Sales. Force.

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Kaylee uses her magic to help her boss, Nia, keep the balance when Nia needs someone with Kaylee's particular talents. But when Kaylee returns to work shortly after her fiancé dies, the assignment Nia proposes leaves Kaylee puzzled.

Nia wants Kaylee to investigate a new love potion. Kaylee wants to use her magical strength to get over her grief.

This assignment might help Kaylee move on in ways she never expected.

"The twist at the end is a nice one…"

—Fantasy Literature

"Rusch has created a highly emotional story that digs deep into each one of us…"

—KD Did It Edits

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Jul 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393554417

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake.  She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

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Sales. Force.

Sales. Force.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

WMG Publishing

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Sales. Force.

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About the Author

Sales. Force.

He said: Our love is deep and powerful, epic.

He said: It will last for all time.

He said: Forever.

He died on a Thursday afternoon in mid-winter, in Kaylee’s arms, in a stupid hospital room with stupid white walls and a stupid brown blanket covering half of him, on a stupid hospital bed with stupid rails that dug into her back, and stupid machines that beep-beep-beeped, then beepbeepbeepbeeped before the stupid alarm sounded and the stupid doctors and nurses ran into the room with the stupid crash cart that did absolutely nothing.

Because, she knew, long before the doctors and nurses arrived, he had taken his last breath.

Never even opened his eyes, not after the damn car accident. Never smiled at her again, never said I love you one last time.

There was nothing pretty about the death, nothing pretty about him at the end.

Just her. Standing in the corner of the stupid hospital room, watching the pathetic doctors and nurses with their pathetic crash cart do everything they could to resuscitate a corpse.

Fine, she’d say angrily to anyone who asked. "I’m fine."

But of course, she wasn’t fine. She’d never be fine again.

She told everyone she moved out of the apartment because she couldn’t live there any more without him, and everyone took that to mean the memories were too much for her, when really it meant she had to move, as in legally.

She had to do a bunch of things that she didn’t want to do because, as she learned the hard way, there was a difference between planning to get married and actually being married.

People even looked at her grief differently. At least, they’d say, you still have a future.

And she’d glare at them angrily, because what could she say, really? It’s a future I don’t want? Or do you really know