Outside the house a light, sleeting rain was falling. Kagome screwed her eyes shut against it as she stepped out from beneath the awning. Still sitting hunched below the eaves, Kanako stared after her. Kagome could feel it, the galling intensity of that stare. “Kagome-sama…” “Don’t you dare speak to me after what you’ve done,”

Rin paled, drawing back as though she’d been slapped. Just as white and tense as she’d gone, Kagome went red and slack-jawed with fury. Her eyes cut like daggers to Kanako. There was no point in even attempting to refute what she’d said. Kagome’s own outraged reaction had been too swift and apparent to deny

Kagome halted in place. It was as if an invisible chasm had opened between them. Even if she’d wanted to reach out to Kohaku, she felt that she couldn’t. And so she turned and left. Sliding back the door, a touch of blood rushed to her cheeks as she saw Kanako crouched and shrinking on

When she looked at him now, Kagome almost didn’t recognize the person staring back at her. Assessing her, it seemed. Where was the boy who used to blush whenever she drew near, to steal shy glances at her whenever he thought she wasn’t looking? That boy was gone, she realized. And now she stood in

Kagome’s mouth twisted. “Why would you think that?” “Why else would you be here,” Kohaku retorted, “unless you were in some sort of crisis? You only come to me when there’s something you need.” Kagome regarded him in steady silence. The slashes on his cheek were faint now, yet somehow they seemed to glare at

In a tempest of frustration, Kagome paced back and forth across the length of the shrine house. The flames of the brazier bowed, flickering and writhing, each time she stalked past. She’d come here to meditate, but all sense of inner calm eluded her. Her train of thought was fractured, jagged-edged and incongruous as a

A marriage then, Kagome knew. Part of her had been anticipating this subject would come up between them, at some point. Yet still she braced herself. “That would be the ultimate way to legitimize you, wouldn’t it?” she said, half-smiling at him, though there wasn’t an ounce of good humor in it. “You’d be beyond

Kagome had been expecting to see a long line of petitioners awaiting her on the veranda outside. For several days she’d held no audiences as she’d attended to Kaede and the funeral preparations. In hindsight, she supposed this should have been her second sign that something was afoot. Inside the main hall, a small crowd