Kestrel and Rory are the very best partnership in Wester Fleet's elite Mountain Rescue Team. They've trusted one another with their lives for five years. They're closer than brothers - but Rory's feelings for his handsome, daredevil partner are far from fraternal. He knows better than to tell Kes the truth. Climbing partnerships are a delicate balance of love and practicality, and the Fleet MRT has a strict nonfraternization code. Rory could lose everything by making a confession. And Kes is an enigma - sometimes distant, sometimes seeming to crave the very devotion Rory longs to give him.

Kes is all set to become the MRT's next leader. He's a shoo-in for the job - except for his impatience with amateur climbers and his inability to hold his tongue. When he and Rory are given the job of guiding two important visitors across the Fleet range, it's a test of his tact, to say the least. But nothing about this mission is as it seems, and soon Kes is facing the most terrifying challenge of his life.