The Dullahan’s spinal whip lashed out at the unsuspecting enthusiastic heavyset guy. He was the first park goer to become monster food.

After the terrifying realization of their imminent deaths, the crowd of folks erupted into frenzied mayhem.

I wasted no time summoning my Luck magic. Emerald Celtic knots laced down my arms and over my blade.

My mind raced, mentally pitting myself up against each monster that I’d already encountered, fought, and defeated. I wondered if there was some order I should tackle them in. The Banshees harnessed the most destructive force next to the Dullahan himself. The Sluagh owned the skies and would use that to their advantage. The Merrows were out of their element, but their razor sharp teeth were nothing to write off.

The horde of Fear Gortcha filled me with dread the most, simply because I’d never faced them and did not know what to expect. But the Dobar-chus skittered on four stubby legs that allowed them to move the fastest through the amusement park. They were the ones I had to deal with first. I could still hear the screams of Jeremy the jogger and his distraught girlfriend as the oversized monster otters played tug of war with his body.

I could not let any more innocent people die.

Without second guessing I charged ahead at a Dobar-chu. My quick movement caught its hungry gaze. Even on stubby legs, the thing’s head came up to my shoulder height. I’d need to find a way to end these things with efficiency and minimal use of my power. There were a lot of monsters to slay and I didn’t want to run dry early.

As I neared the creature, it cocked its neck back for a snap attack. I waited until I was within range, then turned sideways and redirected my forward momentum into a sideflip. The Dobar-Chu took the bait and snapped its jaws straight ahead. But I flipped up and over its lowered skull. As I completed the rotation I thrust Fragarach down, sinking the blade into the creature’s brain. It writhed but I held onto the hilt and wrenched it free.

Another Dobar-chu answered my cry. As its neck snapped at me, Luck coursed through my legs. I spun around the snapping jaws bringing my sword around and down in an arch, plunging Fragarach into the creature’s neck. The cry escaping its maw was choked out by the depth of my slice.

Luck took ahold of me, guiding my movements. It was becoming second nature to me now and I didn’t even have to think. I simply trusted my instincts.

I dipped my head into a no-handed cartwheel, kicking a diving Sluagh in the beak. Its beak cracked under the force of my foot. The bird smashed into the cement with a sick crunch. Black ichor splattered across the ground.

Three down. But there were so many more.

Monsters everywhere grappled with fleeing people. Sluagh dive-bombed, scooping up victims in their talons and hoisted them skyward. The horde of Fear Gotcha created a bottle-neck, so that the crowd of people not snatched up by the monster birds had nowhere to run.

Gavin plunged Jade into beast after beast, felling Dobar-chus, Merrows, and Irish zombies. But the carnage the monsters caused was already taking its toll. All of the death and destruction overwhelmed me. It was too much to witness. There were too many people to save, and too many already dying or dead.

I closed my eyes and let Luck fill me, then guide me.

A guttural cry exploded from my mouth as I defied the monsters.

Emerald Luck magic gathered in Fragarach. I felt its command over water drawing in the mist around me like a reverse fog machine. I vaulted off of a park bench, and chambered a huge sword swing. At the height of my jump I slashed the air. A Luck-charged sheet of razor sharp water shot from Fragarach. The magic beam cut through a whole slew of monsters, severing them in half.

But my attack drew the gaunt undead horde of Fear Gortcha, like mosquitoes drawn to sweet blood. As one hive-mind flash mob, their heads spun, hollow eyes fixed on me.

Icy fear gripped me. Defiant, I raised Fragarach and charged.

A Banshee blast knocked me off my feet. My head hit the pavement first. I saw stars. The rumble of hundreds of Irish zombie feet stomping the ground shook my resolve. I tried to harness Fragarach’s power to summon water from the lake, but the aquatic sword escaped my hand in the fall, sliding beyond my reach.

The undead mob collided into me like a stampede of skeletons. Feet, knees, elbows, and fists overpowered me. Heels stomped me to the ground like a Popeye’s chicken sandwich rush.

It happened so fast I couldn’t react, couldn’t even fight it. After a time the onslaught ended, but it still felt like invisible feet were crushing me. I clawed my way up to my knees. My ears rang. Blood ran from various cuts. Bruises and welts already started to swell. I’m sure I’d have a black eye, if not two.

Why the horde didn’t circle back to finish me off, I didn’t know. Then two bucking hooves blasted me.

Oh, the Dullahan charged me. That’s why.

I backflipped across the food court and crashed into the hotdog stand. Footlong links buried me. Frank-water drenched my clothes in liquid sodium. The broken umbrella pole stabbed my back.

