19. If You Can’t Be Quiet, At Least Be Entertaining

Chapter 19

If You Can't Be Quiet, At Least Be Entertaining

"What the fuck just happened?"

Nylian huffed out a weary laugh as he snuggled his face even closer into the crook of my neck. "Even if you're new to this, you should still be able to recognize what we did."

My head thunked on the door, and I winced. My legs were trembling, barely holding me up, and yet my arm was still wrapped around Nylian's waist as though I'd kill the person who even thought of trying to separate us. Static continued to dominate my brain, and part of me hoped that it would never come back online.

"I tried being subtle with you, but it wasn't working," Nylian continued, the laughter growing in his voice.

My eyes popped open, and I jerked to the side enough that I could meet his sleepy gaze. "What do you mean, subtle? What are you talking about?"

"See? This is what I mean. I flirted with you, but you seemed oblivious to it. I figured if you weren't interested, you'd reject me outright."

"You flirted, yeah, but I thought that was a joke."

Nylian stared at me for a second, his lips flat as if he were thoroughly unamused by my comment. He slipped out of my grasp and stretched his arms over his head, the movement almost catlike. He dropped them to his sides with a sigh. "I'll go clean up, and then we can get to snooping."

"It was a joke, right?" I called after him, panic creeping into my voice. Nylian ignored me. I glanced at myself. My clothes were a mess, and my dick was hanging out. Yeah, couldn't really claim it was a joke. My cock was still blissed out over the best blowjob of my life.

How had this happened?

Well, clearly, it had started with Nylian being attracted to me. Or rather, this body I'd tumbled into. Not that it was a bad body. Actually, it was quite an upgrade from what I'd had. This one was well-built, muscular, and had a damn sexy face. I couldn't complain.

But all of the earlier sexiness wasn't a one-way street. After that initial shock, I'd kissed him back with everything I'd had. I had held him in my arms and enjoyed the feel of him there. There had been no hesitation when it came to letting him suck my brain out of the end of my dick. Yet, that wasn't enough for me.

The moment I'd felt and heard his neediness to come too, the moment he'd said my name, everything had changed. I'd wanted to give him the same ecstasy I'd felt. I'd wanted to give him joy and pleasure and that intense feeling of being safe and free in the arms of another.

So…I was bisexual.

Why the hell hadn't I noticed earlier?

Probably because I'd always been attracted to women, and that was easy in my old world. That gave me a safe way out. It meant that I didn't have to listen to the voice in my head that said, "Whoa! That guy's hot!"

But Nylian hadn't given me the chance to ignore that same voice that had been fawning over him from the first second I'd opened my eyes and seen him hovering above me.

Sorry, gay half of my libido. That was totally on me. And maybe on the society I'd been living in. If this was what sex was like with gay men, I'd missed out on a lot.

"And before I forget…" Nylian announced, marching out of the bathroom with a stern expression. His pants were closed, but his shirt was now missing, giving me an excellent view of his strong, muscular chest.

Yes, I think I'm going to enjoy being bi very much.

"You're mine."

That statement had my brain blinking on. "What?"

Nylian stopped and poked my left shoulder with one finger. "You're mine. That means you may not flirt with anyone, especially women."

"What are you talking about?" The elf was losing his goddamn mind. "When have I flirted with anyone?"

"You've flirted with countless barmaids, most of the women in that soap shop in Riverhold, Adeline, and?—"

"Oh my God, you're crazy! I haven't flirted at all. I was being friendly. You're just upset that I haven't flirted with you." Nylian's mouth shut with a click of his teeth, and I gasped. "That's what started this. You thought I was flirting with those two women at the ball!" I threw my hands up and tried to march away from the door, only to have my pants slide down my thighs. Cursing my pants and the ridiculous man behind me, I fought to get them up. "I wasn't flirting with them. I went over to talk to them to get them to flirt with you."

In the blink of an eye, the elf was in front of me, a complicated expression on his face that I couldn't read, but tonight had shown me I was terrible at reading what was going on in his head.

"You were trying to get me laid?"

I rolled my eyes. That was oversimplifying, but I didn't want to get into it. "More or less."

"And you said something similar about Adeline, too."

"True."

