I settled for, “What are their names?”

He chuckled indulgently. “In her human form, my sister calls herself Chloe. My grandfather is more traditional… but I doubt you would be able to pronounce their true names.”

I pouted, immediately indignant. I recalled how natural saying the alien words from the Necronomicon had felt that day in the school’s arts garden. But that had been like pronouncing them in a trance. I tried to remember some of the phrases from the book. The one Riley had repeated to me two days ago in his home…

Ch’ftaghu shugg Cthulhu! Thr’ghlfnaw.

In my mind’s memory, I could hear Riley’s voice phonating the ethereal syllables so clearly, but when I took a moment to mouth them to myself under my breath, they stumbled all over my tongue in an awkward jumble.

Riley’s eyes widened. “What was that?” he whispered, leaning closer to me.

Crap! I blushed and shook my head. He was right, his heavenly language was beyond my mortal tongue.

He took my chin in his strong hand, making me meet his eyes. “No, I heard you. Say it again. Andromeda. Tiny thing. Speak my name… My true name.”

I felt all the color drain from my face and a fluttery feeling overtook me, and not in a good way. I couldn’t move my face from his grip, but I had to lower my eyes.

“Say it.” It was a command, but there was a gentleness to it as well, almost making it sound like a plea at the same time.

I swallowed thickly and took a shallow breath. “Tha-thoo-loo,” I muttered inanely.

He blinked and then a moment later, laughter burst from him. “Oh, the human tongue is a source of infinite amusement to me!”

I tried to twist away, to pull back from him, but he held me tightly.

“But no, little one.” He smirked. “Not quite.”

I scowled and set my jaw. There just weren’t enough vowels. I couldn’t wrap my mouth around all the consonants. But I had done it before. It had to be possible. I closed my eyes and tried to remember the feeling of him… his true name… in my mouth, on my lips, on my tongue.

I tilted my face up and looked him boldly in the eye. I took a deep breath, and… “Cthulhu!”

And then horror… horror!

Before my very eyes I saw, as if in sudden slow motion, a droplet of saliva fly forth from my mouth. Time at once became a crawl, and there was nothing that I could do to stop the drop from arcing through the air, crossing the close distance between us, and landing squarely on Riley’s upper lip.

I gasped, immediately clamping a hand over my mouth. I knew I should apologize. Oh god! But I was entirely tongue-tied.