Stunning photo by @_knihomol_ka

Hello everyone!

Who is excited but nervous for today’s chapters after everything that happened in yesterday’s reading? 

Happy Friday and welcome to day 5 of our readalong of f I Have To Be Haunted by Miranda Sun. I’m so excited to see how this story ends, I hope you loved this book as much as I did!

Today we’re reading from chapter 26 to the end of of the book. Let’s do this!

When you’ve finished today’s section, catch up with me in the comments down below so we can discuss the beginning of the book. Happy reading!

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Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for If I Have To Be Haunted by Miranda Sun from Chapter 26 to the end of the book. Please only read on if you have finished this section!

-!SPOILERS!-

We kick off the first chapter of today’s reading with the threshold taking them back to what looks like Autumn Falls, specifically the town graveyard. Nothing but empty white space loomed around them in all directions. According to the map, this is the last threshold before the snake. It definitely can’t be a coincidence, there has to be something very significant about Autumn Falls. What do you think?

They walk through the open gates of the graveyard which shut immediately behind them. Brittany’s ghost detector then begins to beep. In the distance, they see a group of mourners and Zach heads over to them but gives a hiss of pain and shows Cara a slice the length of her index finger below his ribs. Suddenly Zach shouts Mom and rushes towards the mourners. It’s a funeral for him but Cara is trying to tell him it’s not real but he doesn’t believe her. Eventually, the mourners leave and they come to a gravestone with his name on it. Zach then reveals they almost had a funeral for him when he was five as he had frozen to death in a blizzard; he had gotten lost in a freak snowstorm, his parents not noticing he was gone for hours. His heart stopped four times and he was in a coma; his parents didn’t think he was going to make it and he overheard them planning his funeral at the hospital. Reliving those memories again Zach begins to break down and Cara comforts him by putting her hand on his cheek. “He was an engine going cold on a winter road. He was glass shattered into a thousand beautiful shards. He was a tragic accident she couldn’t look away from, no matter how hard she tried.”  I adore this quote! I feel so bad for Zach that he has nearly died twice and both times his family barely noticed or seemed to care that much.

Suddenly Zach is gone. And so is Brittany. In a panic Cara begins shouting for them, running amongst the rows of tombstones until eventually she sinks to her knees, thinking she had failed and he was gone forever. Then suddenly she hears her name being spoken by a familiar ghost and turns to find Zach perfectly okay. Brittany begins shouting that there is a problem and the ghosts have found her.

Moments later there are too many ghosts pouring in through the graveyard gates for them to handle. And with it being Halloween these ghosts are capable of inflicting real damage. Cara comes up with the idea to build a ghost-repelling barrier whilst Zach searches for the threshold. She was almost done with the barrier when a hand erupted from the ground and grabbed her ankle. Eventually, she has to give up on the barrier completely as they have become overrun with ghosts. She and Brittany take ghost after ghost down until one grabs Cara’s shoulder and says “Help us”. Help them from what? Is someone controlling them and if so who?

Zach returns telling them there is no threshold leaving only one option. Cara must find a way to make the ghosts move on. Zach holds her hand telling her she can do this. Using the strength that Zach has given her with his belief in her she can make the spirits cross over. Suddenly the ground begins to move and they see that the graveyard is remaking itself. Cara realises this has never really been Autumn Falls but an old town whose name she did not know and the ghosts had been its inhabitants. Why did it appear as Autumn Falls? Was this some kind of test?

The last threshold brought them to a veil of vines, a rainforest of sorts. They head down to the river with the waterfall and Cara holds Zach’s hand which renders him speechless. Cuteeee! As they stand there something catches Cara’s eye, scales the colour of midnight. Gradually a serpent’s diamond-shaped head emerged from the water and then its endless body slithered onto the shore. The snake then says “Back again so soon.” to which Cara explains this is her first time here and the snake replies “I must have mistaken you for another human, then. My apologies- you have the same eyes.” Could the snake be referring to Laolao or someone else?