His strange expression cleared into a soft smile that did funny things to my heart. I was probably still in the middle of a heart attack over what we'd done against the door. He cupped my cheeks with his hands and pressed a tender kiss to the corner of my mouth. "The only one I want in my bed is you. If you can arrange for that to happen each and every night, I will be perfectly happy. You are mine, Lockhart. Don't forget that." He released my face, snagged my non-cum-crusted hand, and pulled me to the bathroom. "Let's get you cleaned up. But not too much. It's good that you smell like me now. Let all those wretches out there know they can't touch you."

"What does that even mean, ‘You are mine'?"

He smirked as he pushed me to sit on the edge of the enormous bathtub. "Mine? You don't have that word in your world?"

"Asshole," I muttered. "Does that mean that I must be monogamous to you alone while you go off and add me and a dozen other men and women to your harem?"

"What harem?" Nylian laughed as he dampened a cloth and brought it over. "I don't have a harem."

I almost shouted in his face that he was supposed to be like twelve women deep in his harem, but I held those words in. Apparently, I was the reason he didn't have a harem. "You're going to have one. I'm sure you're going to begin stocking it the minute your father is shown the truth and you're welcomed home. Oh, wait. You're not expecting me to be around that long. You just want to have some fun while you're trapped outside of your home."

I stood, wanting to get away from him…and myself. My head was a mess. This was supposed to be a subtle fact-finding conversation about what he thought about his one-day harem. But there was a strange tightness growing in my throat, and my chest hurt every time I thought about all those other women and men who would be falling over themselves to get close to him. I didn't want to think about them or how it was only a matter of time before he'd forget me.

Nylian grabbed a fistful of my shirt and pulled downward, forcing me to sit. As soon as I did, he captured my lips in a slow, drugging kiss that helped to sweep aside the rampaging thoughts and emotions filling my brain. I kissed him back, my hands coming to rest on his hips, holding him close.

He broke off the kiss and pressed a second, lighter one to the center of my forehead. "Idiot," he mumbled, but the word was full of warm affection. "I've lost my best friend and brother. Been accused of murdering him. Been exiled from my home. The only thing that should matter to me is catching the actual murderer and clearing my name. Yet, every day, my mind is full of you. What crazy thing is Lockhart going to say today? What can I do to make him smile at me ? What can I do to convince him to see me as more than a friend?"

"Nylian…" I choked out, but stopped, unsure what to even say.

"I don't know how long this is going to last. I expect to be killed long before I can present my proof to my father. However, if these are my last days, I want them filled with you. I want you with me when I find the truth, because when you're near me, I don't feel as if the task in front of me is impossible."

"I'm not going anywhere without you," I declared, and it had nothing to do with the damn book or my reckless plotting. This man, somewhere along this journey, had become my everything, and I wasn't ready to let him go.

"As for others…" He paused and smirked. "You are my harem of one. My one and only. I need no one else, and that is how it will remain."

I didn't know how to respond to that. Everything felt too big, too overwhelming in that moment. Thankfully, Nylian didn't seem to need a response. Smiling to himself, he helped me get cleaned up and pulled together so that I could at least fake being a normal human being and not some mindless creature who'd just had his entire world upended.

"While you were napping this afternoon, I discovered that King Beldroth's offices are on this floor but in the opposite wing," Nylian said as he walked toward our door.

That snapped me out of my fugue state. "Hey! You said you wouldn't leave our rooms." And I'd napped for barely an hour. The damn elf was sneaky and fast. If I tagged along, would I be holding him back? There was little question that he'd be able to move faster and quieter without me.

Nylian glanced over his shoulder at me and winked. "It was some preliminary sneaking."

"Maybe I should stay here. We already caused a scene in the ballroom because you were jealous. I don't want to get you caught now."

The elf caught my hand and pulled me out the door. "But you have to come with me. If we get caught, we're each other's alibi."

Yeah, I didn't want to know more. The idea of sneaking into the king's private offices and going through his papers was enough to send my stomach into knots.

"What about the party?" I whispered as we walked down what appeared to be an empty hallway. There was always a chance that servants or guards were hiding in some niche or alcove that I had yet to spot. "Are the king and queen going to be pissed that we left so early? You were the guest of honor."

Nylian snorted, his grin growing wider. "They might have been if we didn't give them the greatest gift of all as we left—something to gossip about."

I rolled my eyes but didn't argue with him. He was right. They had been happy to talk about me while I was standing right there. Now they had a chance to talk about Nylian and me.

