Hi everyone. Just because the question has come up: I have not given up on this story. I'm just insanely busy, and the chapters are long, so updates will not be quick. There is a link to a Livejournal post in my profile where I manage my updates. Whenever I write anything in this, I update that post, so if you're interested in the story progress feel free to check that out.

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~Accustomed to the Dark~

When Kagome returned from her bath Sesshoumaru was in full armor again. He met her eyes with his usual expressionless detachment.

He looked like a stranger, more statue than man, and her heart felt inexplicably heavy at the sight of him.

She folded her hands in front of her, searching for something to say. "You are not coming back to the village with us?"

"I have responsibilities in the West that cannot be delayed any longer."

Of course he did. Same as she, Sesshoumaru was not his own person. She knew that now.

The sudden lump in her throat was something she did not want to examine any closer. "I see."

"Jaken will deliver Rin and Ah-Un to the fortress in two days' time," he continued, seemingly oblivious to her distress.

Kagome turned away. "I see," she repeated.

He leaned in, close enough that his breath feathered the side of her cheek. Kagome shivered. He still smelled like sunlight.

"Miko."

"Yes?"

"Should you alter your plans, you know where to find me."

Warmth bloomed inside her chest. "Thank you, Sesshoumaru. I don't think I will, but thank you all the same."

She wondered whether she dared to hug him goodbye, but when she turned he was gone and she could hear Sango calling her name.

It was probably just as well. Thoughts like these wouldn't do her any good where she was going.

x-x

It took a week for the village festivities around the death of Naraku to come to a close. For Kagome it was a bittersweet time, divided between her old friends, Kaede, and, oddly enough, Kikyo. By the end of the week she and the resurrected girl had struck up a tentative friendship, made awkward by the fact that Inuyasha still begrudged Kagome her use of the jewel. To make matters worse, Kikyo was unsure what to make of Inuyasha's intentions and so Kagome found herself playing go-between in a blossoming relationship that was as spiny and fragile as was to be expected with its troubled history.

Whatever bad blood may have remained between Kikyo and Kagome evaporated once Kagome realized that Kikyo was treating her as if she were the worldly, experienced one, even going as far as to call her nee-san in an unguarded moment.

The upside of this was that Kagome was able to lay to rest many old regrets and small resentments that had eaten away at her unnoticed over the years. The downside was that she did not get to spend nearly as much time with Miroku and Sango as she would have liked. To make matters worse, the news of her impending departure had devastated Shippo. He would not speak to her, even though he teared up whenever she was near. He even refused the offer of Kagome's last remaining packet of Pocky and no matter what she tried, he stubbornly failed to react.

Too soon the day came when she had to say her final goodbyes.

Kagome gave a short, halting speech about loss and courage and friendship that made her friends smile. She hugged everyone, even a still grumpy Inuyasha. Shippo, who had manfully held back his tears for the whole week, broke down and cried like the child he still was. It broke Kagome's heart, but she only had to think of her mother, whose heart had been heavy with worry and unshed tears for years, to know that it couldn't matter.

So she climbed down into the well, feeling strangely light without her destroyed backpack, and then she reached the bottom and stood there for a while staring blindly up at the round patch of white sky above her.

Eventually someone called out "Kagome-chan, are you still there?" in a half-disbelieving, half-hopeful voice.

Kagome didn't answer, because that would make the moment real.

Instead, she climbed carefully up again, then down, then back up when the vortex still failed to open.

She was aware she was behaving irrationally. Obviously, the time vortex was no longer working. She should have expected this kind of thing to happen, with the jewel no longer there.

She could not stop herself from trying again, though. The rational part of her was a tiny speck of light in a vast sea of chaos as her thoughts churned, collided with reality, then shied back again.

Eventually, night fell.

The patch of sky became a black circle studded with stars, and although Kagome had a crick in her neck from looking up, she refused to look down where fragments of white bone glinted in the hard-packed soil.

At dawn Miroku came and led her away.

She followed him docilely to Kaede's hut, and then she turned around and walked back to the well, and curled up on the damp earth at the bottom, staring blindly into the dark.

x-x

The voices were soothing, a steady backdrop to the grey hum of her own shapeless thoughts.

"Aren't you hungry, Kagome-chan? This is really nice soup."

"Come on, Kagome-chan, you must eat something."

"Kagome-chan, you'll make yourself sick. Please, just a little broth? For me? You're really making me worry, Kagome-chan."