The snake asks if Cara is ready to receive the anti-venom to which she replies that she is. When they pull out a vial the serpent laughs and tells them that they won’t need that as she is the vial; a ghost speaker will receive the anti-venom and should they live, they will be able to harness the power imbued in the serpent anti-venom to bring something back to life. Zach is immediately furious over the possibility of risking Cara’s life and refuses to let her do it. She tells him she will do it and he says he can give her the password to his account to receive the money she needn’t risk her life. Cara is hurt that he thinks that is the reason she is doing it but goes along with it. They continue to argue about it until he asks why she is so ready to risk her life for him and that is the moment she finally realises and admits to herself that she loves him. FINALLY!!!!

“The realisation came to her like light in a shadowed room, the shape of it revealing itself line by line, starlit and undeniable. Perhaps it had appeared a moment ago. Or perhaps it had been before her for some time, and her eyes had only just adjusted. Somehow, somewhere along the way, the strings between them had sunk into her skin, and she’d gotten attached. He was threaded into the fiber of her being so intricately, so deeply, that to tear him out would be to tear out some vital piece of herself.”

But in typical Cara fashion, she won’t tell him how she really feels. The miscommunication trope continues to win, but won’t it be sweet when it finally looses? She continues with the lie telling him it’s only for the money and nothing else. She then asks why he is so against the idea since he has nothing to lose and he struggles to answer her and confess his own true feelings.

Cara then goes ahead and tells the snake she is ready and it sinks its fangs into her skin and she screams. Her knees buckle from the pain and she falls, Zach catches her and she blacks out. As her mind fades into the darkness she decides that in the grand scheme of things maybe the universe does not care about her and she should stay in its soothing embrace. Then she hears someone saying her name. “In the midst of all the darkness, the voice was a slice of light. A silver thread shining against the tapestry enfolding her, a lifeline she could hold.” She hears Zach begging her to come back to him which gives her the strength to do so.

Twenty minutes later Cara awakens and the snake creates a portal for them to go back home. It also says it will create one for Brittany once it has granted her gift. Cara and Brittany hug one another goodbye, and Brittany gives Cara her contact information so they can stay in touch. She also encourages Cara not to let Zach get away after everything and to admit how she really feels. The last thing Cara sees as she enters the portal is the snake over the bottle Brittany holds, weeping tears of blood.

Cara arrives in the Wildwoods at dusk and Zach is not with her. She begins shouting for him and a few minutes later he appears again telling her that the snake had one last thing to tell him; he needs to step back into his body for the resurrection to start but once he does that he will be locked into oblivion. Cara takes down the barrier surrounding Zach’s body.

“When I found you here, you told me you’d haunt me for the rest of my life. Don’t go back on your word. Even if I fail, don’t go. Stay and haunt me.”

“If I could have stayed. I would have stayed for you”.

Stopppp, is anyone else crying? My nerves can’t take this!

Zach enters back into his body and Cara now has just 39 minutes left to resurrect him. She kneels by his body’s side and puts a finger to the analyx like she is lighting a candle but once it burns to the ground another springs back up in its place. Resurrecting meant anchoring another life force to your own, so clearing her mind she pictures a string connecting her to Zach. She can almost see it flowing red in the darkness trailing from her heart to his. Is this the red string of fate that was mentioned in day one’s reading?!

She tries to pull on the thread to put his soul back into his body but something else tugs back yanking the thread out of her mental grasp. She tries again and again and again to no avail, the Ouroboros mark burning and pain lancing through her. Despite the immense pain she continues to try until blood is dripping from her nose. She realises that she needs him and at that, she feels the bond latch into place, “the knowing feeling of home settling into her bones. Her end of the thread no longer tore into her heart, but was a part of it, a connection held tight and sure. When she reached for it, she could sense it leading from her heart to his, shining in the dark.” But Zach still doesn’t wake. Time has run out and he is gone. Whyyyyy, my heart cannot take this why isn’t he waking? Is anybody else crying?

Cara begins to beg him to wake up telling him she needs him and to wake up. As she tugged on the bond there was no response. In desperate rage and sadness, she begins ripping all the analyxs up out of the ground whilst new ones continue to pop up in their place. She uses her fire to try and burn the roots and notices a few are burning down and not coming back and one by one they wilted away to dust and ash. Then a groan escapes Zach’s lips and he smiles and looks up at her. She grabs him and hugs him tightly before he can say more than her name and they stay there holding each other.

