Best of Luck

Megan has had it with leprechauns. They want nothing more than to take over her luck - something she's not willing to give up. After finding herself locked up in a dungeon on Christmas morning, she vows to take O'Malley down.

Between trying to have a normal life in high school and fighting various fairy tale creatures thrown in her way, Megan barely has time breathe. But when a mysterious darkness begins to snatch the fairies and leprechauns that have protected Megan and her family, she must learn the history of her luck and defeat these evil forces once and for all.

 Not many people could say they spent Christmas of their senior year in an old deserted castle as a prisoner of evil leprechauns.
I wasn’t thrilled to be one of the lucky ones who could. Funny thing, luck.
After all, that’s what got me into trouble in the first place.

I paced back and forth in the small cell, blowing on my hands to warm them while I tried to figure out what to do. They had made the cell magicproof, so I couldn’t call fairies or use my luck to get me out. Mom and Dad must have been worried sick when I didn’t come downstairs that morning to open presents.

The war between me and the council had been going on since I’d let Louie the leprechaun go several months before. They couldn’t summon me because of my necklace, and nothing they sent against me survived for long. Jared, Beth, and I had been
trained too well.

I had been sleeping peacefully in my own bed when the leprechauns somehow appeared in my room and stole the necklace that was supposed to protect me. I only realized it was gone when I suddenly saw Louie in my dreams—something that wasn’t supposed to happen. I yelled for him to get help before I was taken and thrown in here.

I pounded on the bars, prompting laughter from my captors.

“Seriously, guys, get a different laugh. That one is really grating.” Ugh, I needed to get out of here before I froze to death. “Could you at least bring me a blanket? It’s freezing.”

They cackled louder and made obscene gestures.

“Oh, now that’s classy.” I turned away and scooped up as much hay as I could find to make a bed. I figured it could possibly warm me, or I could freeze to death in my sleep. At least that wouldn’t be as painful. Plus, I wanted to see if I could connect with Louie from here, although I doubted it.

I settled in and caught movement on the side of the cell. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying it wasn’t another rat. I’d had enough of those in the last few hours. I felt small feet land on my shoulder and move lightly up to my ear. It had to be April, my security fairy.

“Shh. Don’t say anything. Adam, Jared, and Beth are on their way. We’ll get you out of here.”

“How did you—”

“I said ‘shh’. We don’t want them knowing help is on the way, or things will get much tougher. Louie contacted Maddie through her dreams, and she told your parents.
Sit tight.”

I nodded. I couldn’t do much anyway, but I was thrilled, knowing everything would be okay.  The door rattled, making April gasp and duck down.

“Hey. Get up. The master woul’ like to speak wi’ you.”

I sat up and looked over at the leprechaun standing in the doorway. “The master? That’s what O’Malley’s going by these days?” I hoped April had hidden herself. No need
for them to know I had help.

“Watch yer tongue. Now git out ’ere.” He grabbed me by the arm and yanked me out of the cell.

It was all I needed. I pulled on his luck, pushed it toward the ropes on my arms, and they slipped off. I grabbed the two nearest leprechauns, knocking their heads
together before grabbing a knife from one of them.

April flitted over to me. “Huh. Well, that’s one way to do it. Maybe O’Malley should have come himself.”

“Guess he got cocky. This isn’t over yet, though. I still have to get out, and I have no idea where I am.” I was still freezing, and needed something to warm me up as soon as possible.

She grinned. “That’s where I come in. You sit tight, and I’ll look around for a way out.”

I stared at her. “You know me, right?” I didn’t like sitting still. I had to be the one to save myself.

“Yes, and I suggest you listen, until I can figure out how to help you escape.” April glared at me. “Please?”

“Are all the cells magic-proofed?” I glanced around at the other cells for a way out, or maybe a blanket.

“Most likely. Now that O’Malley has you, I doubt he’s going to let you go without a fight.” April reached out to touch a bar, but pulled back when it zapped her.

“Oh, I intend to give him a fight.” I wanted my necklace back, but more importantly, I wanted to go home. I was missing Christmas.

April sighed. “Can you at least wait until you have backup?”

“Fine.” I sighed. She had a point. We had no idea where we were, so it would be bad if I walked into a trap. I had learned that last year when I ran into a giant spider web.

We crept to the end of the hall and peeked around the corner. There were two leprechauns standing guard next to a wooden door. I looked around for something to throw
and found two stone bowls on the floor. I picked them up and aimed carefully, using a little extra luck as I threw them straight at their heads. The leprechauns went down quickly, with no chance to raise an alarm.

“Not bad.” April flew around the corner.

“Thanks.” I walked past the unconscious leprechauns, but turned back to the door they’d been guarding. “I wonder what’s in there.”

“Why does it matter?”

“They were guarding it. Whatever’s in there might help us.” No one would guard a door without a reason, and I wanted to know what was inside.

April grumbled under her breath. “Would you like me to go find out?”

“One sec. I wouldn’t want you to get caught by a fairy-eating monster.” I peeked through the grates on the door, but it was too dark. “Can you light it up?”

April made a fireball in her hands and threw it into the cell. It only went a few inches before snuffing out. “There’s a magic shield in here for sure. Let’s go.”

“You kidding me? It must be something pretty awesome to have that kind of security.” I pushed away thoughts of home—that could wait just a little longer.

April put her hands on her hips and huffed. “You won’t be able to get into that cell. Your luck wouldn’t work any better than my magic.”

“It might not work on the door, but I can try something else.” I looked at the handle and found a simple padlock. “Hey, April, think you can crack this?”

“Seriously. With all the magic in here, you think they’re going to make the lock breakable?”

“They will if they trust their magic too much.” I pulled luck from myself and played with the lock until I heard a snap. “Ha! See?”

April covered her face with her hands. “I can’t believe you just did that.”

I removed the lock and opened the cell door. The light slowly penetrated the darkness and revealed several sleeping baby dragons surrounding a large cauldron of gold coins. The dragons were beautiful. These didn’t appear quite as evil-looking as the ones I’d fought just a few months before.

“Wow. You just opened a whole heap of trouble. Let’s go.” She yanked on my hair.

“We can’t just leave them. They’re babies. And look at that gold. I wonder whose it is.” I’d only seen Henry’s small cauldron before. Whoever this belonged to must
have collected for decades … or they stole it. I took a step inside, but April
yanked me back.

“Don’t touch it. We need to leave—we’ve been down here too long. And look, the dragons are waking up.” She pointed down at the nearest silver dragon. It snorted out a
puff of smoke and stirred.

“Right. Let’s go.” I shut the door, ignoring the desire to grab some of the gold.

We ran up the stairs and peeked around the corner. It was quiet, which was a little unnerving. Where was O’Malley? April went ahead and waved for me to catch up. The entrance was just ahead, and we made a run for it—and slammed into an invisible barrier. A high-pitched scream sounded throughout the castle. I groaned and pulled myself up off the ground, cursing myself for sounding the alarm. Getting out of there wouldn’t be as easy as running out the front door. April wasn’t moving, so I scooped her up and ran into another room.

I inspected April to make sure she was okay. She was unconscious, but appeared to be uninjured. I heard running through the halls, so I crouched in a wardrobe, closed the door, and and slowed down my breathing, praying my luck would stick and they wouldn’t think to look in this room.

I stayed there for what seemed like hours. Despite my cramping legs, I was able to fall asleep.