“And listen to this.” Bel leaned forward, her expression turning intense. “What I really wanted to come over to tell you is, there are stories circulating about possessions that have gone missing from one place, only to be found somewhere else. And it all appears to be random. There’s quite a shopping market, with all kinds of stalls—we should go sometime—and a shopkeeper told me when he’d gone back to his tent one evening, he found his mattress high up in a nearby tree. Nobody saw anything. Tools have gone missing from construction sites and were later found scattered on the beach. Some people think there’s a thief, and others believe it’s a prankster, but nobody sees anything when it happens. Nobody can figure out who it is, or how they do it. They’re calling it the unseen.”

“How strange.” Pia frowned. “If it was a prankster, you would think with so many Wyr around, they could catch the person’s scent.”

“I know. And Pia, it’s already happened to us. I’m always careful with the things Gray gives me. He’s not a very—let’s say, he’s not a very possessions-oriented man, if that makes sense. So, when he gives me something, it carries a great deal of meaning. Last December, he gave me a beautiful Masque present of two silver and emerald hair combs.”

“I remember them. They’re really gorgeous, and they suit you.”

Bel smiled. “I wear them all the time, and I’m careful where I put them. Two nights ago, I set them on my bedside table. The next morning, they were gone.”

“Oh, no!”

“It’s all right—I found them again. We have a prefab house too, about a quarter of a mile away at the edge of the forest. The combs were on our front doorstep.”

A slow chill moved across Pia’s skin. “Are you saying that somebody came into your house while you and Gray were sleeping and took your combs?”

Bel’s expression had turned sober. “I’m saying that I put them down on the bedside table one night. We slept soundly. And the next morning they were on our front doorstep. Gray went out of his mind.”

“I would think so,” Pia murmured. “Did either of you find anything?”

“No scent, no sign of entry, nothing else missing, no vandalism. I sensed nothing. He sensed nothing. He even brought some of the most experienced magic users into the house. They couldn’t find anything. All they could say was it must have been the unseen.”

“That’s really creepy.” Pia rubbed her arms. She thought of Niall, asleep in the nursery, and felt an almost overwhelming urge to go check on him. “Have any people gone missing?”

“Thankfully, no. But—listen to this—there’s also been trouble at one of the construction sites.”

“What kind of trouble?”