His eyes narrowed. He didn’t appreciate being laughed at. Clearly I need to plan a guerilla campaign over this issue. It’s all about a difference in terminology. Professionals hire dog walkers all the time. Surely not even Pia can object to that. Gradually, maybe it can sleep over at the dog walker’s house now and then. He rolled one wide shoulder restlessly. Then we’ll have it sleep over more often.

I hate to tell you this, but I don’t think that’ll be guerilla enough. She’s going to see you coming a mile away. The other male shook his head. It would be a lot simpler if you just ask Jocasta and Ramone to watch him when you’re not at home.

Dragos growled under his breath. The dog had smelled of anxiety and stress ever since he’d entered the house. Putting a hand on Skeeter’s head, Dragos said quietly, “Calm.”

As the command took effect, Skeeter looked at him adoringly and rested his head on his knee.

The interaction did not go unnoted. “Look at that,” Niniane exclaimed. “Aryal was right—you really are good with him.”

“Right now, I am his Xanax,” Dragos replied in a dry voice. “That is not a viable long-term situation for anybody.”

“It’s working for now,” Pia said. “And we’ve got more urgent things to think about.”

She had a point, and the conversation moved on. The others lingered and, since it had been such a long time since they’d all been together, Pia and Dragos invited them to stay for supper. It was good to relax with friends and old companions.

To Dragos’s eye, even though Niniane threw herself into every subject and laughed often, she carried a kind of fragility, as if she were as breakable as glass, and Tiago watched her almost unceasingly. They had difficult decisions ahead of them.

If they chose to settle in Rhyacia, he wondered if Tiago might be interested in replacing Paul to head the police force in the city. He liked that idea. He liked it very much, but as Pia had pointed out before, people did not have to arrange their lives to suit him. Still, he would be ready to mention it should the situation arise where it might fall on welcome ears.

Over dinner, the group decided on a schedule for the next few days. Unless something unexpected happened, Pia and Dragos would take Niall over to Graydon and Bel’s in the mornings to investigate the unseen.

Since they didn’t know what they might uncover, it was impossible to plan too far in advance. To start with, they would retrace the scenes where items had been moved. Dragos also wanted to check out the construction site of the concert hall, although nobody knew if the two sets of phenomena were connected.