As we strolled casually through the hall, Nylian made a show of wrapping an arm around me and holding me close. We kept up the show of being lovers, meandering through the corridors as though we were lost. The servants we passed were few, since everyone's focus was on the hundreds of people who filled the ballroom below us. Once, he even spun me and pinned me to the wall. I opened my mouth to ask what the hell he was doing, only to have it filled with his tongue. I started to push him away, when I heard a surprised gasp followed by a low snicker.

A guard.

The asshole had spotted a guard on patrol, and he'd kissed me to throw the guy off our trail.

Nylian ended the kiss, and I scowled at him.

"You could have warned me," I stated as I shoved away from the wall.

"Not enough time."

I didn't believe that one tiny bit. "You're enjoying this too much."

"Too much? Is that even possible?" Nylian threaded his fingers through mine. "I think I'm enjoying this just the right amount. I enjoy being able to kiss you whenever I want. It will keep you away from those women you like to flirt with."

A groan rattled up my throat, and I turned my attention to the hallway we were walking down. There was no point in trying to tell him yet again that I'd only been talking to those women in the hope of setting him up with his next great love.

We were definitely away from the guest chambers as the decor shifted from light and airy so something heavier, as if we'd stepped into a shadowy forest. The landscape paintings on the wall shifted to enormous, towering portraits of men in crowns and holding swords. The white marble that had filled the other hall now became a river of black.

"This is a bad time to ask, but is there any magic in this hallway to alert them to our presence?"

Nylian shook his head, his playful expression dissolving into a grim glare. "Nothing that I've detected."

Near the end of the hall, we located a pair of double doors with shining silver handles. They were grand things that looked like they belonged to a king's office or study. Nylian moved in front of me and cautiously placed a hand on the door handle, easing it lower without making a sound. He poked his head into the crack as soon as it was large enough and scanned the room. My heart raced as I expected to see a full battalion of soldiers come rushing out to arrest us.

There was nothing but silence.

With a quick grin that I knew was ninety percent relief, Nylian pulled me into the lavish study. There were more giant portraits of past kings and battles that appeared to be between two elf armies. Probably a super biased record of the split between the Wolfrest elves and the Galinaes elves. Shelves also lined the walls, filled with books and scrolls.

In the center of the room was a grand desk that was an interesting mix of marble and silver. Nylian and I rushed over to it, riffling through the various papers there and bits of notes, but there wasn't much to be found. Most of it seemed to be incomplete thoughts about what to have for lunch and ideas for a new saddle design or a new bow design. There was even a reminder to some general about adding a new flourish to the City Watch uniforms.

"Nothing," Nylian snarled, making me flinch after the extended silence.

We'd been in the room for no more than five minutes, but the racing of my heart and the sweat sliding down from my temple argued that we'd pushed our luck by being in there as long as we had. Either way, we'd gone through all the notebooks, papers, and files on the king's desk. There were still the copious number of scrolls and books on the shelves, but if he'd made some deal to arrange the death of Orian, why would he hide the notes there? It wasn't as if he could have guessed that Nylian would show up on his doorstep.

"You said the king was little more than a figurehead. That Galinaes is a matriarchy." I paused and took a deep breath, hating myself for even thinking it, let alone saying the words out loud. "Do you think we should check the queen's study? If someone was going to make a move against Wolfrest, doesn't it make more sense that it would be at the queen's command?"

Nylian stared at me for a second before grunting. "You're right. I'm an idiot."

Frowning, I straightened from where I was bent over the desk and punched his shoulder. "I didn't say that. It's good that we checked this one."

Nylian made another disgruntled sound. He didn't buy my attempt to smooth things over. "If we can't find something with the queen, we have to decide whether it is worth it to linger in Ulmenor for a few more weeks to see if we can identify the nobles who have some power and might benefit from a war between Galinaes and Wolfrest."

My stomach churned, and I almost whimpered. Staying in Galinaes for another day was a bad idea. Even if the queen had nothing to do with Orian's death, I didn't put it past her to want to use Nylian for some nefarious plot.

No, the sooner we got the fuck out of here, the better.

"Come on," Nylian urged as he walked around the desk to the double doors. "I think the queen's study is going to be on the next floor up."

