Page 69 of Triumph of the Wolf
Reluctantly, I climbed over the fence and joined him outside the garden.
While looking at the vines and wrought-iron support, Bolin passed under it. Nothing happened.
“Another realm, huh?” I couldn’t keep from sounding skeptical, even though I’d also been thinking that our destination had to be camouflaged or hidden somehow.
“Something.” Bolin shrugged and walked back and forth under it.
Fingers still wrapped around the medallion, I stepped closer to the arch. Did I sense the faintest hint of magic from it? Maybe from the garden in general.
A sense of curiosity wafted from my medallion, and it warmed slightly against my hand.
“Interesting?” I murmured to it.
Curious about the oily gleam on the metal, I ran a finger over an iron curlicue in the arch. A zing ran up my finger from what felt like a recently applied viscous coating of… something magical. Nothing familiar to me.
After wiping my finger on my jeans, I tried walking under the arch, thinking my blood, or maybe the medallion, might be more likely to activate a magical doorway than Bolin’s presence. But his blood had a paranormal element too, so maybe that was an arrogant assumption. Regardless, nothing happened.
“We need Duncan,” I said.
“Because he knows how to open magical doorways to other realms?”
“You’d think a treasure hunter would have to.”
A distant howl sounded, and I lowered my hand. That had come from a rooftop back in the more industrial area, the neighborhood we’d left.
“Was that him?” Bolin asked.
‘No. I think that was Lykos, the young werewolf who wants to slay him.”
“Assuming that kid doesn’t drive or take public transportation, he’s a long way from where we saw him last.”
“He’s on a mission and full of determination,” I said grimly.
“To kill Duncan?”
“Yeah.” I looked back, hoping to spot the Roadtrek cruising down the street, but Duncan hadn’t appeared yet.
“Do you think he’s in trouble?” Bolin asked.
“I don’t know.”
Several long minutes passed before Duncan’s van drove into view. I let out a sigh of relief. I’d been on the verge of running back to look for him.
Duncan spotted us—or maybesensedus—and parked nearby. When he got out, he looked around, and I wondered if he’d heard the kid howling.
“Are we taking up gardening?” he asked when he joined us.
“We’ve found an arch with a magical vibe and thought you might have ideas about how to activate… whatever is here.” I spread my arms.
“Somethingworthwhile must be in the area. My van was hijacked by a highway… wolf.”
I blinked. “You saw Lykos?”
“He jumped on my roof. It quite surprised me since I didn’t sense him until he was right above me. I admit my first thought was that it was one of your parking enforcers.”
“They don’t jump on your vehicle; they just put a ticket under your windshield wiper.”
“Lykos wasn’t interested in my wipers.” Duncan stepped past us to consider the arch, then wrapped his fingers around the iron bars.
