She Dies at the End (November Snow #1) Read Online Free

this man, she had to consciously choose to jump.  She fell and fell until she hit the water, then she swam for what seemed like forever, past memory upon memory, year after year after year.  She could see William’s life shimmering around her; she could reach out and touch events as she chose, tasting a moment here or there, but they did not reach out to grab her like the pasts of other people.
    A creaky ship with black sails, a battlefield littered with men and horses rotting in the sun, a woman great with child, laughing in a garden.  Her businessman, dressed in an ancient style, cradles William’s mangled body, aided by a beauty with golden hair.  William bites a man with a hook for a hand and drinks until the light goes out of his prey’s eyes. 
    Alternately horrified and fascinated, she wanted to stop and explore everything, and at the same time she longed to flee back to her tent and forget every bit of it. It took all her discipline to keep going, back and back, further into the depths.  At last she found it: the beginning. 
    A mother rocks her child, singing a song in an ancient tongue, singing in the sunlight to quiet the fussing baby with his bright red mop of curly hair.
    November began to sing along, singing words both foreign and somehow familiar, since every lullaby is the same, really.  They all say, “I love you, baby.  Sleep well, baby.  Sleep safe, baby.”  November felt wrapped in the warmth and the safety of the scene.
    Suddenly, she was back in her chair in her little tent, shaking with exertion.  William had snatched his hand away as if burned and looked at her with a new respect.  “What are you?  How could you possibly know that song?” he asked quietly.
    She shrugged her shoulders.  “I don’t know why I can do this.”  She paused, trying to assimilate what she’d seen, having difficulty believing what she’d experienced.  “You are . . . really old,” she said, forgetting her manners in the face of her shock.  William nodded in confirmation.   She glanced at the hourglass just as the last grain fell.  She absentmindedly turned it over again as she began to quickly sketch the faces she’d seen.  “That was . . . unusual.”
    “You are quite impressive, I must say,” he admitted, staring at her hand as faces began to appear on the paper.
    “Do you impress easily?” November asked with a little smile as she sketched, fishing for complements.
    “No,” came his curt reply.  “Besides my age, how was this unusual?” he asked after a moment’s pause.
    “Less painful than most other readings.  More information, but easier to control.  More vivid but less . . . suffocating.”  She held up the paper.  “Your mother?” 
    William nodded, shocked anew.  “My human one.  I’d almost forgotten what she looked like.  I haven’t seen her face in nine hundred years.”
    November finally screwed up the nerve to look into his face.  “Are you really a, um, vampire?” she whispered.  William nodded.  November took a deep breath.  “All of you?”  William shook his head.
    “I’m a fairy,” said Zinnia with a playful smile.
    November closed her eyes.  “Seriously?  Fairies are real, too,” she said, taking a deep breath.  “I, mean, I’ve seen such things in dreams, but I didn’t put much stock in them.  People thought I was crazy enough as it was.  I told myself that those visions were metaphorical or something.”  She sighed.  “I suppose there’s also a werewolf waiting in the car?” she added jokingly.
    “Of course not.  Werewolves are our enemies from time immemorial.  We are allied against them,” replied William severely.
    “Right . . .”  She shook her head in disbelief.  “Well, this is all a bit overwhelming.”  November pressed her fingers to her temples.  “Shall I try to see your future, then?”
    “Oh, I think that’s rather enough for today,” William said quietly.  “And as for being overwhelmed,