against his chest as he crushed me against him and his head descended. I moaned involuntarily as his lips took mine in a bruising kiss.
Desire whipped through my body like a sudden wildfire. His tongue delved into my mouth as one hand splayed against my back and the other rose to cup the nape of my neck, positioning me just where he wanted me. His lips were hard and demanding against mine.
By the time he was done, my lips felt swollen and I was light-headed. He pulled away, just far enough that we could make eye contact, and whispered, "Tonight, you're mine."
His lips landed on mine once more, but only for a brief second, and then he was gone. When I opened my eyes, I saw him moving back to his soldiers, his head held high and his shoulders pushed back. He appeared every single inch the Royal Fae Prince. The commander and the protector.
I stumbled away, my hand grasping at the wall the second I grew close. Once I was out of the throne room, I leaned against the cool stone wall of the empty corridor for a moment, letting my heart calm itself.
Nellie, I reminded myself. I had to go and see Nellie. She'd said we needed to talk the last time I'd seen her. Hopefully she would be enough of a distraction to keep me from turning back and dragging Roan back to his chambers when I knew he had work to do.
Chapter Eighteen
Roan
Cress's departure brought me back to where I needed to be—strategy and planning. War. Even though humans and Fae had been at war for two decades, in the last several months, things had changed. A Changeling had been found—the last of her kind. I wondered if Cress even realized how special she was.
Changelings were creatures born of Fae and yet raised among humans. A tradition that had been popular when the coexistence of each race had been symbiotic. Now, all I could see lying in wait for us was extinction. This war would end, but the cost … the cost, I worried, might be too great.
I didn't enjoy the idea of killing off the humans. There was something intrinsically wrong about eradicating an entire species. And if it came down to it, I knew Cress would fight against it. My head lifted and I stared through the entryway where she'd gone. Then there was the matter of her little human friend. A dull pounding ache began in my head.
"Your Highness?" the sound of one of my soldier's voices brought me back to the present.
I gave him my full attention. "Where were we?" I demanded.
He straightened at my tone and then gestured to the table before us. "We were discussing entry points into Norune Castle."
"How many are there?" I asked, looking down.
The map before me was hand drawn—but applied with magic, bringing the etchings to life. The mountains and castle stood upright as well as the little village that surrounded our target. We were given a bird's eye view of the place that would be our next objective.
"Three main gates, Your Highness," the man stated, pointing to each of them in turn as he continued talking. "The main entrance at the front between the village and the main road. A side entrance to receive supplies for the main hub, and a back entrance that appears to be sealed to make people think it's unusable."
"Is it?" I inquired, narrowing my eyes on the placement of that entrance—with its main wall facing a forest that would be easy to conceal ourselves in.
"No sir. We believe it's fully functional and merely 'sealed off' to present the idea of inoperational. From what our scout managed to gather, the entrance is an emergency one to be used in the event of crisis. It was likely built for the Duke and his family to escape if they were under siege."
I shook my head. They would be under siege soon, but there would be no using that entrance. That entrance was about to be one of our operating bases. I pointed to it on the map. "I want two men stationed inside the forest," I ordered. "We're not going to let anyone leave with the supplies they have in there." I lifted my head and looked across the table to the Fae who'd brought me this information—Xantho. "You're sure they have a hidden cache of supplies in here for the King?"
This information needed to be good. The war had slowly descended into