The question of how Shin had killed the snake continued to preoccupy Kagome. Though he seemed exceptionally capable for his age, as far as she could tell, he possessed neither the coordination to remove himself from the crib nor the fangs necessary to perform the bloody task. Kagome wasn’t the only one preoccupied by this

Kagome cleaned up the spattered blood and bits of scale. But the dead snake she kept, removing it carefully from the house to the yard. Its fanged maw yawned, rigidly askew—frozen in what looked like a final scream of terror. Kagome’s stomach turned as she dropped it to the grass. Back inside, Shin was nestled

The next few weeks passed in a blur. Kagome threw herself into caring for Shin with renewed fervor. Since Inuyasha had started picking up more mercenary work, she stuck close to the house, which felt much less stifling to her now that he wasn’t constantly breathing down her neck. When she wasn’t attending to her

Kagome could feel Sesshoumaru’s heartbeat deep inside her, thumping in languid tandem with her own. He lowered them both to the root-riven ground—slowly, as though some invisible weight were bearing down on him. They were so tightly adhered, it was almost like pain when she started to peel herself from him. Her sordid high was

Sesshoumaru’s thumb brushed across her lower lip. When he fit his mouth to hers again, Kagome didn’t resist him. She felt powerless to resist him. He was like a vortex, pulling her in, drowning her in the heat of his desire for her. She was dazed, disoriented. Lost in a tempest of lust from which

Kagome had felt it too, the first time she’d held Shin in her arms—the surreal certainty that this was her child she was holding. No longer just an abstract concept in her mind, but a living, breathing being of her own flesh and blood—and spirit. To witness Sesshoumaru experiencing the same brought her back to

No longer agonizing that Kirara would spill her darkest secret, Kagome experienced a period of relative respite. It didn’t last long, however. In comparison to the stark distress she’d felt for herself and her son, her growing restlessness hadn’t registered. But now that the first threat had passed, she felt her irritations chafing more and

That night, Kagome couldn’t sleep. As Inuyasha snored on untroubled, she tossed and turned in bed beside him, unable to get that damning look of Kirara’s out of her mind. Somehow, Kirara knew. Somehow, though there was nothing Kagome nor anyone else could apparently detect, Kirara had discovered what Kagome wished most desperately to hide—

Still admiring the fine little set of clothes, Kagome didn’t notice at first how darkly silent Inuyasha had become. Tensely, she turned to him. The rich patterned silk slid through her fingers, rustling in the feathery wrappings as it fell. “…Inuyasha?” she asked him faintly, holding Shin protectively to her. “Those fancy clothes,” Inuyasha muttered,