Asen Scáth’s chest swole as if stung by a mega wasp. His arms bulged. I’d always had an athletic build. This guy was a more yoked me. Not quite on ‘roids, but swollen enough to rip free of my jacket and shirt. Midnight blackened veins crawled down his plaster-white forearms, leaping from his skin like ebony jump rope. With bare hands, he wrapped his pale fingers around Jade and pulled.

“Aaaaayyyyaaaaaaaaahhhhh.”

His terrible scream blew us all back and seemed to react with the open rift, making it howl louder. Black blood leaked from his hands as he pulled the blade out of the tree and back through his chest.

“But I killed him!”

Nehemiah rolled his eyes at me. “The threefold death applies to all Banshees, Sean. Even the male ones.”

Oh yeah. I’d forgotten that twice before. Third time’s a charm. Except that this wasn’t just a normal Banshee. It was an ominous phantom Fetch possessing a shadow Ban-he version of myself. It turned out that I was going to have to fight a resurrected Asen Scáth. But now his power was that much greater with the spirit of the Fetch residing within.

He chucked Jade at me like a spear. The blade flew faster than I could summon my Luck. A blast of wind knocked it off course. Just barely. I eyed Charice and mouthed thank you. I looked to the rest of my friends.

“This is my demon. I have to face this alone, guys. It’s my fault this thing got out.”

They all looked at me like I was crazy.

“We’re not leaving you alone boss,” said Rob.

“We’re here to help you destroy it,” said Nehemiah.

“Together.” said Charice.

“Woof!” said Tain.

Asen Scáthenegger rose to his full height, shirtless, sporting shredded jeans only. He was super saiyan me, if ever there was one. Deathly pale like mad Bizarro, sculpted like Superman. His white hair blew in the welling power emanating from him. He hunkered down drawing in a huge breath, his aura pulsing.

Pockets of blacker darkness amassed themselves around him like black holes orbiting a pale star. The Keening spread out covering his whole chest like a glowing supervillain emblem. Red claws emerged from his fingers. Shadow blades extended out from his hands mirroring the shape of his clawed hands but skewing out to double his arm length.

He brought his hands together as he screamed. An ebony beam of unrestrained shadow magic shot towards us.

“Duck!” I yelled.

We all barely managed to hit the deck as the beam whizzed by overhead. It seemed to keep going and going, like the Death Star’s laser beam. Crackling energy fell away from the blast onto me, causing me to twitch in pain.

When I got to my feet, the entire dense forest that was behind us had been leveled to a desolate graveyard of tree stumps. The tops of the trees were nowhere to be found. They’d been obliterated out of existence.

“Split up!” I yelled as the shadows encasing Ban-he’s hands morphed into shadow handguns. We all shot in different directions forcing the resurrected buff Asen Scáth to pick his targets carefully instead of trying to annihilate us all in one mega beam.

Charice and owl-Rob flew into the air, both twisting and turning around the shadow shots like dog fighters. Nehemiah and I circled Ban-he moving opposite directions. Nehemiah fired his revolver.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

They kept him distracted while Tain launched straight at shadow Sean. Tain plunged into the air, jaws open wide, fangs ready to latch onto the neck of the Ban-he. At the last second he noticed and caught my dog with a clawed hand flinging Tain to the ground. My dog let out a yelp and lay still.

“No!”

My emotions got the best of me and drew nega-Sean’s attention to yours truly. He fired away with his shadow guns. My Luck let me dodge most of them. Two shots collided with my chest and exploded. The ground rushed up to meet, more than willing to knock the wind out of me.

When I got to my knees, the Ban-he had grounded my friends one by one.

We were all still alive, but battered and bruised. With the combined power of the Fetch and the Ban-he, there seemed to be no lack to his stamina or magic.

There had to be a way for all of us to defeat him. Every time I’d been in situations like this my Luck magic had come through. But every time I’d needed some emotional crux to shatter the self-imposed walls holding my deeper power reserves at bay. I did not want any of my friends to die just to defeat my demon. The power was within me and I needed to get to it, one way or another.

