“I...Well, I’m not an expert.But the wolf symbolizes protection and connection to the spirit world.A medicine man might put a small carving of a wolf in ajish—you wear it around your neck,” he added, rightfully assuming that I knew nothing.“Or on a drum, to add its energy to a ceremony.”
“So somebody was trying to protect something.”
“Maybe,” he sounded doubtful.“The Yei symbol—the Rainbow Man—is like an intermediary between the people and the gods.He protects against both physical and spiritual attacks.The dreamcatcher is similar, except it wards off attacks in dreams, when someone is more open to the spirit world and vulnerable.And some warriors used to wear the spider web on their shields when going into battle, as it’s all about invincibility, like how an arrow can pass through a web and leave it untouched.”
“There are arrows here,” Caleb said, tracing one with a warded finger.
“Yeah, they can be protection symbols, too, only it’s overkill, you know?It looks like somebody put every native defense symbol they’d ever heard of on there, like hanging up crosses and garlic and holy water and hawthorn to ward off vampires.”
“Those don’t work,” I agreed.Too many Corpsmen had found that out the hard way.
“And neither would this.Putting a wolf symbol on something is about imbuing it with the wolf’s energy.So, like, usually something small.A necklace, maybe, or possibly a teepee, but not a whole hotel!You’d need a lot of medicine men for that, and an area where wolves were known to have lived for a long time.”
“Unless it’s not a whole hotel,” Caleb said.“Shields.”
“What?”I said, and then hastily threw up a shield across the corridor before he pushed his hand into the center of the wolf and through the wall, which wasn’t a wall at all, since his whole hand disappeared past the wrist.For a second—before he was flung back out, across the hall, and into the next room.
And he didn’t use the door.
“Shit!”I said, and went after him, through clouds of old plaster and broken wall studs, with the kids on my heels.
“Hey!What’s going on?”That was Chayton.
“Caleb met a wolf,” Jen said, taking her phone back before I dropped it trying to dig my partner out of the rubble.
By the time I’d managed, the others had come running, and Caleb was looking pissed off and determined.He’d been shielded as well, but that was a hell of a blow.The wolf ward had some teeth.
“Don’t even think about it,” I said, grabbing his arm when he started back for it again.
“Yeah!Whatever happened to that thing blowing up in your face?In all our faces?”Sophie demanded, a little wild-eyed.
You’d think she’d never seen somebody blown through a wall before.
“They’re protection spells,” Caleb told her.“You don’t try to protect something by bringing down the building—”
“Unless the building is half down already!”
“And Chay didn’t say he knew what they are, just what the symbols mean!”Jen added, eyeing up Caleb like she was suspecting him of being as reckless as me.
If she only knew.
“Protection spells?”Jason repeated, staring at the wolf, which was still glimmering serenely through the dust, as if we were all just being dramatic.“What are they protecting?”
“At a guess, a room on the other side,” Caleb said.
“So Jace might be in there?”Noah asked.“Hey!Hey Jace!Open up!”
“If anybody’s there, they already know we’re out here,” Sophie said dryly.“And don’t touch that!”
But Noah had already raised a fist to pound on the wall.Only to have his whole arm go through it instead.And this time, nothing blew him back out like a cannon going off.
“Hey, look,” he said.“It’s open.”
“Maybe you shorted it out,” Chayton said, looking at the dust-covered Caleb.
“Maybe.”Caleb approached the wall with more caution this time.And had the shit shocked out of him nonetheless as soon as he touched it.Meanwhile, Noah started through, and I grabbed him.
“What do you think you’re doing?”I demanded, while Caleb cursed and held his shielded hand, which was smoking.
