Page 93 of Black Heart

“Would someone mind giving me a hand with him?”

For a moment, they simply stood there looking adorably confused as they watched the old, naked guy chase her around the couch for another lap. Knowing that her stomach wasn’t up for another lap around the couch, Marty veered off towards them, deciding that she’d had enough for one night.

She walked right past Finn and Quinn and kept going towards Tristan, who appeared just as confused as the rest of the men. Once she reached him, she grabbed his good hand, gave it a pull and somehow was able to get him to take a seat in the ugly chair that Liam had vacated. Before he could get up and go after Shayne, and she knew him well enough to know that was exactly what he wanted to do, she sat on his lap, careful of his bad shoulder and made it clear that she didn’t plan on getting up anytime soon.

When Tristan tried to shift her off of his lap, Marty decided that perhaps a little clarification was in order. “If you so much as move me an inch, I will give the term ‘morning sickness’ a whole new meaning,” she swore, wishing that it wasn’t true, but with all the running around, stress, and exhaustion, her stomach was less than pleased with her and was at that very moment threatening to turn her promise into reality.

“That threat won’t work forever,” Tristan said, sighing heavily as he wrapped his good arm around her and pressed a kiss against the top of her head all while glaring in Shayne’s direction.

“We’ll see,” Marty said with a shrug as she watched Declean reach out as the old man neared their group and pressed his hand against his chest.

A beautiful white light spread over his chest until it surrounded them. Feelings of love, happiness, and calm spread over her, stealing her breath away and making her feel safe and cherished. It was a feeling that she wanted to last forever, but all too soon, it was gone and so was the elderly man.

“What just happened?” Marty asked, forcing herself to remain calm when all she wanted to do was to jump off Tristan’s lap and get the hell 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, Connall 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 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?” Marty 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 soulmates, 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 all came 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.”

“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?” Marty 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?” Marty 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 roughly 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,” Marty 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,” Marty said, stubbornly shaking her head as she struggled not to cry or scream in frustration, “you missed something and for all you know, this might be the time that we break it.”

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