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“Got it. ” She pulled her hand out and shoved it toward me, presenting what looked like some sort of esoteric kids’ toy.
I peered closer. Two wooden handles with a cord strung between them. I shot her an incredulous glance. “A garrote?”
She nodded, and the hopefulness in her eyes killed me. Because, really, what the hell good would that do? The garrote was a weapon of elegance and subtlety that made me think of tuxedo-wearing spies strangling their quarry silently and at close range. “What the hell are we supposed to do with this?”
She unwound the wire, her hands shaking. “It’s used to choke—”
“I know what it’s for. ” Impatient now, I simply snatched her bag and dug through. “Not for these guys. ”
“Why not?”
I ignored her. There was no time to explain. I was getting scared, and that was a very bad thing to do with Draug around.
“Ah,” I chirped as my hands met something cool and hard. I pulled out a glass bottle with a colorful Irn-Bru label. “Iron brew?” It was the toxic orange soda they served in the dining hall. “You drink this?”
The moment I’d taken to ask such a stupid question was one moment too long.
The rest happened fast.
Regina shrugged. The young Draug lunged. I acted instantly, instinctively smashing it on the head with the bottle.
Nothing. Just a dull clonking sound…The bottle didn’t break and the Draug didn’t blink.
All three of the monsters were facing me now. The young one lunged again, and I smashed again. The stupid glass still didn’t break.
“Dammit. ” I planted myself more firmly in front of Regina. I wanted to protect her, but she was also a liability. She was small like me and scared out of her wits, whimpering again, making enough injured-puppy sounds to whip the Draug into madness. I elbowed her. “Seriously, shut up. ”
She nestled against my back, clawing my arms like I was her life raft. “What are they doing?”
They were about to attack. But I didn’t tell her that.
She pressed closer, and as she did, I felt my bag dig into my hip. I nudged backward into her. “My bag,” I said. “In my bag. Quick. ”
“What?” My bag jostled against me as she took it in her quavering hands. “What should I get?”
“Something. Anything. ” I spared a glance, pointing to my key chain. “That. My keys. ”
There were just two keys on my ring, one for the dorm front door—which was never locked anyway—and the other for my room. Both were antique-looking things with long shafts. Taking the soda bottle in my other hand, I threaded them between my fingers so they poked out like spikes from my fist.
Something about my movement catalyzed them. The Draug snapped. Like a pack of rabid wolves, they lunged on us at once. One of the older, grizzled ones was the first in my line of sight, and as he pounced toward me, I punched hard. Metal ground between the tendons of my palm with the impact, then a crunch and give as the keys punctured his heart. I flung him away.
I kept Regina safely behind me, and she was shouting in my ear, mingled screams and bizarre hysterical laughter, but the noise came at me as though from a distance. My sole focus was on the remaining two creatures. As the pale, bloated one came at me, he did an awkward amble over the body of his fallen buddy, and I used the half second to strike my keys against the neck of the bottle, and hairline cracks appeared in the glass. I hoped it’d be enough. I slammed the bottle down, hitting the Draug on the temple as he lurched at me. It dazed him for only a moment, but the neck of the bottle finally snapped off. I immediately slashed again, slicing his throat with the jagged glass.
I knelt, scooped up one of my stars, and whipped around to face the final Draug, but stopped short, needing a moment to understand what my eyes were seeing. A pencil stuck out of his chest—Curly had already dealt with him.
She gave me a weak smile. “Like a stake. ”
“Nice,” I said, studying her in a new light. I realized she was trembling. I quickly gathered our stuff. “We need to get out of here. ”
We’d sprinted almost all the way back to the quad when she finally slowed and said, “Thanks for coming to my rescue. ”
I slowed to a jog then to a walk and looked back over my shoulder, still trying to make sense of the whole episode. “I don’t even know what they’re doing around here. The Draug, I mean. They never come this close to campus. ”
She stopped short. “You’ve seen those things before?”
I nodded. “Long story. ”
But I realized she was waiting, looking expectant, so I elaborated. “Yeah, I’ve seen them before. Well, maybe not those Draug in particular. ”
