Light Me A Lantern Chapter 40. Finale.
Rating: T Pairing: Inuyasha/Kagome Summary: Picking up the pieces after being separated for three years isn’t as easy as it may seem. A quiet, burning kind of chaos sweeps through Feudal Japan, and it’s going to take a lot more than a fairy tale ending to put things back together. They defeated a man who would become the Devil. Can they survive a man who would become a God?
Excerpt:
When the cool light faded, the dark was quick to take its place. It swallowed him whole, leaving no trace of the beach, the burning moon, the God beneath his palm - or the slender hand clasped in his. Sensation vanished, consciousness retreating to the place behind his eyes, settling back within himself. The all-consuming shadow receded, and with its absence Inuyasha slowly became aware of a flickering, orange light pressing against the dark, not quite able to penetrate it. He became aware of the soft palate underneath his back, the scent of lingering smoke - not the smoke of a battlefield. The smoke of a hearth. Over the crackle and roar of a fire came the soft pelting of water running off a roof. A crack of thunder rumbled gentle and deep overhead.
All at once it slammed into Inuyasha. He bolted upright on his pallet with a gasp rough enough to tear at his already aching throat, torn from grief-stricken screams. The air dragged like fire down into his chest as his eyes struggled to adjust to the room. He’d been on that grassy hillside what felt like only moments ago, his body scrambling to keep up with the shock of the loss of grass beneath him and empty stars above. He saw the fire in the hearth first, its light searing into his eyes and blotching out his vision as he stared wildly around the room he found himself in.
“Inuyasha.”
The firm hand suddenly gripping his shoulder nearly had him turning to attack. Miroku instantly let go and raised his hands, knowing better than to test Inuyasha when he was like this, as if he was feral with his own fear. Gradually, the adrenaline rushed away and left Inuyasha feeling the weight of his exhaustion. His vision cleared to the familiar interior of Miroku and Sango’s home. As he sat there, his chest heaving, he took in the weary faces surrounding him; Miroku next to him, his eyes steady and reassuring. Rin, Shippo and Sango sat on the other side of the flames. The kitsune boy had removed his battle dirtied clothes and was wearing a spare robe that was still too big for him, wringing a rag into a bucket of dull, rusty water as he cleaned himself off. He’d stopped, rag dripping into the pale, when Inuyasha sat up. Rin had been wrapping a strip of cloth around a long gash on Sango’s bicep, already cleaned and topped with a sweet ointment. The youngest child, the one Inuyasha had not even met yet, lay in the cradle of Sango’s free arm, while the other three children all piled together sleeping in the far corner of the room with Jun and Kei watching dutifully over them.
Miroku reached a tentative hand to Inuyasha’s shoulder again. “Inuyasha,” he repeated, “You’re safe.”
“Where is sh-” the question was burning on his tongue with rising panic, but as Inuyasha searched manically around the room, he found the answer laying out beside him; Kagome, washed of any trace of blood in a clean white kimono.
I’m so not ready to say “the end” but this is it. The End.
It’s everything I’ve fantasized about for the past seven years, and I hope it is for you too. Thank you all so much for coming on this long journey with me. All my love 💕
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