I caught up with him after taking an extra second to make sure everything was exactly as it had been before we entered the room. "Makes sense." Higher in the castle was more prestigious. Plus, she'd probably want more space between her and the husband she didn't seem to like very much.

After a peek into the hall to make sure no one had come along behind us, we were out of the king's office and hurrying the way we'd come. Nylian remained snuggled close, his arm on my waist, but this time was far less playful, a new tension humming through his frame.

With a hard swallow, I turned my face toward his and brushed the lightest kiss across his cheek, causing his fingers to dig into my side almost painfully. "We'll figure this out together."

His eyes found mine, and the smile that had been missing returned. "You're right. We will."

At the next intersection in the corridor, we found a wide set of stairs that had no guards. Nylian made a show of giggling and pinning me to the white marble handrailing to kiss me senseless. The damn elf was enjoying this part more than necessary, but I couldn't bring myself to call a stop to it. When Nylian wasn't reveling in the fact that I reciprocated his attraction, he was brooding about his brother's killer, and I didn't want him to get lost in that darkness.

The decor changed yet again on the next floor, creating a starkly different feel. The colors were all blues and grays with swirls of white and yellow. It was as if we were walking through a painting of the Milky Way. The lighting was dimmer here, and I depended on Nylian's sharp vision to spot guards. Paintings hung on the walls at regular intervals, but they were all of women in everything from elegant gowns to shining armor on the backs of white steeds. These were the queens who were likely to be considered the heart of the kingdom of Galinaes.

After seeing the two sides of the married royals, I now ached to walk through the halls of Wolfrest's royal castle. Would there be this strange dichotomy as well, or would the entire castle favor the king?

"Where are the prince and his pet?"

I jumped and twisted around at the sudden intrusion of the queen's voice as it bounced cold and hard off the marble walls.

"The servant following them stated they were in his private quarters, Your Majesty." The assistant cleared his throat. "Judging by the noises coming from the other side of the door, we believe they should be occupied for the rest of the evening."

My mouth fell open on a silent gasp as I turned toward the speaker. His voice grew louder as the queen and her companion came up the stairs behind us. Nylian slapped his hand over my mouth to keep me from giving away our position. With a fistful of my shirt, he dragged me away from the upper railing and into the shadows of the queen's private floor.

I could still hear Sumina's derisive snort. "Like anyone believed he wasn't fucking that human."

That bitch!

Thankfully, Nylian kept a firm hold on me, stopping me from giving her a piece of my mind. The sexy elf prince wasn't fucking me. I suspected that he very much wanted to, though.

Besides, her icy self was probably jealous that she didn't have someone as sexy, brilliant, and caring in her life.

I was still telling Sumina off in my head when Nylian pulled aside a thick, dark-navy velvet curtain and shoved me inside a shallow alcove. As the curtain closed behind Nylian, I glimpsed a broom, a bucket, and some cloths that were likely for cleaning. This was a niche to storing servants' cleaning supplies away from the sight of the queen and anyone coming to petition her.

Sigh . We were in a fancy broom closet.

"Has there been any news from General Luvon?" Sumina demanded, her voice growing louder as they approached our hiding spot.

"Nothing yet, I'm afraid," her assistant answered. "Are you sure this isn't the doing of the Edros royal family? There have been plenty of whispers about that prince hating Wolfrest and wanting to seize the farmland they'd lost to the elves centuries ago."

The dismissive sound from the queen dripped disdain. "The humans of Edros are useless. If they had any chance of doing something effective against Wolfrest, they wouldn't have lost that section of land in the first place."

I stiffened, my breath trapped in my lungs. It sounded like they were standing right outside of the curtain. My heart hammered, and I prayed they wouldn't hear it. Elves were supposed to have heightened senses compared to humans, but not that good, right?

"Lockeheim is the only country with a long and lurid history in the cultivation of poisons. Someone got them involved in this matter." She sounded thoughtful for a second before the hard soles of her shoes clacked on the floor again, moving away from us. "Send another messenger south to Luvon. I want to know who poisoned the Wolfrest prince. In the meantime, have the servants continue to watch Prince Xeran's movements and make sure he stays happy. While we're a step behind someone else in destroying Wolfrest, we can still use the prince as leverage. If he causes problems, grab his pet and lock him up. Maybe even cut off a body part to show Xeran he needs to take this more seriously."

