If I Have to Be Haunted by Miranda Sun

Author:Miranda Sun [Sun, Miranda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2023-06-09T12:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

As they ran, Cara called Brittany’s name, but no answer came. She stepped on more bones, each crunch a stark reminder of the fog’s past victims.

“What was that?” Zach asked at the sound.

“Bone,” she said grimly.

“Bone?” he repeated, but she tugged him on.

At last they found Brittany in a gap in the fog—the gray writhing in consuming spirals around the struggling ghost hunter. She moved her knives so fast they shredded the fog, but it re-formed moments later. She was attempting to stay out of reach of a fog-formed old woman—Brittany’s grandmother, Cara would guess.

Cara dropped Zach’s hand and shot flames through the center of the gray figure. A hole formed where the fire struck, and the fog screeched. A section gathered itself, darkening, and redirected itself, speeding straight toward Cara. Only a few more hasty blasts of flame kept it from hitting her in the face.

Cara sent more fire into the fog surrounding Brittany. The gray billowed back, hissing with each punch of flame. It retreated enough for Zach and Cara to race into the gap and take up positions at Brittany’s back, forming an outward facing triangle.

Cara knelt. Concentrating, she drew a line of fire in front of her. Flame sprang up, protecting the lower half of her body. It scared and exhilarated her, seeing her fire spark so readily to life.

“Okay, rotate,” she said to Zach and Brittany. “I’m making a circle of fire.”

“Sweet,” Brittany said, panting.

“Shuffle to your right,” Cara ordered. “On three.”

She completed the circle and stood up, wiping her forehead.

The fog circled them like a panther, considering its prey. Cara tried to grow the flames higher, to form a wall around them, but whether it was something mental or physical inside her, she couldn’t force the flames any higher. Seizing its chance, the fog regathered, bunched up like it was tensing, and pounced at Cara’s face. She flung up fresh fire from her hands, slicing the fog into pieces. The tendrils twitched in the air, then turned and moved toward her as one. She swept her arm in a wave of flame, dissipating them.

But there were still more, and more.

This wasn’t working. It had been hard enough to destroy the illusions targeted toward her, but now the fog was angrier, more desperate. She only had two hands, and the fog could splinter itself into a thousand tiny pieces that could worm onto her skin, wriggle under her defenses.

“Cara, if you come home, you’ll be safe,” her mother’s voice said, hands reaching through the gray, and Cara’s heart shuddered.

“Step forward,” Laolao said next. “Didn’t you say you wanted to know? Wouldn’t you do anything for the truth?”

Before fog Zach could fully form, she dispelled him, too.

Her energy flagged, but the fog didn’t seem to grow tired. It was wearing her down like a cat taking jabs at a trapped mouse. Cara could feel the sweat dripping down the back of her shirt and her breathing was becoming more labored by the minute. She was playing straight into the fog’s soul-sucking arms.

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