The End of the Fantasy (Book #6 of the Sage Saga) Read Online Free

don’t know how I’m going to live without him. He was…my happiness. Don’t misunderstand, I love Allay, with all my heart, but even I understood at a young age that my love for them had to be kept at a distance, so that I would be able to make the appropriate decisions as they arose. With James though, I could let go. I could take all the love within me and project it onto him. I could laugh without offending him or coming across as too playful. I could reveal my innermost thoughts without judgment. I feared nothing when I was around him because he was so strong. He gave me peace, Arimus. Something that we have now lost in more ways than one.”
    “You will be happy again,” Arimus said. “I am sure of it. When I thought I had lost Ashalynn long ago, I feared that I would never see her again, and that my world was over. I figured that life would be nothing more than a daze from that moment on. But then you and Kyran, you two, even above the others, saved me from the darkness. It was a different kind of happiness, but I smiled, laughed, and enjoyed things again. The same will happen for you.”
    “But Mom was found to be alive. I saw James die in my arms.”
    “It doesn’t mean you will never see him again. You saw what happened to Lakrymos and Orchid. They were dead once too.” Arimus paused to scoff. “Ever since I saw James transform and fight Jester, I thought to myself that nothing is out of the realm of possibility. To be quite honest, I’m very interested to see what happens next.”
    “Excitement is overrated,” Catherine said, sticking a tongue out at him. Arimus laughed.
    As they came upon the entrance of Old Prattle, Catherine couldn’t help but think of Thorn and his attack on the Prattlian people. Now they were facing a new threat, and they weren’t sure who it was exactly. The stone within her—before it had been destroyed—had told her that the Yama existed, yet Orchid had used manifestations of the Yama to combat and trick them. So who truly was the enemy? Were the Yama in real life as bad as Lakyrmos and Orchid claimed? It’s not like they were reliable sources.
    “Where exactly are we going to stay?” Marie asked, rubbing her arms. “It feels like I just walked into a hollow block of ice.”
    “If Scarlet was alive, she could create fire,” Arimus said. “But since she’s not, maybe we can replicate her ability.”
    “Maybe,” Talia said. “But the reason she was able to use fire was because it was a part of her personality, which in turn, was a part of her soul. You can create manifestations, but in order to dig into abilities that aren’t inherently a part of us, it will take a lot of time. Maker knows how long it took Thorn to create manifestations that could actually hurt others. The energy output must have been ridiculous.”
    “It was just a suggestion,” Arimus muttered. Catherine patted him on the shoulder in consolation.
    “We’re going to be living in the tunnels, like the Quietus did before. We’ll keep a guard on the outside as a lookout. We’ll do shift changes and maybe rebuild this place a little. Not too much though, because I’m thinking that our primary focus is on honing our abilities. A training ground, in other words.”
    “That will be hard to do without supplies,” Marie said. “As it stands, it’s been an entire day since we’ve eaten. Considering the lack of wildlife and foliage in the area, where do we plan on going for food?”
    “We’ll have parties go out and retrieve food.”
    “But where exactly?” Marie pushed, her lips pursed in concern. Catherine could see it all over her face. Marie was debating within herself, wondering if it was a good idea that she followed the Sage party after all. Zhou and the others were used to following orders, regardless of whether it was a good idea or not, but Marie needed understanding.
    “What are your thoughts?” Catherine asked, swallowing her pride. As she waited for Marie to devise a plan,