Chapter Twenty-Five
Lonan
“You’re very late, Eliatha-Tethra de Cailleach.” The voice slithered round my ears. “Your mother tried hard to prevent this.”
I approached the hut cautiously. I knew the tales of this place—all fae children were taught about Ogma. But most met her when they were fourteen.
I stepped up to the dark little opening at the side of the hut and leaned down. Ogma’s monstrous eye darted over me frantically, before it crinkled at the corners like she was smiling.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
I wasn’t here to talk. I needed my second name.
“You need my blood?” I asked, already pulling my blade free.
Ogma chuckled. “Eager to see it done. I don’t blame you. You’d suffer more than a broken heart if you killed your oak king. We all would.”
I frowned at that but said nothing, carefully slicing the tip of my blade across the pad of my finger. A big spindly hand appeared through the opening, holding an inkwell. I dripped my blood into it in silence, then sucked my finger when she pulled it back.
“Now your name.”
I leaned in when I saw her tiny, gnarled ear appear at the opening.
“Duinn,” I whispered, the word flowing from me effortlessly. “Eliatha-Tethra Duinn de Cailleach.”
The ear dipped. “A fine name. Tell no one. Keep it safe.”
I nodded and stepped back. I could hear the faint scratch of a quill over paper from within the hut before Ogma chuckled.
“Not as talkative as your oak king,” she commented. “I suppose I’ll send you back.”
“Wait,” I blurted before knowing I was going to say anything.
My heart raced in my chest. Something was telling me… telling me I wasn’t done here. I needed something else. Something other than my second name.
Ogma’s huge eye reappeared. “Hmm?”
I stared at her eye, my chest heaving as I frantically tried to think. I heard her close her book within her hut and give me her full attention, that giant eye narrowing a little in suspicion.
I froze.
The book. The book of names, with every fae name in existence ever recorded.
The Carlin’s name was written in that book.
“I’ll strike you a bargain,” I said quickly, heart spasming when Ogma’s eye flared with surprise.
“For what?”
“Whatever you want.”
She snorted at that, looming closer until her eye almost pressed against the edges of the tiny opening. “And what doyouwant, Death King?”
I licked my lips, wondering how she’d react. She was the Keeper of Names. Her sole purpose was to record fae names and keep them safe. Keep them a secret from everyone alive.
“The Carlin’s name.”
My fingers twitched beside my blade in anticipation of Ogma smashing out of her hut to rip me to shreds.