Page 90 of Black Heart

“What happened next?” Marty asked when no one made a move to continue telling the story.

After a slight pause, Liam continued where Finn left off. “When Tadgh wasn’t training, which wasn’t often, he was sneaking off to see ye. At first, yer father thought nothing of it, but as the two of ye got older, he liked it less and less and made sure that Tadgh knew his place.”

“Whenever Tadgh disobeyed yer father, he was punished,” Quinn said.

“Which was often,” Shayne added quietly.

“I don’t think that any of us were really surprised when we found out that the two of ye had married in secret,” Liam said with a fond smile and a chuckle that was shared by the rest of the men.

“He was a sneaky little bastard,” Shayne said, laughing along with his brothers. “Hid it from us for two whole years before I caught them.”

“We knew that he would have never let her marry that prick,” Connall said, grinning.

“Nah, we’d have killed the bastard before he touched her,” Finn said with a firm nod that was quickly backed up by several “Ayes” and nods of agreement.

“What happened, then?” Tristan asked, making her wonder if she was the only one that noticed his words sounded slurred.

“Once her father found out, he wasn’t a happy man, but it was her choice. Back then, we didn’t force arranged marriages and in theory, she was free to pick her husband,” Connall explained even as she waited for the “But.”

“However, her father didn’t see it that way and neither did her betrothed,” Finn explained before Liam once again took over.

“With our help, Tadgh was able to take ye onto the safety of our lands and protect ye until we could figure out a way to get ye off our lands and move ye out of his territory. We thought we had enough time, but then we found out that ye were carrying a babe right around the time that we discovered that there was a bounty on Tadgh’s head.”

“It took some time, but we managed to get ye both out and we were taking ye up north when they caught up to us,” Liam said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

“We would have made it, but that’s when the babe decided that it was time to make an appearance,” Shayne said with a shrug.

“Then, what happened?” she asked, already having a good idea.

For a moment, no one answered and just when she was about to beg, Finn spoke. “The details aren’t important, lass. What’s important is that all of our fates were sealed that night with a curse.”

“What was this curse?” Tristan asked.

“When he caught up to us,” Liam said instead of answering Tristan, “ye claimed that Macha was yer soulmate, yer one true love, lad. He mocked ye even as he cursed ye…as he cursed all of us.”

“He bound us to the earth to live a life of pure hell,” Connall bit out angrily. “We’re stuck in a game that we can never win.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tristan demanded, sounding just as pissed, which usually didn’t take much, but she had a feeling that he was in a lot more pain than she’d thought.

“We’re stuck in this fucked-up existence until we can figure out a way to beat the bastard!” Connall snapped, his anger becoming more obvious with each word until he was practically shouting.

“Calm yerself!” Shayne yelled.

“Fuck that!” Connall snapped back. “They need to know what’s going on and what’s waiting for them!”

“Not like this,” Finn said evenly.

“Ye came to kill him, didn’t ye?” Connall said, sounding bitter as her worst fears were confirmed. “The polite bullshit never worked before, so let’s just put it all out there so that he knows exactly why we’re about to fuck him over!”

“Oh, and why’s that?” Tristan asked, sounding calm while she was doing her best not to panic.

“Shut the fuck up!” Quinn shouted, moving towards Connall, who looked more than willing to meet him head-on.

“Yer scaring her, ye dumb bastard!” Shayne yelled, moving to join them.

“She should be scared!” Connall shouted, shoving Quinn back. “She’s about to get her heart broken again and there’s not a fucking thing we can do about it!”

“It didn’t have to be like this!” Finn yelled, getting in Connall’s face and shoved him against the wall.

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