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Cullen knew had he made a mistake before he released the piece. Evelyn glanced at him in suspicion, and Cullen tried not to blush. It was the second mistake of such entity that morning.
Thankfully, Evelyn looked back to the board, her chin still planted firmly atop her palm. Cullen pretended to check on Dog, who was happily chasing a butterfly in the grass. Trying to appear busy, he fished a treat from his pouch and called Dog, and Dog left his endeavors and flung himself to him.
Evelyn was right, he was a rather large dog, Cullen conceded, while Dog licked his hand clean with his tongue. At the other end of the table, Evelyn looked tense, but she remained concentrated on the board. Weeks earlier, when Cullen had just introduced them to one another, whenever Dog got in her vicinity, Evelyn would watch his every move.
Cullen hoped in time Dog would no longer make Evelyn frightened. He was sure after enough time spent together the two would become friends.
Not that he presumed- Or knew if-
As it tended to happen, Cullen’s attempt to distract himself had backfired,and he once again had to keep himself from fidgeting as Dog ran back to the garden.
He turned back to Evelyn, sticking his restless hands in his pockets. She was squinting at the Tower Cullen had left tragically undefended in the middle of the board, hesitating, however, to finally capture it.
It had been years since he had made a blunder this bad. Though it seemed Evelyn believed it to be nothing but a setup.
Cullen had given her good reason to suspect that, if he had to be entirely honest. Ever since their earlier games, he hadn’t refrained from using any underhand tactic he could think of to keep his winning streak unbroken.
Somewhere, during one of the games the newly nominated Inquisitor stubbornly kept challenging him to, she had stated that a single victory would have satisfied her, and then she would leave him alone.
Cullen had been reasonably sure that had been in jest, but he preferred to be safe.
Evelyn shifted her chin from one hand to the other, not taking her eyes from the game. She resumed the narrow, serious expression he had so often seen directed at the map atop the War Room’s table. It was amusing, and exhilarating, to see her focus on something as small and inconsequential as his old, rotten chessboard.
Maker, his position truly was a mess. Yet, perhaps he could afford to lose a game, now. He would have plenty of time to reestablish his superiority to Evelyn, after all.
That was, if she- only if she wanted to-
Evelyn’s playful glare, not for the first time, saved Cullen from his own thoughts. Evelyn moved her Horse, slowly, cautiously taking the hanging Tower.
She leaned back on the chair, shaking her head in defeat. “You're about to pull me into one of your traps again”, she asked, looking up at him, no longer able to hide her smile. “Aren’t you?”
Cullen thumbed the tiny golden ring in his pocket, circling its smooth edge with his finger. “In a way...”