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 dark out still, 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 bounced him in her arms

How long? The words clanged like a funeral gong in Kagome’s skull, 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

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

Kagome felt like the ground had been torn out from underneath her. In the void of Sesshoumaru’s absence, her heart floundered, bereft. She might have stayed weeping in that state of desolation indefinitely. But her concern for her baby outweighed her distress. She dredged herself up from the frozen mud with Shin in arms. Wrapping

The dark skies thundered. The blasted earth shook. Youki smoldered and seethed, a black, burning haze. “In due time,” Sesshoumaru said through gritted fangs, “I’d have secured a proper match for Rin—a mate, not a ‘husband.’ She might have lived on, my immortal daughter forever after. But now, thanks to your meddling, the chance has

Kagome’s trek from her home to the outskirts of Edo was a frantic blur. Shin kept pace with her, neither streaking ahead to scout nor falling behind to sniff. He padded along right beside her, soundless, with his pointed ears and plumed tail lowered. Kagome didn’t know whether her distress had subdued him, or whether