Stavanger Bay everyone, step aside; this is the last warning

“We belong to each other,” Szymon’s Chosen One said in turn, and his tattered ears strained forward ardently to savor each syllable. He made no protest as she pulled him near to her, the coarse bristle of his ruff hiding her face from view — and he listened raptly as her words, made more precious by the way her breath scorched his skin, reached his ears. “Skellige has made me Atoll,” she said, and his heart leapt for her — Atoll was a step below the sea king himself, and thus Szymon would not have to fear that the war for dominance would lead him to killing his sister should Kadia prove aggressive toward the tiny, dancing witch doctor he considered his.

“Good,” he was about to say — and then she flipped his world upside down.

“And I asked him to give you to me — to be my mate.”

There was nothing in Szymon that questioned Skellige’s right to give him away or Doe’s right to ask for him — the golden-eyed Cairn was no knight and chivalry meant little to him, so he did not feel the surge of masculine bravado at not being the one to ask. What he felt was panic, pure and simple — the elation that surged within his breast at being wanted by the odd-eared she-wolf was a huge part of that panic, for he had never felt such happiness before; but there was also the worry that Skellige would not approve — the bewilderment that he was held in such esteem when he thought so little of himself — an underlying fear that despite Deirdre, Skellige would wish to keep the mystic and her great power for himself — and an overwhelming sense of, “SAHUFGIDJOASDGUWEHFAWJEF WHAT DO I DO NOW AIOYWEFRHAISIDASG HELP HELP”

Rallying — or at least trying to, Szymon immediately lost his marbles and died of a massive heart attack bent his head low, unaware that he might be smothering the girl who had asked for his hand. As he tried to remember what breathing was like, the stutter came back in full: “Y-Y-You asked f-f-for me?” he questioned incredulously, his bass timbre too deep to crack alarmingly but clearly fraying at the edges. “B-B-But I — but wh-wh-what — ” What did he say?