Black Heart (40 page)

“What just happened?” she asked, forcing herself to remain calm when all she

wanted to do was to jump off Tristan’s lap and get out of this room, this house, this town

and go somewhere where she didn’t have to worry that she was losing her goddamn mind.

“He just needed help finding his way,” Declean said with a shrug as he sat down on

the couch.

After a slight hesitation, Finn joined him. When Quinn went to join them, Fergus

calmly shoved his brother out of the way and sat down. Flipping his brother off, Quinn

moved to stand next to the fireplace, placing him between a probably still glaring Tristan

and a remorseful looking Shayne, who’d since taken up his spot against the wall.

“As a rule, we don’t tell each other about the curse until it’s the right time, and we

sure as hell wouldn’t tell a child the truth of his existence,” Liam said, taking up where

they’d left off and Marty hoped that he managed to finish the story before anything else

happened. She really wasn’t sure how much more she could handle tonight.

“Shayne didn’t tell ye everything, because ye made him promise to do everything

that he could to keep Macha safe and whether ye like it or not, that included keeping her

away from ye until the time was right.”

“Why would he do that?” she asked, noting the way that Tristan tensed beneath her,

probably wishing that he could take another swing at Shayne.

“Because out of all of our soul mates, ye have suffered the most, Macha, and we’d

all hoped to give ye a little peace, but that’s never been enough for Tadgh. He wanted to

give ye yer freedom even if it meant that the two of ye had to go through hell first to get it,”

Liam explained softly.

“I don’t understand,” she mumbled, feeling even more confused.

“Years ago, more like centuries ago,” Shayne said, taking over, “when we’d all

come to accept that there was no breaking this curse. We also realized that the curse was

stronger in yer case. Not only were ye stuck being born over and over again with each life

being more trying than the last, but ye were cursed to experience heartbreak each and every

time, lass.”

“While Tadgh was willing to keep going, intent on breaking the curse, we weren’t,”

Quinn added.

“It seemed that every time was worse than the last time for ye,” Declean said.

“We realized too late that ye carried yer heartache with ye into each new life and

that each time that Tadgh was taken away from ye that yer pain was greater than the last

time,” Aidan explained before Liam once again took over.

“Tadgh was determined to end yer suffering by destroying the curse, but we just

couldn’t allow it any longer. We did everything that we could to get him to see it our way,

but the stubborn bastard wouldn’t give up. He lied to all of us and promised to leave ye

alone only to break his promise and chase after ye. After the last time, we really thought

that he’d finally come to his senses, but he hadn’t.”

“Somehow, and we’re still not sure how he did it, he found out where ye’d be born

and he found a way to be born a few years before ye. It made it impossible for us to find

him and put an end to this before ye got hurt, Macha and for that we are deeply sorry.”

“I would never hurt her,” Tristan bit out coldly.

Liam nodded in agreement. “Aye, we know that, lad. We know that ye meant well,

but that doesn’t change anything. We have to do this before things get worse.”

“How are things going to get worse?” she found herself asking as she reached down

and took his good hand in both of hers, desperate for his touch and the comfort of the

connection that she was only now beginning to understand.

“It’s part of the curse, lass. Every time he manages to get the babe on ye, things get

bad real fast.”

“How bad?” she asked, hoping that they’d say or do something that would give her

a clue on how to break this damn curse. She wasn’t going to lose Tristan. There was no

way in hell that they were going to take him from her. Not now. Not after everything that

they’d been through. It wasn’t happening.

Liam sighed heavily as he rubbed his hands down his face, looking exhausted.

“Really bad, lass. He’ll get killed, you’ll either get killed or die of a broken heart and that lad

in your womb will never see the light of day.”

“There has to be a way to break this,” she said, knowing that they must have missed

something. Well, that was okay because she was good at figuring things out and so was

Tristan. It might take some time, but they’d figure out how to break this curse and then they

could finally be together.

“There isn’t, lass. I’m sorry,” Liam said, sounding like he truly meant it.

“No,” she said, stubbornly shaking her head as she struggled not to cry or scream

out in frustration, “you missed something and for all you know this might be the time that

we break it.”

“There is no way to break this curse,” Liam said softly before adding, “at least not

for the two of you.”

“Meaning?” Tristan asked, giving her hands a comforting squeeze and reminding

her that she wasn’t alone. He wouldn’t let them do this. He would fight. He was an asshole

and he would give them hell and she’d never been happier about that than at this moment.

“The two of ye are stuck in this cycle with the rest of us. There’s no way out, lad.

I’m sorry,” Liam explained. “But, that babe should get his chance, even if it’s just for a

release.”

“He’s never had a chance to be born, never been held or loved. He’s stuck in a hell all of

his own, lad,” Shayne said after a slight hesitation. “If he could be at least born, we think

that his soul would be set free.”

For several long tense minutes no one said anything, which was probably for the best as

she struggled not to cry as her heart broke for her baby. She couldn’t imagine what it must

be like for him to never be born, held, or loved and she knew without question that she

would love this child more than anything else on this earth, but she also knew that they were

wrong. Taking Tristan away wouldn’t guarantee anything. She needed him, hell, they

needed him here to protect them, love them and help them break this curse. She needed

him to-

“This was my idea, wasn’t it?” Tristan asked, breaking the silence.

Shayne looked right at them as he said, “Aye, lad, this has been yer plan all along.”

