She apparently couldn’t tell it was me. I knew that because when she saw the look of pure relief and familiarity wash over my face, she gave me a look of contempt. It was the same look she used to give any man or boy who rubbed her the wrong way. Or really, anyone of the male sex that she didn’t know. They pissed her off, and I never blamed her for that.

  “I’m not sure what thoughts are going through your head right about now, but don’t think I won’t slit your throat,” she warned.

  I smiled. My hat was gone, and my face was unguarded from her view. Nell could see me plainly, but I didn’t hold it against her that she didn’t recognize me. Last she saw me, my voice wasn’t so deep, and my chin not so pronounced, my jaw not so wide. I didn’t have any stubble yet, and my hair had been a darker shade. The lighter red coloring came later.

  That being said, I looked tremendously like my brother, if not quite as refined. She at least should have seen her childhood crush in my face, but that was fine.

  “What’s a little magnolia sunrise like you doin’ in a dark and dangerous wood like this?” I asked her, and the reaction was exactly as I would have expected. She recoiled like I had slapped her. Her eyes widened, revealing their swirling, stormy, thundercloud gray. They looked inky and dark in this dim forest light.

  Of course, these woods weren’t too dangerous, save the men ahead. It was too sparse to have any truly big monsters, though anyone caught unawares could still be taken down by something lesser. A single Bodokin could kill just as easily as a Frostmount Berserker or a Root Surfer or even a High Dragon.

  “Magnolia sunrise . . .” she whispered, testing the words that I knew would bring her back home. One time, her father, who was a nasty piece of work, but he had his moments between his long bouts of alcoholism, recited her a poem, and in it called her a magnolia sunrise. He didn’t come up with it, of course. Some city artsy type back East wrote it, but he thought it was beautiful and referred to Nell as such, and so too did Gareth and me, first in a teasing manner and then genuinely.

  No one else on this earth would know that besides us. And Deebo, but I clearly wasn’t my uncle.

  Then her eyes finally took me in, really took me in, and they misted. “Griff?” she wheezed, nearly breathless.

  My smile was brighter than said magnolia sunrise. “Hi there, Nell. Long time no see.”

  Without warning, she tossed aside her scythe and threw her arms around my neck, which was hard to do since she still had me pinned to the ground, but I didn’t care. I held her back, and we tumbled through the leaves and grass and dirt.

  When she pulled back, she held my cheeks in her hands. They were rough, callused, and scarred, her fingers longer and tougher than I remembered. Not that they were ever soft, mind you.

  Her eyes flew across my face. “Look at you,” she said. “You look like your brother. No . . . you look more like Deebo.”

  It felt like a compliment, so I would take it as such. And she wasn’t wrong. My brother was taller and longer than I was, or at least, he was before he left. Maybe we looked exactly the same now, but his face had been narrower, sharper. Mine was a bit boxier, with a hint of baby still in the cheeks. Though the stubble really shattered any illusion of innocence.

  Nell quickly rose and helped me to my feet. It was a wonder to behold her. Here she was, my long-lost best friend. The only one, really, besides my brother, and he didn’t count. She took off her hat and wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. She used to have dark hair that she always kept cut short. The boys liked it long, and she did everything to spite the boys. It was cut even shorter now. Not quite shaved, but a few months into a grow out, and it was dyed a messy pink, bright strands clashing with her dark curls. The sight took me by surprise, but it was a new fad amongst hunters and Badlands types alike. There was a cactus discovered down south that had perfect properties for quick, easy, and effective dying, and Badlanders took to it quick. The Easties didn’t like it, which made more of us cling to it. And most hunters I saw now had some sort of colored hair. If not hair, then a bright article of clothing on them somewhere.

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  I looked her over, my hands at my hips. What was she doing there? I vividly remembered the day she left. It was a year before Deebo passed, and a year after my brother left. All three of those were sandwiched together, and I never appreciated how the universe bundled all of those different tragedies neatly by year. I barely had time to grieve and move on before someone else left me. Deebo was never coming back, but I would find my brother, and now, here was Nell.

