Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Heroics
    Heroics
    Heroics
    Ebook42 pages34 minutes

    Heroics

    By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Maxwell Scobel writes about heroes for a living. He studies them, imagines them, imagines being them. But when a routine drive turns into a fight for his life—and the life of his soon-to-be-adopted three-year-old daughter—he must rise to the occasion. Or lose everything he never knew he held dear.

    Voted one of the top ten stories of the year by Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine readers.

    "Kristine Kathryn Rusch's crime stories are exceptional, both in plot and in style."

    —Mystery Scene Magazine

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWMG Publishing
    Release dateSep 23, 2019
    ISBN9781393575832
    Heroics
    Author

    Kristine Kathryn Rusch

    New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. 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.   

    Read more from Kristine Kathryn Rusch

    Related to Heroics

    Related ebooks

    Police Procedural For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      I Do So, Like Durian

      Jun 10, 2021

      The 504-streetcar grated against the curve of the tracks as it entered the station. It pulled to a stop directly in front of Holly. The doors opened with such a clunk that she stepped back, treading on the toes of the person behind her. She was block

      11 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Cristina Rivera Garza

      Jun 15, 2018

      She would remember everything, out of the blue and in full detail. She would see the jade ring wrapped around her ring finger and, immediately, she would see the other jade ring. She would open her eyes wide and, without knowing why, would fall silen

      13 min read

    • Article

      The Straw Hat

      Aug 2, 2018

      The Straw Hat
      6 min read

    • Article

      Cherubs

      Jul 5, 2023

      Cherubs
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Gas Station

      Mar 15, 2019

      Mary believed there were two kinds of people in the world. There were those who were seen and those who were not. Mary considered herself the latter. She hadn’t lived in the town for long, only a few months. It was known for its beaches. It swelled w

      10 min read

    • Article

      Moving OUT

      Jul 27, 2022

      Moving OUT
      6 min read

    • Article

      Three Ordinary Women

      Sep 4, 2022

      Three Ordinary Women
      2 min read

    • Article

      Pickpocket

      Jun 1, 2020

      Pickpocket
      7 min read

    • Article

      ‘Starling Days’: Featured Fiction from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

      Apr 7, 2020

      In today's edition of featured fiction, we present an excerpt from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's latest novel, Starling Days. The post ‘Starling Days’: Featured Fiction from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Marta

      Oct 15, 2019

      Marta
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Truth Is I Never Left You

      Aug 17, 2017

      The Truth Is I Never Left You
      8 min read

    • Article

      Who Was That Girl?

      Apr 21, 2021

      Who Was That Girl?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Push

      Aug 4, 2022

      Push
      5 min read

    • Article

      SPOOKY TALES Mr Noah

      Jul 25, 2021

      On a cold winter day, Mr Noah “came to” whilst walking alongside the edge of a road. He. walked over to a woman and asked her for some, help, only for her to scream loudly at the. mere sight of him and run away in fear. Astonished at her response, Mr

      1 min read

    • Article

      Echos

      Jan 10, 2019

      Before Corrine’s husband abandoned her in Berlin, he liked to say that her name reminded him of the word “corrupt.” But ending in a twist rather than a split. Her last name was the French word for “swimsuit” but he never mentioned that. This seemed s

      17 min read

    • Article

      Hardly Never in Vegas: Fat Johnny Little and Salty Salt Sue make a break for the desert.

      Jun 18, 2015

      Salty Salt Sue met Fat Johnny Little at a card game so hot it burned a girl, the sultry Louisiana night dampening her clothes, making her tingle from the waist down. She sat next to Vinnie DeLuca, who bore a passing resemblance to Dillinger—his penci

      11 min read

    • Article

      Hardly Never in Vegas: Fat Johnny Little and Salty Salt Sue make a break for the desert.

