A Vampire's Poet, A Lover's Curse

Previously

…The fire crackled, its flames casting distorted shadows that seemed to mock their fractured bond. Katja’s heart ached with a loneliness that no amount of Vladislaus’s adoration could fill. She was a vampire, bound to an immortal king, yet her soul cried out for the simple, ephemeral joys of a life she could no longer touch. The gilded cage, she realized with a chilling certainty, was beginning to feel very real, and the poet within her was starting to plot her escape. The yearning in her heart was no longer a gentle ache, but a fierce, burning desire for something more, something that Vladislaus, in his blinding devotion, seemed determined to deny her.