Moon's magic died at the same moment her gold bracelet vanished. She stood on the wide balcony of the golden loft, waterfalls hissing past its bright walls, and stared at her bare wrist. That thin band held her power. Without it, her wings barely twitched. She could not fly. She could not spark a single light. Someone had slipped it off her arm in the crowd below, and she had felt nothing until the emptiness hit her. She dropped to the floor, small as a sparrow, black hair sticking to her cheek. Purple silk pooled around her. Her big brown eyes swept the balcony for any clue. The market crowd had passed through an hour ago. Any of a hundred hands could have taken it. She had no name, no face, no direction. A thief without a trail was a thief who won. Then the leaves moved. A cluster of broad green plants sat in a stone pot near the rail. Its fronds shook, though no wind touched them. Moon crept closer. She parted the leaves with both hands. A small tiger crouched inside, no bigger than she was. Bright eyes met hers. Striped fur, twitching tail. He held something between his front paws and licked it like a treasure. Gold. Her gold. "That's mine," Moon whispered. The tiger flattened his ears. He did not run. He pressed one paw over the bracelet and watched her, testing. Moon reached slowly. Her fingers brushed the warm metal. For one breath, her wings hummed. Light flickered at her fingertips. Then the tiger yanked the bracelet back and bolted from the pot. Moon lunged. She caught the far edge of the band as he ran. The gold stretched between them. The tiger dug in his claws. Moon dug in her heels. She weighed almost nothing, and he dragged her across the wet stone toward the rail. Water roared below. The twin waterfalls spilled off the loft in thick sheets. If the bracelet went over, it was gone for good. Moon stopped pulling. She let the gold go slack. The tiger stumbled backward, surprised. In that half-second, Moon threw herself onto the band and clamped it against her chest with both arms. The tiger pounced. His paw pinned her shoulder. His face pushed close, and she smelled fish on his breath. But he did not bite. He only stared, as if waiting to see what she would do. "You took it," Moon said, panting. "You didn't run away with it. You brought it here." The tiger's ears lifted. He backed off one step and sat down. Moon slid the bracelet onto her wrist. Power flooded back. Her wings snapped wide and lifted her an inch off the floor. She had her answer at last. The thief was no faceless stranger. He was sitting right in front of her, and he had wanted her to find him. "Why?" she asked. The tiger only turned toward the falls and waited.

The mist thickened the deeper Moon went. It hung white and wet, and it swallowed the ground. She could see two steps ahead, no more. The tiger was a shape, then a shadow, then nothing. She heard his paws pad away and lost them under the roar of the falls. "Wait," she called. "I can't see you." No answer came. Moon stopped and listened. Water crashed on every side. The mist pressed her wet hair to her cheeks. She reached out and touched only cold air. Panic climbed her throat. If she lost the tiger, she lost her only guide to what had been taken from her. She thought fast. Her wings still buzzed at her back. Weak, yes, but not dead. Maybe the wind from her wings could push the mist aside. Moon planted her feet and beat her wings hard. The effort burned her shoulders. The mist swirled and thinned in front of her, opening a narrow tunnel of clear air. She saw wet stone, then a striped tail flicking ahead. The tiger had stopped to wait. "There you are," she breathed. She pressed forward, fanning her wings in short bursts. Each beat cleared a little more. The tiger led her past a huge stand of broad-leafed plants, their fronds dripping. He turned around them, and Moon followed the sound of his paws when the mist closed again. Then her wings gave out. They sagged, spent. The mist rolled back in and sealed her inside its white wall. Moon cried out and lunged where she had last seen the tail. Her hand caught warm fur. The tiger stood still and let her hold his back. He did not pull away. He waited until her grip was firm. Then he walked, slow, and Moon walked with him, blind but joined. She kept one hand buried in his fur and let him steer her through the roar. The ground rose. The mist began to glow. Not white now, but blue and pink and gold. Moon blinked. Light broke through the fog ahead. The tiger led her out of the mist and stopped. Before them stood a cluster of tall crystals. They rose from the wet rock, sharp and huge, taller than Moon. Their facets caught the falls' light and threw it back in bright colors. The mist could not reach here. The crystals burned it away. Moon let go of the tiger's fur. She stepped close to the shining stones and stared. Her bracelet warmed on her wrist, tugging, as if it knew this place. "This is what you wanted to show me," she said. The tiger sat and looked up at the crystals, then at her. Moon reached toward the nearest facet. Deep inside the stone, small and gold, something glinted back at her. Her breath caught. It was jewelry. And it was not the bracelet on her wrist.