After a while they both try standing Zach loses his balance and Cara catches him. She puts her fingers on his throat to feel his pulse and remind herself that he is alive again; he pulls her hand noticing the two pinpricks on her wrist and comments how they have matching snakebites. Is this a weird thing to find cute or are we all in agreement that it is super duper cute?! But things get cuter when he then brushes his lips over her wrist. Swooooon. He then tells her that he lied about what he saw in the fog and that it was only her and it’s always been her. Eeeeekkkk are we finally getting a confession? He then lists off all the little things about her and tells her that she makes him real.

“Go ahead and break my heart. I don’t mind. You’re a flame I would happily let burn me alive”. It’s official. I would die for Zach he is such a golden retriever.

She says his name, pulls him down toward her and kisses him. YAY, finally! We have all patiently been waiting for this moment. Cara tells him she thought he didn’t care about her and it was all about saving his life and now she realises that wasn’t the case. (Take that miscommunication trope!) She tells him it wasn’t about the money and she didn’t want to lose him. Zach then mentions he can feel a string connecting them and she tells him about the red string of fate and he smiles.

A moment later her mother Laolao appeared together, a usual sight for Cara I’m sure. They explain they came together to find her as the seven days were up and they thought she might be in danger. Zach uses the glasses they confiscated from Mr. Mortmanager to be able to see Laolao. Cara begins diving into what happened with her grandmother when she tells her to say hello to her mother. Laolao and Zach walk off together leaving Cara and her mom to talk. Cara instantly says sorry but her mother hugs her, apologises and finally calls her xiaogui. They finally resolve their issue and her mom tells her about how Laolao demanded they talk and became more insistent by the day until she couldn’t ignore her anymore. They began communicating through writing on pieces of paper and then this morning when she woke up she could see Laolao again. Their love for Cara brought them back together again.

Our last chapter gives us an insight into the aftermath of everything. Cara has finally accepted her ghost-speaking abilities and decided to embrace them. Upon returning to school she finds Mr. Toole the ghost janitor and helps him to pass over. It is now one week later Cara is at the Fall Festival with her friends on a Saturday night. She and Zach hadn’t seen each other but had been texting all week; discovering that with the string they could tell where the other person was, whether they were far or close. Sensing he is close, she meets his eyes across the clearing and he breaks into a wide grin. He walks over to shouting he has a problem with her and her friend remarks she knew this peace was too good to last. She plays along with it and then he leans in and kisses her in front of everyone at the party. She tells her friends to meet her at the treehouse tomorrow and she will explain everything. She also texts Brittany a photo of her and Zach, him kissing her cheek which Brittany is all too happy about.

Cara and Zach disappear into the forest so he can show her something. He slowly stretches out his arm, palm faceup and then tiny snowflakes appear above Zach’s hand. The string between them quivering. He tells her that he doesn’t get cold anymore and can make snow, ice and freezing wind.

And then finally, we have the epilogue! The first line had me so nervous, a dead man coming back to life and we’re not talking about Zach. “His heart beat for the first time in 50 years”. Who is it and why is he suddenly alive again?!

“This man is alive once more in the starkest, darkest sense of the word, but hs pulse is a death knell. And although there are hardly anything in this world that spirits fear, this man is every single on of them.”

It is then revealed the mans grave reads ‘Ambrose’. Oh no, this is not good. This is the same supervillain Ambrose that Cara’s grandmother had to battle all those years ago and it can’t be a coincidence that he has come back now after all these years. When his fingers make contact with anything it blackens and disappears; his touch is death. The story ends by him saying “Finally” but I have so many questions!

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Wow, what an action packed, romantic and slighly nerve-racking story! And that ending?! I need book 2 immediately!

What did you think of If I Have To Be Haunted by Miranda Sun?
Any theories for book two?

As always, thank you so much for taking part in another FairyLoot readalong! We hope you had the best time and enjoyed the book – we’ll see you again soon for another!

Love,
Jodie