Eventually Kagome ate some soup, because the voice held the same exasperated love as her mother's sometimes did.

x-x

The light was always the same inside the hut. It was hazy and grey and it went well with the numbness in Kagome's eyes. She could stare at dust motes for hours. Sometimes she shuffled into the outhouse when the need became too great, and sat there for a while. She didn't seem to mind the stink. She didn't seem to mind anything very much.

After two weeks during which Kagome lost an alarming amount of weight and seemed to slip even deeper into depression, Sango had had enough.

She dragged Kagome out into the cold sunlight and then to the river, where she shooed the village women away and waded into the freezing water, Kagome in tow. The stink of the girl's clothes was so bad by now that Sango had no reservations cutting them off her and letting them float down the river.

She was thankful to see that sheer temperature shock was breaking through Kagome's numbness the way none of them had managed before. The girl was blue-white with cold, eyes wide and teeth chattering as Sango dunked her into the water and proceeded to scrub her down.

"Now you listen to me, Kagome-chan," she said, furiously scrubbing shampoo into Kagome's hair. "I'm sorry that you don't get to go back, but it's not like it's a surprise, right? You knew it could happen. Your mother knows it could happen. At least they're not dead, and you're still alive too, even though one couldn't tell, looking at you right now."

Sango's own teeth had started chattering, but this was important. Kagome was looking at her and truly seeing her for the first time in two weeks.

"You're alive, Kagome-chan. And you have to go on now, because your mother couldn't bear seeing you like this and you know it. Do you understand me?"

Kagome nodded, fully awake now. Her shivers had turned into full-body shudders, telling Sango it was time to leave the river. She dunked Kagome again. A sobbing laugh escaped her as her friend came up sputtering and scowling with some of her old fire.

"That's the spirit," Sango encouraged through her own violent shudders.

"I- I'm s-sorry," Kagome said through rattling teeth, looking subdued.

"Don't be sorry," Sango said. She led the girl back to the riverbank and then they hurried back to the village and the warmth of Sango's hut where they arrived gasping and cold and laughing a little, because it was all so ridiculous and sad.

Sango dried Kagome down with cloth that Miroku had heated by the fire, and Kagome then helped her dry herself — still tentative, but no longer the limp puppet she had been.

They snuggled down in blankets in front of the fire, and Sango held Kagome like she would a child, and told her to live for her family, if she couldn't yet do it for herself.

"How did you do it?" Kagome asked.

Sango smiled and stroked her hair. "I had help," she said.

Kagome smiled back. it was sad and wobbly, but it was a real smile.

It was a beginning.

x-x

Now, three months later, Sango and Miroku were married, and Kagome's lingering sadness was slowly being replaced by an increasingly pronounced embarrassment.

It was not easy, living in a hut with a married couple. They were nothing but lovely to her, but she could not help overhearing their murmured conversations or the soft sounds of their lovemaking, no matter how discreet they were trying to be. Shippo and Kohaku must have heard quite a bit as well, but they did not seem to care. In that, he was the product of an era where families of ten or more lived together in the tiniest of spaces.

Kaede's hut was too small to accommodate her, and the old woman was so set in her routines, Kagome was loath to disturb her. Two months later, she switched to Inuyasha and Kikyo instead, hoping the other girl's subdued nature might make for quieter nights. It didn't. Inuyasha was as brash and outspoken in bed as he was everywhere else, and Kikyo had certainly loosened up, Kagome thought, unkindly. After a miserable fortnight, Kagome couldn't stand it any longer.

She wished she could get her own hut, but she was barred from that option by unspoken agreement. Her friends still thought her too fragile to leave unsupervised, and she didn't have the strength to fight them on this.

Maybe they were right. She still had days where she wished nothing more than to tie a stone around her legs and jump into the river where it was cold and deep. Those moments didn't last long, but the thought didn't scare her as it should. That in itself was worrying.

x-x

Kagome was leafing through her old physics textbook while Miroku and Sango snuggled in front of the hearth. Mechanics and thermodynamics seemed so simple now, and so useless here in this world of magic. Life in the village was all about human connection, something that had come so easily to her in the past. Relating to people, taking part in their lives had been her greatest talent.

Now it was gone and she was having trouble relating to her closest friends. She watched them converse in low murmurs, considerate of her apparent concentration on her book the way they never were of her sleep when they made love.

