Ignited by the Smokejumper

A rookie falls from the sky; a scarred river guide drags him back to breathing.

The Blackfoot River is barely out of Miles Walker’s lungs when he learns the bigger threat is roaring above them—a ridge fire chewing straight for the valley. Sky Whitfield, once the best jumper on the crew, swore off flame after it branded him with loss, but the radio’s blown and the woods are a tinder maze. He shoves a shivering Miles into his drift-boat and heads for the only shelter he owns: a half-rotted trapper cabin miles from help.

Inside those cracked log walls, adrenaline settles into a pulse-thick silence that neither man can outrun. One mummy bag, one pot-bellied stove, and the smell of bear grease turn survival tactics into something hotter, riskier—want that slicks every nerve and refuses to dim the lights. But the fire is still moving, flash-flood storms are building, and Sky’s ghosts keep clawing for daylight. To save each other—and whatever future sparks between them—they’ll have to outrun more than flames.