Moon pressed her palm flat against the crystal. The gold jewelry glinted deep inside, close but locked away. She could not reach it with her hands. She would have to use her magic. She closed her eyes and drew on the bracelet at her wrist. A thin thread of power crawled up her arm and pushed against the stone. The crystal did not crack. Moon pushed harder. Her arm shook. Sweat ran down her back. A tiny line spread across one facet, no longer than her finger. Then her magic guttered out. The line stopped. The stone held. Moon slumped, breathing hard. Her weak magic was not enough. It would never be enough. The tiger nudged her leg. She looked at him. "I can't," she said. "It's too strong." Then light poured down through the mist above. Two shapes dropped from the sky and landed on the wet rock. They were tall and brown, wrapped head to toe in gold. White wings folded at their backs. Twin faces, the same in every line. Moon stepped back. She had never seen anyone like them. "The song is inside," one said. She pointed at the crystal. Her voice was flat and sure. "We came for it," said the other. "A thief pulled it from the sky. We followed it here." Moon looked from them to the stone. "There's jewelry in there," she said. "Gold. I've been trying to break through." "You cannot," the first twin said. "Not alone." She did not soften it. The two angels stepped to either side of the crystal. They raised their hands. Then they began to hum, low and even, one note held between them. The sound was not loud. It was steady. It sank into the stone. Moon felt it in her chest. Cracks spread across the crystal. They branched wide, spidering from top to base. The hum climbed higher. Moon covered her ears. The tiger crouched low. With a sharp snap the crystal split open and fell in bright pieces across the rock. The gold jewelry lay in the wreckage. So did something else. A small thing of light hung in the air where the stone had been, thin and shining, faintly ringing. The twins reached up together and cupped it in their hands. The ringing stopped. "Our song," they said as one. Moon knelt and lifted the gold from the shards. It was a necklace, heavy and warm. It was not her bracelet. It was not her magic. She turned it over and found strange marks cut along the band, marks she could not read. The twins looked at the necklace in her hand. Their faces changed. "That is not yours," the first said. "It belongs to the one who took our song," said the other. "And she will come for it."

Moon still held the strange necklace. Its marks meant nothing to her. The tiger sat at her feet, quiet. She had followed him through the mist and the roaring falls for answers. She had none yet. She did not know who took her bracelet long ago, or why the tiger had brought her to this place. She turned to the angel twins. "You said someone will come for this," she said. "Then tell me who. Tell me why I'm here." The twins looked at each other. They spoke as one. "The marks are a name. The name of the thief who hunts the sky." They pointed at the band. "She pulled our song down. She pulled many things down. A fairy's bracelet, once." Moon's chest went tight. "My bracelet." She gripped the gold harder. "The tiger. Did he bring me here to find her?" The tiger stood. He pressed his nose against the necklace in her hands. Then he looked up at her, steady, and she understood. He had not stolen her magic to hurt her. He had taken it to make her follow. He had led her to the one clue that named the real thief. "Read the marks," Moon said. "Please. I can't." The first twin traced the cuts with one gold finger. "A black owl," she said. "Gold on her wings. She nests beyond these crystals. She keeps what she steals." "Then that's where my bracelet's power came from," Moon said. "She's the one who left me powerless." Her weak magic stirred at her wrist, a thin warmth. It was enough to know the truth now. The theft had never been random. A thief with wings had marked her, and the tiger had spent all this time trying to tell her. The twins cupped their glowing song between them. "We have what we came for," the first said. "The owl will miss this necklace soon." They spread their white wings. "Do not be holding it when she comes." "Wait," Moon said. "Where does she nest?" The second twin lifted off the wet rock. "Follow the dark one," she said, nodding at the tiger. "He knows." Light poured up through the mist as both angels rose and vanished above the crystals. Moon stood alone with the tiger among the bright shards. She closed her hand around the necklace. It was not hers, but it carried the thief's name. It was a key. She knelt and looked the tiger in the eye. "A black owl took it," she said. "You've known the whole time." He turned and padded toward a gap between two tall crystals, then looked back at her. Moon tucked the heavy gold inside her sash. Her bracelet was gone, but now she had a trail and a thief with a name. She followed the tiger into the gap. The real hunt had started.

The gap between the crystals opened onto broken ground. The tiger led Moon past the last bright shards, and the trail split. Three paths ran off between the rocks. A fourth climbed. Moon stopped. She had a thief's name and no nest to find. She knelt by the tiger. "Which way?" she asked. He sniffed each path, then sat down. He did not know either. The owl could roost anywhere, and a wrong guess would cost her days. Moon pressed her hand to the heavy necklace in her sash. Its gold was warm. She remembered the twins' warning. The owl would miss this necklace soon. If the owl hunted her own stolen gold, Moon did not have to find the nest. She had only to wait where the owl could see the bait. She climbed the fourth path. It rose to a flat ledge under a huge cherry tree. Pink blossoms hung low over the stone. Moon pulled the necklace free and laid it on an open rock, in full light. Then she drew back under the branches with the tiger and waited. The wait was short. A white shape dropped from the sky and landed on the rock. It was a small owl, white, its wing-tips brushed with gold. It bent over the necklace and clicked its beak, searching. It was not the thief. It was too small, too soft. But it wore the thief's colors. Then a shadow swallowed the ledge. The second owl came down slow, and the small white one shrank aside. This one was black, with gold burning along both wings. She was twice the size. Her eyes fixed on Moon in the shadows at once, as if she had known all along. "That is mine," the black owl said. Her voice was low and even. "You took it from the stones." Moon stepped out from under the blossoms. Her thin magic warmed her wrist, barely there. "You took something first," she said. "A bracelet. Years ago. From the market." Her heart slammed, but she held the gold up so the owl could not look away. "I know your mark now. I know your name." The black owl stilled. The white one watched them both. "You followed a trail you could not read," the owl said. "And still you found me." "I let you find me," Moon said. The owl's talons closed on the edge of the rock. "Then you want to trade," she said. "My necklace for your bracelet. But your bracelet is not here. It is in my nest, past the far cliffs, where I keep what I take." She spread her gold wings. "Bring the necklace. Come alone, fairy. Or never fly again." She rose into the sky. The small white owl lifted after her and was gone. Moon stood holding the gold, the tiger at her feet. She had drawn the thief out. Now she knew where her bracelet waited, and the price of reaching it.