One aspect of Bree processing the grief of her mother’s death is conveyed through the image of a wall. Bree says her “wall works two ways: it hides the things I need to hide and helps me show the things I need to show [...] stronger than wood, iron, steel. It has to be” (12). Here, the wall begins as a containment of emotions and a projection of expected interactions. When Bree and Alice fight, Bree says, “The wall inside me grows. I let it stretch so tall and wide that I can’t see its top or edges” (40). The wall becomes a way to contain secrets about magic in an attempt to protect Alice as well as an emotional barrier. Bree avoids her dad because “his words puncture every single layer of my wall until it may as well not exist” (43).

However, the wall plays a role in containing magic energy of which Bree did not know the source. While alone in the shower, mage flame covers Bree and she builds her wall to stop the burning energy: “Find my barrier [...] A wall made of brick. Made of steel. With bolts the size of my fist. A blockade a mile high [.