Oh, we were getting the fuck out of Ulmenor. I wouldn't let anyone slice bits and pieces off me.

Nylian also seemed less than thrilled with the queen's plans. His hands tightened on me and his body shifted so that more of him was standing in front of me, as if he meant to act as a fleshy shield. Nope, not happening. We were getting the fuck out of Dodge.

As their voices grew softer and more distant, Nylian prodded the curtain aside a sliver to peek out into the corridor. My heart raced as Nylian seized my wrist and pulled me into the hall. We hurried as quickly and quietly as we could across the floor to the stairs.

Unfortunately, the heel of my boot caught on the edge of one stair. I plunged forward, hitting Nylian hard in the back. The elf caught himself to stop us from tumbling down the stairs, but it meant he was forced to slap his hand against the wall to halt our momentum. We froze, our breaths trapped in our lungs as we strained to hear if Sumina or her assistant had heard that.

"Shit," Nylian whispered. His fingers tightened on my arm and he jerked me forward. We raced along the stairs. I couldn't hear anything over my pounding heart and the rub of our clothes as we moved, but I trusted his superior senses. If he believed someone was coming behind us, I didn't question him.

On the floor that held our chambers, he pulled us along the hall but stopped and jerked me into another curtained niche. My spine thudded on the wall and Nylian's full length crashed into me. His mouth covered mine in a stunningly deep kiss that threatened to wipe my mind completely clear. What were we doing in here?

Nylian lifted his mouth from mine only to drag it along my jaw to my ear. "Be loud, and make it convincing," he hissed.

I nearly asked him what he was talking about when I heard the faint scuff of a shoe in the hallway outside of our closet. Someone was here. Possibly the same someone who'd been walking with the queen seconds ago. We were going to be discovered. Not good. Not good at all.

"Just couldn't wait until we made it to our room," Nylian said, louder this time. It was above a whisper and full of naughty taunting.

Had he lost his freaking mind?

The thought had barely crossed my mind as he shifted to slip a hand between us. Those strong fingers pressed into and caressed my cock through my pants, squeezing out a surprised moan before I could catch it. I could feel his smile against my throat as he purred, "That's my good boy."

Oh, I got it. He wanted to throw the person off our scent by making him think he'd caught us screwing around in the closet.

Except Nylian wasn't willing to fake this. The elf was massaging my dick and kissing along my jaw as though his only goal in life was to make me come in my pants.

"Please…Your Highness," I managed through clenched teeth, though I wasn't quite sure what I was pleading for.

While my brain argued that this wasn't real, my body had other ideas, and a rush of blood to my cock left me light-headed. Heat suffused my cheeks as I grew harder. This was fucking embarrassing. Nylian couldn't possibly have meant to turn me on. It hadn't even been that long since he'd sucked me off, and I was hard like an out-of-control teenager discovering all the neat things his cock could do.

"Your…Your Highness…I'm…I'm sorry," I stammered, trying to suppress my longing.

"No, my precious. No apologies. I love how you need me. Love how you trust me to pleasure you."

It was becoming hard to determine where the playacting ended and reality began. My gaze darted to the floor, where the curtain hung about an inch above the marble. There was a faint shadow crossing over the light. Someone was standing outside the closet, listening to us. That should have had a shriveling effect on my rampaging libido, but there was something about the threat of danger mixed with the thrill of Nylian's touch that sharpened the edge to everything.

As he spoke, Nylian tugged at the front of my pants, opening them. That answered that question. We were really fucking doing this. What better way to fool someone into believing you were fucking in the closet than actually fucking in the closet? To hell with the pervert standing outside the curtain. If he was going to stand there listening, we were going to make him wish he had more than a hand for his dick.

With clumsy, trembling fingers, I attacked Nylian's pants, fighting to free his cock. I turned my head and seized his mouth in a deep, hungry kiss that wrung a happy moan from him. The voyeur dropped to the shadows of my mind as my tongue tangled with Nylian's, allowing me to revel in the taste of him. His magical scent encased me, and it was like we were in the forest where we first met. Every little grunt was music to my ears, and it still wasn't enough.

His fingertips brushed my bare cock as I was getting into the evil imp's pants. I gasped, and the elf chuckled.

"Do you need to come, my precious one?" he teased as he wrapped his fingers around my dick and stroked. One finger rubbed across the head, playing with the slit while smearing the pre-cum across the sensitive flesh.

