Heart pounding, Kagome glanced back down the hallway toward Shin, who was with her brother and grandpa in the den. Whether her son had detected Inuyasha’s arrival or not, it clearly wasn’t a concern to him. In wide-eyed amazement, he stood glued with his face about an inch from the glaring television, his little hands

The next few days were ones of muddled relief for Kagome. After telling the full truth to her mother, her soul felt lighter—almost dizzyingly light, at times. But she couldn’t stop her anxious mind from asking, What next? And, What’s happening in Edo? It was a balm to her heart, spending time with her family.

Kagome bowed her head, squeezing her mother’s hand tight. Tears dripped from her face to the table. The mixture of pain and relief she felt overwhelmed her. Now someone else apart from herself knew the whole story. Even Sesshoumaru hadn’t known the full extent of her marital difficulties with Inuyasha. She’d never confessed that to

It was a while before Kagome gathered the wherewithal to pull herself back from her mother’s embrace. Straightening and swiping at her wet sticky face, she was thankful that it was still dark out, so that her mother wouldn’t see just how much of a trainwreck she was— For the moment, anyway. Holding onto her

Kagome glanced down at Shin, now in his human form. In her arms he was quiet and tense. His blue eyes met hers, wide and terrified. She didn’t know whether it was because of Inuyasha or her or the magic of the well—maybe it was all of the above—but she rocked him in her arms

How long? The words clanged in Kagome’s skull like a funeral gong, sounding above the desperate pounding of her own heartbeat in her ears. In a fleeting moment of sheer panic, she glanced toward the crib. Inuyasha’s piercing gaze followed hers—snapping to Shin where he stood in his hanyou form, staring at them with his

That night, Kagome dreamed. She stood in the clearing of Goshinboku. Not far from the Bone-Eater’s Well but not close to it either. The well was simply an object she glimpsed in her periphery, a presence she felt faintly glowing at her back. It was springtime in Edo, just like it had been the first

No more, Sesshoumaru had said. And he had meant it. There had been a cold, hard finality in his voice, like a steel door slamming shut. Like a forbidding spell. He was gone. Kagome knew it. So why couldn’t she accept it? The bitter pill remained lodged in her throat. She was unable to swallow

Spring approached.  The air warmed. The days grew longer. The ground thawed and greened, and the birds began to sing. Earth, sky and sea, the world around teemed with fresh new life.  But Kagome remained frozen, stuck in the neverending winter of her melancholy. Her eyes saw. Her ears heard. Her senses perceived. But in

Inuyasha looked like he was about to say something else. But Shin gnawing on his wrist drew his attention away. “Hey, knock it off. You’d draw blood if you bit a human like that.” Shin desisted, though Kagome suspected it was more from the rumble underscoring Inuyasha’s voice than from the words themselves. Planting his