Page 95 of Black Heart

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

“No, it doesn’t!” she cried.

“Marty-”

“There has to be another 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 difficult 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 it. 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,” Tristan said softly as he gestured to Shayne, “then I don’t have a choice.”

“Yes, you do!”

“No,” Tristan 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.

Tristan ground his jaw shut tightly when he heard Marty scream his name from somewhere upstairs. He carefully stood up, ignoring the pain in his shoulder and the back of his head and the way that 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?” Tristan 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 into his arms, but he couldn’t. If he so much as saw her again, he knew that it would break him.

“Do ye want to give her a proper goodbye, lad?” Shayne asked and he knew that he was being offered one last night with his wife, but he couldn’t take it…he just couldn’t chance it.

“No,” Tristan forced the word out of his mouth as he opened his eyes and faced his oldest friend and protector. “Send me home, Shayne.”

“Verra well, lad,” Shayne said quietly as he moved his hand towards Tristan’s chest. “Let’s bring ye home.”

* * *

“You’re making a mistake!”Marty snapped as she tried to push past Finn.

“I’m sorry, lass,” Finn said again as he gently gripped her shoulders and stopped her from leaving.

“Would ye like something to eat or drink?” Aidan asked with a polite smile as he gestured once again for her to lie down and rest.

Ignoring him, Marty ducked away from Finn’s hold, furious with herself for losing it the way she had. Instead of crying and pleading with Tristan not to go through with this asinine plan, she should have slapped some sense into him. She’d been so focused on losing him that she didn’t do anything to stop it from happening.

---