Chapter
34

Tristan didn’t have to ask Shayne anything else. He had his answers, finally. Although he

had absolutely no doubt that he would chase Marty to the ends of the earth to be with her,

he knew that he would never continue putting her through this hell unless there was a good

reason. That reason was their baby. He pressed a kiss against Marty’s forehead as he did his

best to block out her soft sobs as he released her hands and pressed his hand against her

stomach.

“Has this plan ever been tried before?” he asked, wanting to make damn sure that

they were making the right decision.

“No,” Liam said, shaking his head. “Since ye came up with the plan, we haven’t had

a chance to test it out.”

“Why not?” he asked, doing his best to ignore his wife as she softly cried, “Please

don’t.”

“Half of us were either making our own attempts to break the curse or we were too

late.”

Meaning he’d already been killed.

“We did our best, lad, to watch after Macha when ye couldn’t, but nothing helped.

She was either too far gone in her grief over losing ye or the curse took care of things,”

Declean quietly explained.

“We tried to approach her, but that didn’t end well either, lad,” Finn sheepishly

added.

He had questions, a lot of them, but for right now he was content with just sitting

back and holding his wife while this curse and his plan to save his son was explained to him.

Besides, he’d have all his memories and answers by the end of the night, but he wouldn’t

have her. Right now he needed to hold her one last time before he was forced to say

goodbye.

“We figured that if we couldn’t break the curse fer yer son, then the best thing

would be to free him from this curse by making ye promise to stop trying,” Liam explained

before adding with a glare, “But ye kept breaking yer promise and pissing us off, lad.”

Which would explain the ass whooping Liam had dished out, Tristan realized with a

wince.

“We’re not happy that ye broke yer promise and are forcing our hand on this one,

Tadgh, but we’ll do what needs to be done,” Liam promised, making Marty tremble harder

in his arms.

For their son, Tristan would do anything, including giving up his own life, but he

had one question that he needed answered before they went through with this.

“Will I be able to watch over them?” he asked, closing his eyes and tightening his

hold around Marty as her sobs tore at his heart.

“I’m sorry, lad, but once ye fail to break the curse, ye won’t get to see her again

until the next time she’s born,” Shayne explained.

And if this worked, and their son was freed, then he would never see her again. This

was too much to ask her to go through and it needed to end. It would kill him to never see

her again, but he would give her the freedom that she deserved.

“This time she knows about us
before
the curse took its hold and we’ll be able to

stay by her side without scaring her,” Shayne said, giving him the one promise that would

make this situation tolerable.

He allowed himself another moment to simply enjoy having Marty in his arms

before he opened his eyes and did what needed to be done. Ignoring her sobs and the way

she clutched desperately to him, he leaned down and pressed a kiss against her forehead,

one on each cheek before he pressed his lips to her trembling ones.

“I love you so much, Marty,” he whispered hoarsely against her lips, “so goddamn

much.”

“Please don’t do this, Tristan,” she pleaded against his lips.

“Shhhh, it’s fine, baby.”

“No,” she sobbed, shaking her head frantically as she pulled away from him. “It’s

not!”

“It has to be done, lass,” Liam said soothingly.

“No, it doesn’t!” she cried.

“Marty,-“

“There has to be a way, Tristan! There has to be!”

“Lass, if we don’t remove him before the curse kicks in, then we won’t have a

chance to save yer son.”

“No,” Marty said, stubbornly shaking her head. “You don’t know that. Maybe you

missed something-“

“Each of us has our own trigger for the curse, lass,” Declean explained, interrupting

her. “And yers has always been started by Tadgh getting a babe on ye. It triggers Tadgh’s

death and, as a result, yer death. It’s what called us to ye.”

“Then it shouldn’t make a difference whether you end his life or if you give us a

little more time to figure this thing out!” Marty cried, grabbing his hand and squeezing it,

making it hard to do what had to be done.

“If we take him, lass, it won’t be a true death. That’s why he came up with this plan

in the first place. We’ll simply pull him out of his body and that will be it. If we let the curse

take its toll, his death will trigger a series of events that will end with yer death.”

“I won’t allow that,” Tristan said, pulling her attention back to him.

He forced himself to ignore the tears streaming down her face as he leaned in to kiss

her one last time, but she wasn’t having that. She pulled far enough away from him so that

she could cup his face in her hands as she flat out begged him not to do this.

“You don’t need to do this, Tristan. We can find a way to beat this thing.”

“If it means that you and our son get a chance to live,” he said softly as he gestured

to Shayne, “then I don’t have a choice.”

“Yes, you do!”

“No,” he said, turning his face so that he could press a kiss against the palm of her

hand just as Finn and Aidan appeared on either side of her, “I don’t.”

With a slight nod, Finn and Aidan disappeared, taking his heartbroken wife with

them.

“I’m so sorry, lad,” Shayne said softly as he moved towards him.

He ground his jaw shut tightly when he heard Marty scream his name from

somewhere upstairs, probably their room. He carefully stood up, ignoring the pain in his

shoulder and the way his heart pounded in his chest at the thought of never seeing her

again.

“This is why you never pushed me towards her, isn’t it?” he asked as he tried to

force his mind away from everything that was happening.

“Yes,” Shayne said with a sad smile. “I was in no rush to get here, lad.”

“Tristan!”

He forced his eyes closed as he fought against the urge to go to her and drag her