The Ice Between Us

"You aren't a black hole, Kara. You're the gravity that keeps me from drifting into nothing. If you go... there is no light for me to go back to."

In the sterile, echoing hallways of St. Jude's Academy, Leo Thorne is a king. As the captain of the hockey team with a professional future paved in gold, he is known as the "Ice King"-cold, untouchable, and perfectly in control.

Kara Vance is the girl in the back of the library, a quiet artist struggling to keep her head above the rising tide of a darkness she can't name. To the world, she's a "project" to be managed or a "burden" to be carried. To Leo, she is the only person who makes the world feel real.

When their worlds collide, the friction threatens to shatter them both. Between the high-stakes pressure of the hockey rinks and the quiet desperation of a locked bedroom door, Leo and Kara must decide: are they drowning each other, or are they the only thing keeping each other afloat?

A raw, emotional story of mental health, first love, and the courage it takes to let someone see your cracks.