      Aug 8, 2013

      Salty Salt Sue met Fat Johnny Little at a card game so hot it burned a girl, the sultry Louisiana night dampening her clothes, making her tingle from the waist down. She sat next to Vinnie DeLuca, who bore a passing resemblance to Dillinger—his penci

      11 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Noah Warren

      Dec 1, 2020

      Some waves came up overnight, though in Norderney, there was no weather.At the commercial wharf, a thin stream of white exhaust rose vertically from the ferry.The first service would depart soon. The puddles lay dark in the stone streetsand in the ga

      3 min read

    • Article

      Begin Again

      Jun 14, 2022

      My grandfather came to live with me. There was nowhere else for him to go. What had happened to all his children? Death, decay, exile—I hardly know. My own parents died of pain. But I must not be too gloomy, at the beginning, or you will leave me, an

      6 min read

    • Article

      Exploring The Boundaries

      May 10, 2019

      The year is 1882. A crew of four hardy men travels forty miles north from the white settlement of Grand Rapids to complete one of the first land surveys of Minnesota’s north woods before the onslaught of winter. Equipped with canvas tents and staples

      13 min read

    • Article

      Bucksaw

      Jun 3, 2019

      From the back seat of the car, Benjamin read the gold-lettered sign at the edge of the rolling green lawn and said, “Why do they call it a correctional facility?” He’d meant only to think the question, rather than speak it, but lately, more and more,

      23 min read

    • Article

      Too BAD

      Aug 30, 2022

      Too BAD
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Sep 4, 2020

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Sep 4, 2020

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Hard Man To Forget

      Jan 8, 2024

      A Hard Man To Forget
      4 min read

    • Article

      Reach

      Dec 10, 2023

      Jack Benson stands dissolved in an ocean of strangers, humans he couldn’t have known existed until forced to jostle with them for space and shared odors. He recoils imperceptibly with each touch, eager not to offend or stand out any further. As a mas

      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Heroics

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Heroics - Kristine Kathryn Rusch

      Heroics

      Heroics

      Kristine Kathryn Rusch

      WMG Publishing, Inc.

      Contents

      Heroics

      Newsletter sign-up

      Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

      About the Author

      He had gotten it all wrong.

      His body no longer worked the way it wanted to. He had always ignored that, thinking his heroes could survive anything.

      He could survive anything.

      Sobel lay facedown in a pile of leaves, the smell of decaying vegetation rich in his nostrils. The ground was cold and damp, the chill seeping through his flannel shirt and the knees of his jeans. His feet were twisted awkwardly, but he felt no pain there, nothing except the throbbing in his arm, trapped beneath him like a wounded animal.

      He rolled on his good side, felt his arm flop against his stomach, and the agony, so sharp that the world went white for a moment. The shove had sent him over the embankment, down the hill—he remembered soaring, swearing, thinking of Sarah, alone up there with them—and then the ground rushing toward him. He put his arms out to brace himself, to break the fall, underestimating both his own weight and the speed he’d been dropping. He’d heard the snap—snaps—three at least—and then the pain that blotted out the urgency, the fear, the anger.

      He thought of pushing himself up, imagined climbing the embankment like Jackson Ross, his fictional alter ego, and saving Sarah. Jackson would have gotten up immediately, would have used the broken limb to pull himself up the hill despite the pain.

      Sobel had no idea how long he had been un- or semi-conscious. Long enough for them to climb down the hill, check him for dead and leave, presumably with Sarah in tow. Why would they want her? An innocent three-year-old with eyes as big as the world. Not his, not yet. Not legally anyway. The adoption papers were ready and would be signed before he married JoAnn.

      JoAnn, who was in New York, spending a couple thousand dollars of his fortune to buy a wedding dress so secret that he couldn’t even be in the same city with her. She had left Sarah with him.

      For safekeeping.

      He pushed himself into a sitting position, and felt his closed Swiss Army knife press against his left thigh. For a moment that was the only sensation, and then he realized he was dizzy. The blood staining the leaves; the way his breath came shallowly; the clammy feel of his skin all added to his queasiness. He touched his face, felt stickiness, knew that was where the blood was coming from. Cuts, bruises. He probably had them all over. He was in

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1