Miroku and Sango had lost a lot, but they had each other and that seemed to compensate for everything.

Kagome had never been petty, but seeing the closeness between the two of them, the tenderness, this bond that excluded the rest of the world… it contrasted too sharply with her own loss. They had a future, while she was still stuck in limbo. She should have been at home with her family. Instead, she was stuck here, unable to enjoy her freedom from the burden of her quest. She had abandoned her family, whether it had happened voluntarily or not. This was not what her life was supposed to be.

Suddenly, it was too much.

"Excuse me," she mumbled. She avoided their eyes as she rushed out of the door.

There was a long pause.

Sango sighed.

Miroku gave her a knowing look. "You should go after her."

"I want to, but I don't think I should."

"You got through to her before. She'll listen to you."

Sango frowned into her cup of tea. "It's not the same. Kagome has to work through this on her own. I wish I knew what troubles her. It's not just the well."

"I think it is. Kagome knows that she doesn't fit here. What's more, she doesn't want to fit. She doesn't want to become a village girl."

"I don't understand. She's been perfectly happy with us before, and she's been happy in the village, and times were a lot worse then. I don't know what's changed."

Miroku pursed his lips in thought. "Well, Kagome was always a visitor. She could go through the well and bring back ramen for us, and sweets and medicine. That tie to her home was always there. It reassured her that she could always go back."

"I never thought of it that way."

"Do you remember how she studied for school, even though she was so in love with Inuyasha? kagome has always been behaving like somebody who wanted to go back home after she was done. I don't think she realizes that herself, but she never planned to stay, not really."

"You should go talk to her," Sango said.

"I thought you wanted her to work this out on her own."

"If you're right, I don't think she can. She'll need help. You're a good listener, and you're neutral. I think I remind her too much of her mother."

Miroku shrugged. "I can certainly try."

"Please."

x-x

"You seem a little out of sorts, Kagome-sama," Miroku said, tilting his head like a compassionate bird.

Kagome laughed. "That's putting it mildly. I'm sorry I ruined your evening."

"You did nothing of the sort. You are still sad, that's understandable. Nobody blames you."

Kagome shook her head. They were so understanding and here she was, envying them their little bit of happiness after all they had endured, just because she hadn't found someone of her own to anchor her to the world, to make her care again. As if she could or should rely on other people for her happiness.

"It's not quite that simple," she said, because she owned these two, of all people, her honesty. "I looked at the two of you, at the life you have now, with all those little routines and the warmth… and I just went green with envy."

She looked up fearfully, waiting for the disappointment to creep into his face, but nothing happened.

"Go on," he said.

"There's nothing for me here," she said. "I know how that sounds — you are here, and you're my friends, and I love you. But—"

"There's nothing for you to do here," Miroku concluded.

"That's not it. I could help Kaede. She's getting on a bit, and I'm half-trained anyway. I could lighten the load, and it would give Kikyo a little more time to think about what she wants to do, especially now that she's no longer… well."

"A virgin?" Miroku supplied, and grinned when she blushed. "Honestly, Kagome-sama, you should know by now that I am unshockable."

"Yes, well. Married life has changed you."

"Not that much. Nothing will change me so much that I can no longer recognize myself," he said softly. "But it's not the same for you, is it, Kagome-sama? Doing all those things you just listed would turn you into someone else entirely."

She looked up, tears in her eyes. She hadn't felt the urge to cry since the well. These days, she oscillated mostly between apathy, rage and embarrassment.

"I feel so selfish."

To he surprise Miroku touched her cheek, brushed a tear away. "Don't," he said grimly. "We've been traveling together for a long time, and I would like to think I've come to know you a little. Do you agree?"

"Sure."

"You have never broken the ties to your world. You kept bringing your books along and learning. You brought clothes from home and food and medicine. All the time you thought yourself in love with Inuyasha, you were planning to go back home the minute things were over."

"I… I never thought of it like that," Kagome whispered. "I just wanted to share things with you guys…"

Miroku smiled at her. "Yes you did. You are a very generous person. And I didn't say that you knew what you were doing. Still. Settling in the village would mean defeat; it would mean giving up everything you have fought for. You would no longer be the girl who visits from the future, you would be just a village priestess with an odd past. It's no wonder you're fighting it."

They sat in silence for a while, while Kagome's thoughts buzzed around her skull like angry bees. He was right.

