements slow, deliberate and tantalising, stirring so many emotions and feelings inside her, the ones which were missing when Kanyon touched her. She wanted his hands to roam every tiny bit of her skin, especially the one Kanyon had marked.
And then he suddenly hit a barrier, as if there was a memory she was trying to block from him.
He unwantedly let her go, it took Siroos a while to calm down and lift his head to stare back at his mate.
So many unsaid words lingered between them. They had parted on not such amiable terms and now so much needed to be said, so much needed to be asked.
His rough hands landed on both sides of her face as he finally spoke.
"I have wronged you so much...," Cassandra simply shook her head, and her pointer finger landed on his lips, making him pause.
She leaned in and murmured against his lips; the intensity of her words brought this much-needed relief to his spirits.
"None of this is your fault, Siro. The truth has been revealed to me. It was my father’s curse which made you like this, which hardened the hearts of the others against me, which left me suffering. Not anymore, now I know the truth of who I am and what I need to do to get my destiny back in my hands."
Siroos was left stunned.
"How did you receive your memories, Malakti? I know there is a memory you are trying to hide from me. Is it something your father did?" Siroos dejectedly asked, the ample pain in his voice was enough to make her heart ache. She didn’t want to reveal the painful memory she had stored away in her brain, away from his reach, barricading it.
"Not only my memories, I have my powers too. Powers of Asara, I am her..." Siroos finally smiled at her revelation; the hardened, stony edges of his face melted into something beautiful.
"I know, Malakti. I know how special you are. You are my goddess, the one who has been missing for 500 years and I am your lover, the one who was taken away from you."
Their foreheads rested against each other, hearts fluttered, and the bond coaxed and gladly sang in their chests.
"I am yours," she answered heavily, emotions smothered her, the relief of being in his arms was indescribable.
"I am sorry, he hurt you. I thought I could handle seeing your bruised body but I can’t," Siroos confessed in a heady voice filled with his regrets.
Cassandra leaned back from him so she could glance at his face. Placing her hand on his which rested on her cheek, she slowly guided it down towards her neck. His fingers now rested on her wounds.
"It’s only you who can see me like that. Only you can heal me. Your touch does wonders..."
Cassandra guided his hand further down towards her bruised breasts as she resumed speaking in a shaky voice.
"You know it was your thoughts that kept me sane on most days—I didn’t cry because I didn’t want to give him satisfaction," she said brokenly, pausing to not choke.
Siroos’s breathing became heavy as he felt her tender skin under his fingertips, hot, burning and wounded.
"You are my strength and I only realised that when I was taken away from you....Never again though," she concluded.
The tears escaped her desperate eyes and Siroos quickly wiped them with his other hand.
Her tears hurt him in ways he couldn’t even explain to her.
The tears he never wished would leak from her eyes.
"And you are mine. My world had become bland without you, Malakti. You brought the colours back to it."
Siroos placed his hand on her back and gently laid her down. Picking up the jar of balm, Siroos scooped some out and began to spread it onto the wounds of her neck, taking extra care to not pain her by any means.
Cassandra lay quietly, watching him with a broken smile. There were so many questions in Siroos’s mind but he didn’t even know how to ask her.
She was so brave; whenever his hand shook, and he thought he wouldn’t be able to continue, she would guide him, taking his hand in hers.
She guided him along her bruised breasts, her pebbled tops had patches of brown and black sticking to them because of how hard Kanyon had pinched and bitten them.
The texture was coarse and Siroos had to be extra gentle.
"He discoloured my skin but I didn’t let him break me. He battered my body but I saved my soul only for you...If you will have me because I am tainted by his touch," she quietly told him, observing how he was still battling tears.
He stiffened at her words, that’s not what he wished to hear from her.
There was not even a hint of disgust in his sun-kissed eyes, the ochre in it seemed to have been blended with vermilion. They wavered to hers as he spoke firmly with hints of tenderness reserved only for his mate.
"Your body and soul, both are mine. What he did showed his weakness and your resilience. Your scars–your bruises are the embodiment of how strong you are. And I will love you even more, I will consume your soul with my love, I will rewrite every bruised part of you with my love."
The trust flashed in her watery eyes as she stifled the overwhelming cries. She was afraid that he might find her undesirable after but his words and gestures showed her otherwise.
His hands dipped to her legs and he slowly parted them, placing his hand between her thighs.
The most difficult question rested on the tip of his tongue and surfaced in his gloomy eyes as if the sun had set in them leaving the darkness.
Cassandra knew what roamed in his brain and he couldn’t bring himself to ask her that. So she took the initiative to say it.
"He didn’t," she quietly said, her hand reaching out and covering his tanned one as she guided him to the violet blemish on the inner thigh of her leg.