The darkness receded, replaced by the heat and light of a firelit cave as she opened her eyes. Air rushed into her lungs with a rasping gasp as she jolted upright. Her body racked with heavy spasms and burning nerves as her muscles tried to restore heat to her frozen flesh.
Coughing and crying she began to collapse back down before her movement was halted by a piercing grip on her arms. The sound of clattering metal dimly registering before her blurred vision was filled with crimson that bled into gold. "No! Stay awake. I can't bring you back again. It only works once!"
She knew the voice but it was wrong somehow. She'd never heard it sound so scared, so desperate. Blinking hard to try and focus, her eyes finally took in the crescent moon and dark stripes as well as the burning amber of his gaze.
"Se-Sesshoumaru?" Her throat ached and her voice was rough across her tongue as she struggled to understand. "What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here!?" His voice was harsh with rage and fear. "I am here because I felt my mate dying and rushed back to find that she had killed herself and forced me to drag her back from the underworld!" His arms trembled as he gripped her, afraid to let go, afraid she would slip away again.
"Why?! Why would you do something so foolish and wasteful?!"
She squinted up at him, confused and dazed as she tried to remember what had happened. The sting of the fire's heat against her still frigid skin reminded her of what she had done. The pain, the storm, the unbearable emptiness of a life without him. Closing her eyes in pain as the emptiness welled up in her all over again, she whispered "Because you were dead. I felt the bond break, and then, nothing. You were gone."
The desolation in her words poured over him like a tidal wave, her ragged sob erasing his rage, giving way to heartache as he pulled her close, seeking to comfort and reassure her.
"I am here Kagome. I told you I would come back. There is nothing that could prevent me from keeping my word to you."
She clung to him, sobbing as her body shook with the pain of the loss she still felt, and the tremors of the cold that still gripped her flesh. Lowering his face to nuzzle her throat he froze when he felt his mark on her skin. The physical scar was still there but its power was muted, their connection blocked on her end.
He pulled her closer, hands working over her body to help restore the warmth she so desperately needed, while he continued to whisper loving reassurances in her ear until she was able to sleep safely.
Something was very wrong. Someone had tried to kill his mate in the cruelest way possible, and he would ensure that they exchanged their own life for it. But for now, she needed him and he needed to make sure she would recover. In the moment, that was all that mattered.