Before I could get to my feet, the headless rider’s spinal whip lassoed my legs. He flung me into a gathering of outdoor tables and chairs. A metal table cushioned my fall. Just kidding. The Dullahan flung me so hard, the table crumpled like aluminum foil under my body.

I tried to rise. Ouch. Something was broken. Maybe a lot of things.

The Dullahan’s steed pawed the ground, preparing for a final charge. My brain moved at snail speed. At least I got to my feet. But without the tables and chairs to support me, I’d be a tottering Jenga block set.

Drool and blood dripped from the edge of my mouth. I wiped it on the back of my hand, balled it into a fist, and taunted the Dullahan. “Is that all you got, Skeledork?” In my head it sounded cooler.

The skull grinned wider, it seemed. Somehow it’s hollow eye sockets twinkled. The headless jerk would enjoy putting me down like a dog. He kicked the black horse into a gallop. I tried to brace myself, but my footing felt unsure, like I was on a boat rocked by waves.

There’d been many times in the past few months that I felt like I was gonna die. It was a regular occurrence, in fact.

So when those feelings welled up in me like acid reflux, I just swallowed them back down like the corrosive worries they were.

Hey, I landed near Fragarach.

With heavy hands I scooped the sword off the ground and raised it as high as my shaking arms could lift. If this horse was going to charge me, I’d make sure it got the sharp end of the stick. There was a chance I couldn’t even kill the Dullahan, him being already dead, or undead. Might as well put down his steed.

From nowhere Gavin dashed into the horse’s path. He thrust Jade through the horses head. The beast front flipped over itself, sending the Dullahan and his loose skull sprawling in different directions.

The body crawled after the skull, skeletal hands groping aimlessly. The body seemed to get frustrated and gave up looking for the skull. Instead it flailed the spinal whip with a crazed energy. The whip lashed out destroying everything is struck. Dining tables and chairs split in pieces. Windows in the restaurants shattered. A costumed clown employee went down in a spray of scarlet.

Though Jade protruded from its head, the Dullahan’s horse tried to rise. It’s defiant snort sent rumbles through my chest. Gavin tried to retrieve Jade, but the stallion spun and kicked him with heavy hooves.

Gavin went soaring.

“No,” I yelled.

For a moment Gavin did not stir. Then his eyes blazed with blood-orange light. He kip-upped into a fighting stance and delivered a roar to match the horses snort. His throat glowed like fireplace embers and heat waves distorted his face like a desert mirage.

“Gavin?”

My brother grabbed his head and screamed in pain. He suffered from migraines whenever he tapped into his powers. But this time he didn’t recoil from the pain. He seemed to be using it to draw deeper from his power source. Two nubs on his forehead throbbed. He screamed louder still while the horse charged him. I raced towards the horse to try and cut it off, but it was pointless. Between me and my brother was headless Skeletor waving his bone whip like a madman.

But I didn’t need to save Gavin. He handled it just fine.

In the same breath that horns split his forehead skin, fire shot from his open mouth like a flamethrower. The inferno stream washed over the horse setting it ablaze. With a sickening whinny it rose up on its hind legs, but it was too late. It trotted away a few steps before collapsing into a heap of smoking bones befitting its skeletal rider.

There was no time to celebrate. Despite having no head, the Dullahan found his target. Me.

We went toe to toe. With Lucky blocks and parries, I kept the whip at bay no matter how fast the strikes came. And they were quick. Sparks flew off the blade with each spinal whip contact.

His strikes were so empowered, they left score marks half a foot deep in the pavement. Good thing Manann mac Lir crafted Fragarach with magic.

As the fight wore on, my body wore out. I didn’t know how much longer I could keep it up. I needed to find the skull and destroy it.

My brother read my mind.

“Sean, up high!”

Gavin snagged the skull and threw it my way. Years of martial arts training kicked in. I pushed my Good Luck into my legs lending power to my jump. I lept straight up, spinning as I went. Celtic knots trailed behind my leg as I thrust it out with all my might.

The spin kick traveled through the skull, exploding it into splintered bone.

Green steam rose off my sneaker as I landed. An eye socket looked up at me and I stomped it out with a satisfying crunch.

The headless body collapsed in a heap of loose bones.

“So falls the Dullahan.” Relief washed over me. I beat my fists against my chest. We’d done it.

A horned and heaving Gavin joined my side. A heat wave bathed my skin like I was standing too close to a fireplace.

I gawked openly at his horns, then noticed his glowing eyes again. “You okay bro?”

He inhaled deep and nodded. His fists were clenched, his teeth gritted, like he was still fighting. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just resisting.”

