Page 76 of Looking Grimm

Gathering my thoughts, I presented them to Tobin and Felix. “If I don’t go out there—if I’m not here when Grimm and his goons come back—they’ll kill Max and Holland on the spot. No pomp, no circumstance, just murder. I wouldn’t put it past him to mount their heads on pikes as a warning to his enemies or some archaic shit, but they’ll definitely be dead.”

Standing aside, Nash folded his arms, sulking. “And if youdogo out there,you’llbe definitely dead,” he grumbled.

“Not necessarily.” I glanced at Tobin, then tapped the antimagic collar fastened around my neck. “How do these things work?”

The investigator snorted. “I figured you’d have a handle on it by now.”

I rolled my eyes. “I mean, can they be on but noton?”

“Sure,” Tobin replied. “I can turn it off, but anyone with a remote can turn it back on.”

The implication was clear. If I popped powers in front of Grimm or any of his goons, the jig would be up. They would shut me down and render me helpless, then lead me like a lamb to slaughter.

“Guess I’ll have to think fast,” I said.

Nash’s expression was so bitter I could taste it.

Tobin fished into his open suit coat and pulled a remotefrom the inner pocket.

I raised a brow at it. “Just happen to have one of those on you, huh?”

He bounced his shoulders. “Comes with the uniform.” He fiddled with the device, working the minimal controls until he grunted satisfaction.

“That it?” I asked.

“Try it out.”

I wondered how big of a laugh he would get out of watching me attempt an act of magic and suffering electrical whiplash because of it. Not long ago, he’d told Holland I should be forced to wear one of the damn things all the time like an untrained dog. But these negotiations relied heavily on trust and, if I couldn’t give him this much, the whole plan was doomed to fail.

An obvious test resided within my own body. I knew a few ways to reset a dislocated joint, none of them very appealing, but mentally sliding the ball back into its socket was less dramatic than slamming myself into the wall until something gave way.

I sent out a tentative thought, bracing for the collar to respond with a crippling shock. Fortunately, I was spared that pain, but there was more to come. Sucking a breath, I targeted my shoulder joint. I knew from experience it was going to hurt like a bitch, so I made it quick.

With a swift, grating click, the bone slid into place. I yelped as dizzying pain sent me slumping against the wall.

Nash started to move in, but I waved him off.

“It works,” I told Tobin. “Or doesn’t. Whatever.”

The investigator looked unimpressed, but Felix was visibly wracked with worry.

“So, whatisthe plan, then?” Felix asked. “How does sending you to die save anyone?”

I didn’t have a plan per se, more a vague notion of how things might go. Without being able to see what we would be walking into or knowing how many soldiers Grimm had at his command, I could only speak in generalities.

While I explained, Tobin pushed back on a few points, and I mostly gave him what he wanted. At the end of it, we all had our marching orders. If things went perfectly, we might not all die.

I dusted my hands together as I surveyed the small crowd. “Just a whole lotta snapping necks and breaking backs,” I concluded.

Tobin ticked his finger at me. “Or arresting the felons and bringing them to trial for justice.”

“You know, Batman,” I frowned, “this isn’t a TV series. We don’t have to wash, rinse, and repeat our villains. We don’t have to keep the plot going. It’s allowed to fucking end.”

I caught Nash’s skeptical look in my peripheral. His uncertainty, combined with Felix and Tobin’s, had me doubting myself already.

“You can’t be the only fighter on the field, Fitch,” Nash said. “We need more offense. Crowd control.”

The words “crowd control” brought one person immediately to mind. “Ripley,” I said as though it was equally obvious to everyone else.

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