Revenge (Book 3 of Lost Highlander series) by Cassidy Cayman

She had done that before as well, trying to find a connection. But now, as then, there was nothing. It seemed the only ancestor who wanted to commune with her had dark intentions.
    And Piper was set on destroying that link once and for all. She headed deeper into the crypt, holding her candle out in front of her, though she didn’t really need the light. Something else was guiding her steps. The candle made her feel better though, so she clung to the glass holder and tried not to let it waver too much in her shaking hands.
    She passed the first room, not knowing if she had a certain destination or not, but knowing it wasn’t time to stop yet. The further back she got, the older the bodies were. Each was marked with a stone or plaque. Some had intricately carved busts or weapons surrounding their tombs. She briefly toyed with the idea of seeing if Lachlan’s tomb was still there. They had tinkered with history, so maybe his tomb and his severe looking marble bust would be gone. She was only one room away from where she remembered him to be but stopped instead of continuing forward.
    Here.
    She halted as if a hand had reached out and stopped her. She looked down in alarm to see if someone was actually touching her shoulder and sighed to find she was alone. While she was certain about what she had to do, there was still a part of her that was telling her to leave the crypt and go back to the castle, go upstairs and get cozy with Lachlan.
    She laughed nervously and looked around her. She was in a part of the crypt that contained her ancestors from the early nineteenth century. She was deep in, but there was far deeper. She could break free from the cold sensation that had been guiding her and sprint out of there. Turning to do just that, she heard the voice again and sank to the ground, trying to block it out by covering her ears and humming softly under her breath.
    He will die. They all will die if you do not take care of this. You are poised to rid your life of the evil that plagues you.
    The words kept repeating in her head until she took her hands away and stopped humming. Resolve took the place of fear and anxiety. Disbelief had long since fled.
    Standing up, she walked unseeing to the nearest tomb. It was firmly and permanently closed. Whoever was in there had been sealed in for good. Piper spread her hands out on the wall and felt all around the rectangular outline, pressing her fingers into the crumbling mortar edges. A smooth single stone had been fitted into the wall. She began to dig away at one corner, finding the old stone start to chip away in larger and larger chunks. Soon she would have an opening large enough to fit her hand through and then she would see if she could reach what she needed.
    If not, she would keep digging away at the edges until the entire stone fell away. Sweat popped out on her brow, but she didn’t pause to wipe it away, just kept scratching away at the stone surface of the tomb. Closing her eyes helped her to work harder and she blindly clawed with her nails into the tiny crack she had opened, pulling and ripping.
    An outside force tugged at her shoulders, coupled with a distant noise, like a cry from the bottom of a well. Piper tried to jerk away but it was adamantly opposed to her reaching her goal. No matter how hard she struggled, the vice-like grip on her shoulders kept trying to tear her from her purpose. The bones. If she had the bones she could call Daria here or go to where she was and kill the hell out of that witch. No amount of crying, pleading or pulling was going to keep her from that goal.
    “Piper, please!”
    The pleading grew louder in her ears and with one strong wrenching heave, she was dislodged from the cracks in the tomb. Evie shook her so that her head snapped back and thumped the wall, then pulled her toward her, almost cracking her spine with the strength of her hug.
    Emotions drained out of her like a sickness passing as she stood stiffly in Evie’s arms,