Every emo band had it right.
Dustin Ying can’t wait to graduate high school and get the hell out of Pacific Cove.
He’s done with his suffocating hometown. Done with the sideways looks from people who think he’s a freak because of the very true rumors that he’s gay, or the weirder whispers that he’s “part fish” thanks to his record-breaking talent on the swim team. No matter how fast he swims, no matter how many records he shatters, it’s never enough.
Not like his twin brother, Chris.
Chris, the basketball star. Chris, the golden boy. Chris, the perfect elder son, despite being born only two minutes earlier.
That’s the way things have always been. Dustin stopped expecting it to change a long time ago.
Then the fog comes.
It swallows Dustin, Chris, and their three closest friends whole, dragging them out of the world they know and into an impossible palace untouched by time. There, five ancient rings choose them. Bind them. Fuse themselves to their fingers and awaken powers none of them understand.
And then a two-thousand-year-old ghost boy tells them the truth.
"What once was, will be again."
Bound to the Five Elements, the newly awakened Elemasters are thrust into a war against the remnants of an immortal emperor who refuses to stay dead. Training becomes survival. Survival becomes confrontation. And every victory demands a price none of them are sure they’re ready to pay.
Because power doesn’t just reveal who you are.
It tests what you’re willing to carry.
And what you’re finally forced to let go.
Every emo lyric was right: life is a nightmare.
And it’s so not fair.
