The Boy Who Needed Heroes

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

When Ben's wife leaves him, taking little Casey with her, he feels lost. Ben just wants to read to Casey, to tell her stories, and he knows just the one: a fairy tale his father read to him as a boy—before things went bad.

But finding the story proves difficult. And the truth behind the story might prove most difficult of all.

"Rusch's short fiction is golden."

—Kansas City Star

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Apr 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201057213

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.

Book preview

The Boy Who Needed Heroes

The Boy Who Needed Heroes

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Contents

1. The Boy Who Needed Heroes

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About the Author

Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Boy Who Needed Heroes

Ben woke up in the morning thinking about the story. Strange that he hadn’t thought about it in what? Twenty, twenty-five years? But now, on the morning after Janice had left him, taking little Casey with her, he lay in bed thinking of fairy tales.

He sat up, hugged his knees to his chest. The satin sheets were soft, the room suffused with early morning light. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine Janice in the shower, Casey still sprawled in sleep under her Spiderman comforter. But they were on the road somewhere—Michigan, probably—and he was here, in the remnants of their lives. He had let them go. All the screaming in the world hadn’t stopped them—it had just egged Janice on.

In the end, he had stood helplessly by as the Audi pulled out of the driveway, thinking that they would be back.

They had always come back before.

And when they came, he would have a new story for Casey.

The first time Ben had read the story, he had been at his grandmother’s house. Grandmother’s