The Divine Twelve (Urban-Fantasy)

Chapter eight: Struggle In The Maze

Kori walked ahead of Sahir as they made their way through the maze. "Hey Kori," she heard from behind her.

"What?" She continued forward.

"Can we stop this childish... whatever this is?" Sahir asked, rubbing his neck. Kori kept quiet. "I just think that since we are going to have to trust each other we shouldn't always be arguing."

Kori let out a breathy sigh and turned around to face the boy. "You're right," Sahir stared at her. Kori extended her hand to him. Sahir smiled slightly and shook her hand.

"We were acting stupid," Kori said, pulling her hand back.

"Yeah," Sahir agreed. At that moment he noticed his onyx bracelet began to glow slightly. "Do you see this?"

"Huh?" Kori looked at his wrist. "It's your bracelet."

"It's glowing though," Sahir said before everything went blank.

Penelope inhaled slowly and tried to steady her breathing. She leaned forward and looked at her leg, blood-soaked through and down her pants leg.

"Here, let me help," Lennox said, crouching on the ground in front of her. He gathered water and pressed it against Penelope's wound.

"Sorry." He said as Penelope hissed in pain. He froze the water into her wound. "That should stop the bleeding and ease the pain. It's still going to hurt, though." He sighed as he got up.

"Thank you." Penelope nodded, attempting to stand. She limped, and Lennox helped her, letting her rest on his shoulder. "We need to get going. Sahir can heal me when we reach the clearing."

Sahir took a sharp breath and looked at Kori with concern plastered all over his face.

"Penelope is hurt. We need to move," Sahir said, starting to walk again.

"Wait what?" Kori said as she ran to catch up.

"I saw it," Sahir said as he turned into another clearing.

"You just had an empathic premonition," Kori said, grabbing his arm, causing him to stop.

"Try and see if you can get another one," Kori let go of him. "Maybe we can get a sense of where we need to go to find them."

"I- okay," Sahir said, closing his eyes and focusing. After a few minutes, Sahir started to hear a slight rumbling. "I think I'm getting something."

"Uh Sahir," Kori said, taking a few steps back.

"Hmm," Sahir opened one eye.

"There's Araculi coming," Kori said, urgency etched into her words.

"A-araculi as in the venomous flesh-craving spider demons??" Sahir said, his voice shaky. Kori nodded as one of the eight-legged freaks leaped into the air. Kori quickly gathered energy into her hands and clapped, sending out a wave knocking back the spiders.

"Let's go!" Kori grabbed Sahir's hand and began running in the opposite direction.

"I know this is a bad time.... but I have arachnophobia," Sahir said between breaths. Kori groaned as they turned a corner two spiders jumped forward, landing on the hedge.

"I have an idea," Kori said. "You know the force field spell right?"

"Yes," Sahir told her as they dodged web fluid.

"Put one up and let it down when I say," Kori told him.

"Are you crazy?? If I put up a shield I refuse to let it down," Sahir said, ducking the webs that were launched from behind him.