The Boy Who Needed Heroes — 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