"What should I do?"

"I wish I had an easy answer for you, or any answer at all. I don't."

She smiled at him. "It's okay."

"I wish I could open the well for you. I can't do that either. But as a friend, I want to help you find your place. So if this is not the place for you, then where do you want to go? Who do you want to be?"

"I want to be myself," she said, "but I want to grow, too. Anyway, it's a moot point. It's not like I have anywhere to go. Although… he did offer."

"Who did?" Miroku prodded.

"I don't really remember all of it. It was a really odd night, you know. Really odd. I thought it was over, too, but in the morning Sesshoumaru came to me, and then he just made that offer and went away. I never thought I'd actually be in a situation where I'd actually want to take him up on it. It's silly, of course. I don't think he meant any of it. And I must be stupid, because I miss him anyway. Sometimes."

"Kagome-sama?" Miroku's voice sounded strangled. "What exactly did Sesshoumaru offer?"

She bit her lip in thought. "A place to stay, I think. I admit I was sort of confused after all the cuddling and the hot looks and everything, but I'm pretty sure he invited me to stay with him. There was a great deal of cuddling," she added wistfully.

"Well then," Miroku said brightly. "I don't see Sesshoumaru making promises he does not intend to keep. You could just accept, and see how it goes."

"I really don't think he meant that one," Kagome said stubbornly, then sighed. "We talked a lot. I think he used up all of his words for a year in one night. Did you know he used to travel a lot? Only he can't anymore. He didn't say, but I think he misses it. And he enjoys learning. He has a library, you know. Not just two scrolls in a box, a real library. Rin told me."

"I know," Miroku said in a curiously flat tone. "I saw some of it while we were there."

"How come you saw it and I didn't?" Kagome demanded.

"Sesshoumaru knew I was a man of learning. I don't think he knew about your taste for it back then. In any case, I only saw a small portion of his collection. The rest was restricted."

"I wish I could have seen it," Kagome whispered.

"You still can."

"No," she said with finality. Then she smiled at him, one of the sweet smiles of old. It made Miroku's heart hurt. "Thank you, Miroku-sama. You've given me a lot to think about."

It was a dismissal. Miroku rose and kissed her forehead, as he'd seen Sango do sometimes. "It's what friends do, Kagome-sama. I'll leave you to your thoughts."

She nodded.

He left. There was nothing more he could do here, and he had plans to make.

x-x

When Miroku returned to the hut, looking unsettled, Sango rushed to him.

"Did she say anything? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Miroku still looked slightly peaky. "She said a great deal, some of it… surprising. It appears that some odd things took place the night of the wish."

Sango grimaced. "Odd is right. Sesshoumaru was behaving very strangely that night."

"You told me. Kagome told me a lot more."

"Well?"

"It seems there was 'a great deal of cuddling' — her words, not mine — and she misses him, and he invited her to his home but she's sure he didn't mean it so she's not going. Although she would really like to."

Sango recognized the style of run-on babbling as verbatim Kagome easily enough. What surprised her was how open Kagome had been with Miroku about that night. She had not been nearly as forthcoming with Sango.

"Ah," said Miroku, recognizing the look, "but that's because she's afraid you'll judge her. I on the other hand have always been a lecherous reprobate, and as such have no room to disapprove."

"I would never judge her," Sango said hotly.

"I think she's simply erring on the side of caution with this. She values your opinion. Oh, apparently they talked a lot. I don't think I have heard Sesshoumaru conduct a conversation in all the years we have known him, certainly not for frivolous purposes. But Kagome doesn't lie. I think she is attracted to him."

Sango was not convinced. The idea of Kagome being attracted to Sesshoumaru after pining for his very different brother for several years was rather hard to swallow. Besides, Sesshoumaru, though beautiful, was also a cold fish. Kagome gravitated towards warmth and light; what she'd see in him was a mystery.

"If she is, it's since that night," Sango mused. "I know Kagome when she's in love. She wouldn't have been able to keep that to herself."

Miroku shrugged. "They were together during the wish — who knows what happened? You said yourself that Sesshoumaru was different around her afterwards. At any rate, she didn't tell me everything. And whatever happened between them, it wasn't one-sided. I am certain of that."

Sango could accept that. "What can we do?"

"We can send him a message."

"Do you think that's wise? Whatever happened between them might have been a one-off, by mutual agreement. Kagome seems to think that Sesshoumaru didn't mean his invitation. Wouldn't she know?"