"Yes. Fuck yes," I groaned.

"Then let me get you in my mouth."

A shiver ran through me at the thought of receiving another Nylian blowjob. The elf's mouth was made for sucking my cock, but that wasn't what I wanted. I mean, I really did, but I also wanted something else.

As he started to drop to his knees, I caught his biceps, holding him in place. "Wait. No."

"No? I thought you enjoyed it." There was a hint of laughter in his voice because he knew exactly how much I enjoyed it.

"I do. Gods, I do," I admitted with a soft moan. I paused, trying to get past my reluctance at telling him what I desired.

"What?" He pressed his face into the side of my head so that his lips were next to my ear. When he spoke, his voice was low enough to make his words just for me. "Are you worried that I don't enjoy it? I assure you, I love the feel of your cock on my tongue. The taste of your cum is pure ecstasy."

It was as though he'd found this hidden panel of buttons within me and delighted in slamming his hand down on all of them at the same time. It was only a matter of time before he figured out how to make me come with his words alone.

"No, I want…I want us to come at the same time." My fingers broke free of their Nylian dirty talk paralysis and crept inside of his pants to run along the side of his cock.

"Yes," he hissed. His entire body froze for a moment, as if he were soaking in my tentative touch. In the next skip of my heart, he burst into action, shoving his pants lower on his thighs so that his cock was free. He did the same with my pants and stepped closer so our dicks rubbed together.

White hot pleasure rocketed through me at the intimate contact, but Nylian wasn't done by a long shot. He pulled the hand caressing his dick up to his mouth and licked the palm and sucked on each needy digit. Only when he'd rendered my brain useless did he place my hand between us and wrap it around our cocks together.

Covering my hand with his, he guided me in slow, powerful strokes. "This what you had in mind?" he asked in a strained voice.

"Fuck, yes." With my free hand, I threaded my fingers through his hair and pulled him to me, slamming my mouth over his. The kiss was filthy as our tongues and teeth fought for dominance. All attempts to be quiet were long gone. The sounds coming from the closet were wet and sloppy, punctuated by groans and broken gasps.

Nylian grabbed my ass with his empty hand, kneading the flesh and muscle as though he meant to make bread with it. Those long fingers inched closer to my hole. It tensed and tightened in fear, and Nylian chuckled.

"One day, I'm going to fuck you," he stated, his voice low and thick as honey. His hand on our cocks sped up, driving me closer to the edge. "Would you like that? Would you like my dick deep inside you, stretching you? I swear, I'll give you the best orgasm of your entire life."

As he finished speaking, one long finger brushed across my hole and pressed down, coming so close to pushing in. That was it. What tenuous hold I had on my orgasm snapped.

"Yes!" I shouted as the world exploded, hot cum spilling over our joined hands. Nylian's cry echoed my own as he followed me over the cliff, his dick pulsing against mine.

Nylian collapsed on me, his face buried in the crook of my shoulder, his fingers gripping my ass so hard I was sure he was going to leave bruises. Our chests bumped as we frantically gasped for air.

"How…how do you know…what's going to break me each time?" I demanded between pants.

I could feel Nylian grin. "Because you're mine."

There was no point in replying. We'd already had that discussion, which had resulted in him melting my brain and heart.

Nylian took pity on me. He straightened and kissed my chin. "Let's return to our room so I can give you a proper bath, my precious pet."

That final word brought me back to reality. That and the sudden scuff of a shoe as someone hurried away from our current "hiding" place in the closet.

I had to be blushing bright enough to light the dark space. I hurried to tuck myself away while batting aside Nylian's less-than-helpful hands. The elf was fucking shameless. I couldn't see his face, but I could feel his smugness filling the tiny closet. Oh yes, he'd done a great job of bending this self-proclaimed straight boy into a goddamn pretzel.

We slipped out of the closet and paused for several seconds, but all was quiet. No stomp of feet as guards rushed to arrest us for spying on the queen. We'd escaped being discovered as sneaks so far, but the queen had made it clear that we needed to get the fuck out of Galinaes. She wasn't the one who'd killed Orian, but she had wicked plans for Nylian and I had no doubt that she'd torture me to force the prince into doing as she ordered. I wasn't ready to put Nylian's new possessive streak to the test.