Hearts

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

David loved Kari from the moment he first saw her. That love inspired his art. But something more, something darker might prove his greatest inspiration of all—if only he can finally look within his own heart.

“[Rusch’s] short fiction is golden.”
—The Kansas City Star

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Jan 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311341105

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

Hearts

Hearts

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

WMG Publishing, Inc.

Contents

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About the Author

Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The morning after Kari left him, David began drawing hearts. He sat in the high-back chair near the window and stared at the farmyard below. He had planned to draw the winter fields, the rich, dark Wisconsin mud waiting patiently for spring. But as he set his sketchpad on his lap and his feet against the ridge of the slanted ceiling, he got another idea. He grabbed chalk instead of charcoal and watched as the picture appeared.

He knew it was a heart, although it lacked the rounded shape with the ventricles and the aorta. It wasn’t a child’s heart either, the kind stores had clustered in their windows during this month before Valentine’s Day. He drew a fan-shaped white thing with ridges shaded in gray. Around it, he sketched in the spine, rib cage and lungs with the detailed accuracy he had used in his days as a medical illustrator. Then he set the sketch aside and started another.

When he first saw Kari he was fifteen years old. He