But at the same time, every time things had gotten this bad, there had always been an opportunity for me to join forces with my friends. And this time my friends had gone out of their way to track me down to help me out. After I’d done everything to burn all my bridges with them and make them hate me. I couldn’t do this without them. But we didn’t have time to formulate a plan. Nega-Sean could simply wipe us all out with one more of his ultra-dark mega beams. I needed some way to communicate my plan to my friends. If only they had Luck to guide them like me.

That’s when the idea hit me. Maybe Luck could guide us all.

But I needed to build up first.

“Rob!”

My hobgoblin was at my side in a flash.

“Draw his attention away from me while I gather my Luck.

Rob saluted me and flew off to peck out Asen Scáth’s eyes.

While he did that I nodded to my friends and they got to their feet and attacked Asen once more.

I stayed put. Spreading my legs shoulder width apart, I balanced on the balls of my feet. As vulnerable as it made me, I forced my eyes shut and drew in deep breaths in through my nose. I felt my Good Luck in my hands, in my chest, in my heart. I drew a picture of the Oak tree from memory. I pictured the tree as a whole, from the top of the highest branch, to the bottom of the lowest root. I descended around and through the roots of the tree. An emerald pool of liquid fed the roots, much like the pool of black water in Cliodhna’s fortress. I imagined myself plunging beneath the emerald waters, completely immersed in Good Luck. As I dove into that pool I visualized the Oak tree again. Grabbing hold of its thick branches I let Good Luck magic course through me.

Then I opened my eyes. Power flooded through me, more than I’d ever drawn. Every hair along my arms stood on end. Chills ran down my back as my chest and stomach shuttered with magic energy. Out of pure instinct I knew it was dangerous to hold this much power and I’d have little time to use it before it overwhelmed me.

My friends surrounded Asen Scáth. They closed in on him, but he was gathering power himself, getting ready for another mega beam. And he was aiming it right at me.

It came down to me or him. Whoever could blast the other first, Wild West style.

But instead of unleashing a blast at him, I let the Luck guide me. Ribbons of Celtic knots shot from my fingertips. The lines wove their way, not to Asen Scáth, but through my friends. As the knots intertwined around my friends I sensed a connection to them, an awareness. I lent them my Good Luck letting it guide them as well.

It was like we all knew what to do without talking about it, like we’d formulated a plan beforehand to handle this specific situation.

Tain went in with his fangs again, but knew this time to clamp down not on Asen Scáth’s neck, but the outstretched arm trying to stop the dog. He latched onto Ban-he’s arm drawing black blood as his teeth punctured the pale skin.

Cat-Rob pounced at Scáth, claws extended like he was going to shred his face, but faked it and at the last second shifted into and owl taking to the skies.

His winged fake-out blocked Asen’s view long enough that he did not see the Bad Luck blast that Nehemiah fired from his birch wand. The blast caught him full in the face, throwing his head back.

This whole time I’d charged towards nega-Sean, sprinting at him from the side. With Luck imbued speed I threw my whole body into a flying Bruce Lee kick. My foot caught Asen Scáth right on his oversized Keening. His arms and legs pointed at me like the corpse with rigor mortis setting in as the magical kick sent him flying.

Charice leveled a well-placed wing blast at him, doubling his speed and sending him back into the still standing forest behind him.

The back of his head crashed into a tree branch, closelining him. He front flipped over so fast he became a blur of pale skin and black shadow magic.

The shadow blast he held onto became too much for him. He lost control and it exploded. A black hole opened up with Asen Scáth at the epicenter. He screamed one last Ban-he cry before exploding into black lighting.

The lighting shot right at me, straight for my own Keening scar. I felt immense pain and pressure as the Keening flared, but died down as quick as the pain registered.

Falling to my knees I panted. Within me the Good Luck battled with the Keening curse. I screamed rising to my feet, a rebel to the end. My eyes glowed emerald for a moment. The emerald light of the Good Luck overpowered the Keening curse, withering it back to the shadow depths inside me.

Then the moment passed and both the Luck and the Keening subsided.