  I was probably staring like an idiot. but how could I not? She looked amazing. When I last saw her, she was a knobby kneed, lanky little sprig of a Badlands kid, all wiry arms and legs. She couldn’t hit very hard, but that hadn’t stopped her from fighting every damn boy in town that dared say a mean word against her—or me.

  Now, she was a grown woman. I mean, she was my age, and some would consider me a kid, but I sure didn’t. She wore a dark leather duster that went to her knees, cinched tight at her waist. Her jeans were dyed a crimson red, and her boots were black leather and studded with silver. Her hat was the same dark leather as her duster. She’d been lanky before, but now there were more curves to her, though the duster tried to hide them. Her shoulders were broader than before, and I could tell they had a lot more muscle than I remembered. I had half a head on her, but that meant little.

  “Well, you are in quite the pickle,” she said. “What made you finally leave?”

  I decided it wasn’t time to tell her about Deebo’s death. She’d liked him a lot. Also, I noticed she had a new accent, somewhat refined. Not quite an Eastie city accent, but she sounded not quite so rough as she used to. That was also something for another time.

  “I finally got my first card. I wanted to earn it, ya know? I got [Polearm and Staff Proficiency].” I shouldered off half of my duster and rolled up my sleeve to show her the tattoo.

  “That’s a nice card. Not boring like [Pugilism].”

  “Hey, [Pugilism] is great! And both you and Gareth, and frankly I, we like fighting.”

  “Well, fighting townies and drunks is one thing, Griff, but you better have magic gauntlets or knuckle spikes if you are going rounds with monsters. I prefer a longer reach.”

  That was definitely fair. I hadn’t considered that or planned on becoming a monster hunter, but it was one of the best ways to make a living and reliably get cards out in the Badlands. If I wanted to find my brother, who was a hunter, I would probably wind up taking on monster bounties too. And I supposed my bludgel would be a good weapon for that. First, though, I had to get it back.

  “Okay, enough about me. What are you doing here?”

  She looked south towards the river and where the men were. They were no longer laughing, but I could still make out some distant conversation. They hadn’t left yet.

  “I was passing through, got a bounty for a group of highwaymen that stole from people in their sleep. Was tracking them. Guess I just missed you.”

  “Well, fantastic.”

  She shouldered her scythe and cocked a grin my way. “Don’t worry, I’ll get your stuff back.”

  “If you think I’m gonna let you fight them alone, you’re crazy, Nell.”

  “Let me lead, Griff. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  I was offended. “I beg your finest pardon, madam.”

  “You literally just got your first card. Which is perfectly fine, but you don’t have the experience that I have. Plus, how the hell you gonna’ lead when you ain’t got a weapon? I know you didn’t used to like to think, but I need you to think now.”

  I knew she was right, of course, but it was just fun razzing her enough to make her break her new-fangled accent and sound like she’s from the Badlands again. I nodded in satisfaction at a job well done.

  “Okay, you can lead, but I’m not gonna sit back. Even without a weapon, the card gives me better reflexes, and I’ve got my two fists right here.”

  “Griff . . .”

  I scanned the ground and quickly found a long stick, not quite as long as my bludgel, but easily long enough to be a walking stick. It wasn’t sturdy by any means, but it would keep me alive long enough to figure something else out.

  “Here, now I’ve got a weapon,” I said.

  Nell shook her head and rolled her eyes, but it made her look so much like the girl I used to know that no amount of disappointment or annoyance in that look could make me feel any of it.

  “Okay, fine. Get behind me. We need to take them by surprise. We’ll figure out a way to use you.”

  I tipped an imaginary hat to her. “Thank ye kindly, miss.” Of course, that made me even more eager to get my own hat back. Those bastards better not have damaged it or lost it, or I would rain hell upon them.