"At the moment, Kagome is blinded by guilt and she certainly does not value herself very highly. Besides, she has never been very astute in her dealings with males of any race."

"That's true."

"We will have to nudge things along some. And we will have to include everybody, or we'll never hear the end of it."

Sango nodded. "You seem to have thought this out already," she said.

Miroku inclined his head. "I try."

"So, how do you want to go about it?"

"We will send Sesshoumaru a message stating that Kagome is ill."

"That's a lie."

"It's an exaggeration."

Sango shook her head. "I am not so sure Sesshoumaru knows the difference. Are you prepared to live with the consequences if he decides to retaliate?"

"I don't think he will."

"Are you prepared to gamble the village on that?"

"I am prepared to do a lot to secure Kagome's happiness," Miroku said. "As you are. Besides, I believe in Sesshoumaru's restraint."

"He is a predator," Sango bit out.

"He is a politician," Miroku said. "He would never indulge an impulse, no matter how angry he is."

Sango had to concede the point. "There is still cold-blooded retaliation."

"From what Kagome said, I believe she is important to him. You believe it too."

"Possibly," she said.

"If he comes to see her, it means she is important. He won't flatten the village, not if he cares for her."

"It's still a gamble."

"Yes." Miroku leaned back. "You decide."

Sango glared at him, but he knew she'd come around. Satisfied, he leaned back and waited.

x-x

It took Kagome the better part of a week to realize that something odd was going on. She had taken up working with Kaede part time. The light work exhausted her so much that Sango and Miroku's lovemaking during the night barely bothered her anymore. She slept like a log.

Her new workload brought with it several errands a day. Trips through the village, walks through the woods for herb gathering, walks to the river — wherever she went she ran across her friends, huddled suspiciously together.

At first she thought they were following her.

However, they made a big show of breaking apart whenever she encountered them, and slowly it dawned on her that they were trying desperately to avoid her, and not succeeding.

They were clearly planning something that had to do with her. She wondered if it had something to do with the talk she'd had with Miroku, then decided it couldn't. Miroku had always been good at keeping confidences. They were probably planning something silly to cheer her up.

She'd rather they did not bother, but if it made them feel good, she wouldn't want to deprive them of their enjoyment.

x-x

After a long morning of powdering dried herbs with mortar and pestle, Kagome's back was hurting something fierce, and her stomach was protesting her missed breakfast rather loudly.

It was time to go scrounge up something to eat, she thought with distaste, or Kaede would scold her when she returned from her morning round of the village. She wasn't hungry. She never was, these days, but she was accustomed to forcing enough food down to forestall an intervention.

Drawing a thin shawl around her shoulders she slipped out of Kaede's hut, and squinted into the watery sunlight. It sure was cold today. And quiet.

Oddly quiet.

Even the birds were silent.

A wave of youki flooded her senses, so strong and familiar it took her breath away.

She looked over her shoulder out of instinct; when she turned her head Sesshoumaru stood there, scowling at her.

She gaped at him while something cold and hot and stinging unfurled in her stomach.

He still said nothing, though his scowl certainly became more pronounced. He sniffed the air delicately. His eyes narrowed to mere slits.

"Well, hello to you too," she said crossly.

"Hello Kagome!" Rin piped up.

Kagome blinked, startled. She had to sidestep Sesshoumaru's looming bulk to even see the girl. Rin appeared to have hit another growth spurt. She was clad in a kimono fit for a little princess, with an elegant hairdo to match, and she was waving enthusiastically. At least that hadn't changed.

Jaken stood next to her, and Ah Un towered over them both. The dragon huffed in welcome, and to Kagome's consternation, even Jaken inclined his head in greeting.

"Hello Rin," she said weakly. "Jaken. Ah Un."

Sesshoumaru, obviously unused to being ignored when he stalked someone, took a menacing step forward. Something smoked and sizzled in his fist.

Kagome looked down at his claws just in time to see a middling-sized linen pouch dissolve into foul-smelling sludge.

"What are you doing?" she asked, alarmed. "Were those herbs? What's going on?"

"Allow me to congratulate you on your speedy recovery," Sesshoumaru said flatly.

"My what?"

"There are two alternatives," he said with a calm that didn't fool her for a minute. Sesshoumaru was livid. "One: you are dying of consumption. Your lungs are inflamed, you are coughing blood, your fever is beyond the skills of your village healer, and you have mere days to live."

