“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 ass**le 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.