시작의 새벽/Dawn of Beginning

Chapter Thirty-Three

One of his hands moved to her cheeks while the other rested around her waist. Both of her arms had slipped around his neck as their kiss became more passionate. Sirena had felt Cullen pull away from her almost like he was trying to stay in control. Her eyes slowly opened as she looked into his eyes in a daze. Did he want her as much as she wanted him? Both of their breathing was uneven but slowly calming down.

"We should head back to the others." The outlander nodded her head halfheartedly, not really wanting to move. She felt his hands slip away from her waist, feeling a chill where his hands once were. As he stood up straight, her arms fell to her sides. Looking up a bit, she noticed Cullen had offered one of his arms to her which ended up making her smile. Her hand slipped into the crook of his arm, then they headed back inside of the palace. The warmth of the building had enveloped her which made her feel better than being in the chilly night.

Silently, the American walked beside Cullen till they had reached the entrance of the Winter Palace where she saw a fairly big group of people. Two of them were new from the looks of it. As she approached everyone, Sirena saw her friend Chiara which made her smile. Her eyes darted to look at the other new comer only to recognize the person as none other than Morrigan. Of course, she knew the purpose of having the witch around which was why the young woman kept her mouth shut. Sirena removed her hand from the Commander's arm to move beside her friend who was in the same predicament as her.

They all left the palace into the chilly air. Walking down some flight of stairs, everyone had made it to what she would call a driveway. It was one of those fancy round-about ones which made it easier to leave a property. In a group of four, each piled into a carriage. There were only three people left that had to sit together. The American sighed as she noticed that she was going to be in the same one as Morrigan. With some disappointment, Sirena climbed into the medieval vehicle with her friend behind her. Once she was settled in, her head rested back.

"Rumor has it a certain girl is with the Commander." Morrigan's dark eyes immediately landed on the woman in pink.

"Rumor has it, you like to get into people's business." Her retort caused Chiara to look at her in shock.

"Does he know?" What kind of question was that? Since the witch knew about her, she assumed it was about her origins.

"Know about what?" Morrigan rolled her eyes at the girl while Chiara looked a bit baffled with what was going on.

"Does he know you're not from Thedas at all but from a far future? A different world?" Though, it may have been obvious, it was better to hear it out loud. Of course, she'd be found annoyed in the process.

"Why would he need to know?" The other American was very curious at this point; the only reason she told people was because she wanted help but it turned out others had used her instead because of her trusting nature.

"To simply put it, your friend is seeing the Commander." Chiara looked at Sirena with her eyes widen in surprise.

"You're dating Cullen Rutherford?" The twenty-three-year-old nodded her head remaining silent. "What!? That is honestly astonishing especially since you're not from here. Does he even know?" There was that question again. Maybe they want to help her? Or maybe one of them wants to plan for her demise. There was only one way to find out.

"No, he doesn't know, not yet at least. I plan on telling him, I just don't know when. The timing is just never right even though he's been so forth coming to me." Sirena did feel bad that she was only telling part of her truth. Maybe there would never be a good time to have the conversation with him and perhaps it needed to happen anyway despite of how she felt.

"With big news like ours there is no way to tell it. It's just better to get it out of the way. Besides, you can't keep it from forever Sirena; he has the right to know." The outlander couldn't agree more. Cullen really did have the right to know and they have been seeing each other for a while. With a sigh, she leaned forward while resting her arms on her lap. In a way, she was scared to tell him. The less people who knew about where she came from was always better.