Kagome's eyes widened with the beginnings of understanding. Heat shot into her cheeks. "Oh god. Who told you…"

She turned her head, suddenly aware that they had gained a captive, if cautious, audience. Inuyasha was there, and Sango and Miroku. Shippo, cowering behind the monk's legs, alternated between fearful glances toward Kagome and longing looks at Rin. Kagome pinned her friends with a Look.

"Which. One. Of. You…" she began, only to be interrupted as Sesshoumaru took hold of her chin and brought her eyes back to his.

"Two," he continued, unperturbed, "You are in fact healthy…"

"Well, I'm definitely not consumptive!" Kagome muttered.

He rubbed his thumb across her lower lip, silencing her. "Two," he repeated. "You are healthy, and somebody has played a very ill-advised joke for which they will be amply… compensated."

Kagome stared at him. Her knees had gone weak for some reason, and she had an odd urge to lick the thumb that was still lightly caressing her lower lip. Would it taste salty, she wondered.

With considerable effort, she forced herself to snap back to attention.

"I can't let you kill my friends," she said apologetically, relieved when he moved his hand from her chin to settle on the join of her neck and shoulder, where it felt heavy and warm, but no longer as intimate. "Mostly because they are traitors and I want to kill them myself," she bit out, turning to look over her shoulder. "Which one of you was it?"

Sesshoumaru smirked, and she felt that cold, cold rage in his aura abate a bit.

Miroku spread his hands in a placating gesture while Inuyasha merely rolled his eyes. "It was all of us, Kagome-sama. I assure you, we have only your best interests at heart."

Inuyasha was less circumspect. "Stop making a fuss," he said gruffly. "The asshole came, didn't he? Now you can stop pining. Jeez."

"Maybe I didn't want to stop!" Kagome yelled, then pressed her lips together furiously.

Kirara mewed.

Sesshoumaru exchanged looks with the cat, then turned back to Kagome.

"You smell unhappy," he said in a tone so low-pitched, Kagome knew it was meant for her alone. "You are too thin."

Kagome bit her lip, embarrassed.

"The well closed," she muttered by way of explanation.

"I gathered," Sesshoumaru said. "Something like that was bound to happen."

"What? Why?"

"The wish," he said simply. "There has to be balance. Compensation, if you will."

Out of the corner of her eye, Kagome saw everyone leaning in, trying to catch their conversation. Inuyasha's ears were tilted their way, fairly twitching with effort. She scowled at them.

"I don't get it," she told Sesshoumaru.

His hand moved to settle around her neck as he leaned in, recapturing her attention. The cool winter sky reflected in his eyes, turning them into mirrors. Her gaze slid to his mouth. It was as seductive as she remembered, and so close…

She did not even have to look to know her friends were staring.

"The happiness that you gained for your friends, you paid for with your own misery," Sesshoumaru breathed against her cheek. "And the sacrifice."

Kagome swallowed back the sudden lump in her throat. Her unnatural depression, the apathy she could not seem to shake, the uncharitable thoughts about the people she loved… It all suddenly made a horrible sort of sense.

"I had to give up my way home," she murmured.

"Yes."

"But—"

His thumb was stroking the side of her throat, his hair feathered against her collarbones, and the brush of his mouth, now at her temple, was making her dizzy.

"Would you have made a different wish, had you known?" he asked lightly.

"No!" she exclaimed automatically. Then, after a moment's deeper thought… "No."

He straightened, a satisfied gleam in his eyes.

"What now?" she asked in a small voice. She felt adrift, but at least now she had a reason and was no longer stumbling around in the dark. With time, she could accept things and move on.

"Come with me," Sesshoumaru said.

It scared her how much she wanted to. He could push her off-balance so easily. She wondered whether it was a game to him, something he would tire of once this odd tension between them settled and he no longer found her intriguing.

"I don't know," she murmured.

"There is nothing for you here," he said bluntly.

"There could be." The lie tasted like ashes in her mouth.

He considered her. "I have a library of considerable size," he said.

Her lips quirked up. "What are you really offering?"

"A challenge," he said evenly. "How about it, miko?"

She took a deep breath and met his eyes. "A challenge for you or for me?"

He smiled, all teeth. "Both."

Kagome pushed herself to her toes, feeling more alive than she had in months, and brought her lips to his throat. "You're on."