The world seemed to skew on its axis. In Kagome’s mind, there was a perilous dark crack. Her subjugation spell hadn’t held him— Had it ever? Around her own wrists the rosaries caught flame, burning through her sleeves. “Courtship?” she seethed, ripping the singed beads from her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” But Sesshoumaru

Well, what did she expect, Kagome berated herself. That he would go on loving her, after the way she’d so viciously spurned him? No, but he had loved her once. Saved her once, because of it. But that time had passed. Things were different now. Her mortal coil was burning away, and he was marrying

Stoic and regal, Sesshoumaru stood tall before her, the lone beacon of calm in the fiery, raging maelstrom of her torment. From where she knelt, Kagome looked up at his handsome face, so surreally lovely to her in that moment that it brought a fresh stab of pain to her chest. His glowing eyes were

No, Kagome thought. No… As Tessaiga dimmed, a convulsing sob wracked through her. In her glowing hands, the dark blade began to smoke. With a pained cry, she cast it away from her and lurched to her feet. Around her, the world seemed sharply to tilt. Blinding white agony lanced between her eyes, but it