Page 66 of Elemasters

Dustin sat on the plush, pristine, white couch with James by his side, waiting for Chloe to return from the kitchen.

“Sorry I’ve been so quiet baobei I just… I don’t know what to say,” James said, his legs crossed on the couch and his hands fidgeting, “I never thought something like this would happen,”

“It’s fine,” Dustin mumbled, “it’s not like ‘how to apologize for your boyfriend’s twin brother being possessed by the spirit of the first emperor of China’ is covered in Relationships 101,”

“All emo-fringe and sardonic wit even when you’re in a crisis,” Chloe said as she and Bailey came out of the kitchen. She was holding a tray of piping hot porcelain teacups, while Bailey followed with a platter of grapes, cheese, and crackers, “glad to see you’re holding up as well as you can fish boy,”

“Circling the drain isn’t gonna help us find Chris. No matter how appealing it sounds,” Dustin replied as Chloe passed him a cup of tea. He sat it down on the glass coffee table in front of him without drinking.

“Well then we might as well get to business,” Bailey replied, her voice brittle and her eyes puffy. She’d tried to pass it off as allergies, but Dustin knew those wouldn’t hit her until Spring. She’d been up all night crying, “does anyone have any ideas about where Qin Shi Huang might’ve taken Chris in order to… break him?”

“I’ve been thinking on that,” Chloe said, taking a sip of tea, “we can’t possibly search the entire Pacific Northwest for him without some sense of direction. But yesterday, Dustin said he couldn’t sense Chris’s ring anymore. Well, what did you sense when you tried to feel for him?”

“Static. Like this faint, distant buzzing,” Dustin explained, “but how does that help us?”

“Wait, do you think we could use it like a tracker?” James cut in, sitting up straighter as the realization hit him, “maybe the closer you are to him, the stronger that static sensation will get!”

“That’s as good a plan as any, but… what do we actually do when we find him?” Dustin wondered. It was the question they’d all been circling, but no one wanted to answer. The only way to free Leo from the emperor’s hold was…

Dustin couldn’t even bear the thought.

“I know what you’re thinking, but hopefully it won’t come to that,” Chloe spoke up, “I’m really hoping that since he’s not under the emperor’s full control, there will be a way to free him without it having to go that far,”

“It can’t come to that,” Bailey said, tears rapidly welling up in her eyes, “we are not going to kill Christian,”

“Maybe once all the rings are together again, Sima Yao will be able to help us,” James pitched the idea, but he honestly didn’t seem that confident.

The pit in Dustin’s stomach grew deeper and deeper as the conversation went on. If it wasn’t clear before, the fact that they were completely out of their depth was now undeniable. They were just fumbling around in the dark with absolutely no fucking clue what they were even looking for.

“We need something more concrete than that,” Dustin’s voice had an icy edge now, his frustration becoming impossible to ignore, “we can’t just find Chris and hope that a miracle will fall out of the fucking sky,”

James winced at the intensity of Dustin’s voice.

“Sorry, I know that probably seems like a dumb idea. Well, what if we call the police and…”

“And tell them what?!” Dustin immediately cut him off, “should I just call them and say ‘hello 911? Yeah, my twin brother’s been possessed by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, that’s the one! Put out an APB immediately’. I’m sure that’ll go over well,”

“Dustin, don’t be rude. He’s just trying to help,” Bailey said, stifling another sniffle.

“I don’t need any of you to try, I need somebody to fucking DO SOMETHING!” Dustin snapped, the tea in the porcelain cups freezing solid as his veins darkened, “we’re sitting around here having snacks and chatting like my brother isn’t fucking missing!”

“We’re all aware of what’s happening Dustin, it’s not just affecting you!”

“Yeah? You think because you fucked him that means you understand?,” Dustin spat, his eyes narrowed on his best friend like she was now his opponent in Mortal Kombat, “you don’t get to tell me how to react!”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Bailey’s eyes flashed yellow, and the ground beneath them rumbled a bit, causing the curio cabinet on the far end of the living room to shake precariously, “After all we’ve been through together? How dare you act like I don’t love and care about him?!”

“Alright that’s enough!” Chloe interjected, standing up and pulling Dustin by the sleeve of his hoodie, “come outside with me, we need to talk,”

The next thing Dustin knew, Chloe was forcing him down into a lounge chair that was way too ornate to be comfortable, overlooking the ocean. Despite the omnipresent haze, he could still see the spray of surfacing Orcas in the distance.

Any other day, he would’ve been transfixed by the beauty.

Right now, it disgusted him.

“God damn it,” she said, taking the identical seat across from him, “you two are just alike,”

“Who? Me and Bailey?”