“Resisting what?”

His eyes flared matching his grunting. “The urge to give in completely. To fully shift.”

“Shift into...?” I had a pretty good idea what my brother was now that I’d seen him in action. What was one more weird curse in my family? My dad was a Celtic werewolf. I was some kind of Luck magic wannabe druid, and Gavin could breathe fire and had five inch horns sprouting from his skull. Sounded like he was a dragon shifter to me.

My brother didn’t answer my question. He was focusing completely on fighting the urge to shift. His grunting turned into yelling until his horns retracted all the way back into his skin. Much like my Luck magic healed me, his skin sealed itself over the horn wounds, leaving no scars, like they never even were there.

“Explains the migraines, I guess,” I said.

“Stop staring at me,” he snapped. “We still got plenty more monsters to finish off.”

Apparently resisting the transformation made him grouchy. I didn’t blame him. It looked painful. But he was right.

My brother and I took off following the terrifying screams echoing throughout the park.

We came to a juncture that boasted a large dolphin sculpture centerpiece, the park water fountain. But that wasn’t the main attraction.

Monster corpses littered the ground. Blasts of Bad Luck magic filled the air along with the shots of a .357 magnum revolver. The night sky glowed with amethyst light.

“The wizard,” I growled.

At the moment he grabbed an ice cream stand with his wand and redirected it into a Sluagh swooping down to peck his eyes out. Metal and bird bones smashed together. He downed the bird beast then visibly siphoned the Chaos out of it, funneled it through his body and out of his wand. “Ukuqhuma!” he yelled as a purple fireball laced with electric sparks shot out of the wand into a group of Fear Gortcha. The already taut skin and bone frames shriveled into fetal positions, groaning as they burned.

The wizard caught us out of the corner of his eye and spun, leveling his wand and revolver at us. For a moment our reflections burned in his purple gaze, then he flipped his revolver, spinning it several times before holstering it.

“O’Farrells. Sorry. Didn’t know you were here too…”

“I didn’t know you were still fighting monsters,” I countered. “I figured you’d become one by now.”

The entire time Nehemiah failed to meet my gaze. In fact, he ignored my comment altogether.

“Gavin. Nice to see you.”

“Yep.” My brother nodded to the wizard, remaining neutral.

My grip tightened on Fragarach. The recycled water in the dolphin fountain stirred, waiting to be summoned by the aquatic sword and unleashed on the betrayer.

Without thinking about it I summoned my Good Luck, which was no easy feat to do in a zone this laced with Chaos.

The wizard sensed my gathering power. “Now is not the time, Sean,” said the wizard. “Listen. As much as you hate me, put that aside for a moment. Look around.”

I noticed human corpses intermingled with dead Banshees, Merrow, and other creatures of Chaos.

“We’ve got to spread out and search for survivors.”

Purple wings in the air caught my eye. Charice landed next to us. “There you are.”

She ran up threw her arms around me. I pushed her back at arm’s length. “Did you find my family?”

“Are they safe?” asked Gavin.

Charice nodded. “They’re with a group of survivors over at the Hilton.”

Gavin and I shared a deep breath of relief.

“What about you guys and the monsters?”

“Sean took out the Dullahan,” said Gavin.

“For good,” I added. “Gavin slew his horse.”

“And I,” said Nehemiah, butting in, “took as many of the rest as I could.”

“Hope you got another bullet. Check down the barrel, because it looks like you forgot one.”

I stepped towards him.

“Hey, hey,” said Charice. She put a soft hand on my chest, over my Keening scar. “Not now.”

“Why not?” I asked, eyeing her, then Gavin. “What’s one more corpse tonight? Nobody will even bat an eye.”

I pushed past Charice. Nehemiah did not approach me, but he did not back down either.

Gavin cut me off. “Charice is right bro. Look around. It’s bigger than you, than us.”

I pushed forward another step, but was secretly grateful my brother was holding me back.

He sealed the deal when he whispered in my ear, cutting through all of the raw emotions. “Dad’s still alive. What he did was wrong. But this doesn’t feel right either. Forget him.”

I gritted my teeth and snarled. My nostrils drew in long breaths as I tried to calm down.

A strong magical presence gave us all pause. Our eyes were drawn to the night sky. A crow the size of a hummer glided in circles above us, descending to meet us.

“Another Sluagh,” growled Nehemiah. He raised his revolver, but I grabbed his wrist and forced him to lower his arm.

The ebony bird spread its wings to land and shifted into an elegant ivory skinned woman framed with black hair.

“The Morrigan,” I said.