Chapter 434: A gut feeling
Kellen and Rhys got home only a few minutes after each other. Kellen was in the middle of taking off his shoes and jacket and sleeping into his house slippers when he heard the door click behind him.
Turning, surprise on his own face, he was greeted with the slightly surprised look on Kellen’s face, before his expression melted and stepped into the apartment, closing the door behind him.
"I thought I was going to beat you home, but apparently my conversation with your parents held me back more than I thought." Rhys said, leaning in to kiss Kellen quickly before he began pulling off his own shoes. Kellen blinked, before he felt his shoulders relax.
"Oh? What were you talking about?" Kellen asked. "How does Dad look?" He shifted, moving towards the kitchen but Rhys reached out, grabbing him and pulling him back against his chest.
"Your Dad looked better. Waaay better than the last time we saw him. Tom being such a piece of shit was a great distraction I think, plus he has his wife, er, soon-to-be ex-wife to look after. With Charlie mostly healed and a healthy weight, he has less to fuss over. Now both him and Charlie are bonding while fussing over a fuming and grieving woman." Rhys chuckled as he pressed his lips against any skin available to him that Kellen offered him. "Your Mom was saying she’s been having a hard time. Between her own work, her reaching out to others at her Class or higher, and all the fuss with the E.A.G. she’s had her hands full. But, she has two wonderful Guides looking out for her." Kellen felt himself relax.
He hadn’t been able to keep up with them with how close of a deadline they had to get the next round of Guides, as well as Brent, back out on the front lines. They had been crunching hardcore, and any moment that wasn’t spent with his students was then spent with Brent hammering out the details of their plans.
Sometimes Kellen didn’t get home until late into the evening. Today was an exception, as Brent had a prior engagement that he couldn’t shake, nor did Kellen want him to.
There was also the fact that Gwen was going out to the front lines with this next batch as well. Kellen would normally have been excited for his sister. Over the moon. He had been up until this point. Now?
Whenever he thought about her going to the front line a thick, viscous feeling filled his gut. It wasn’t just dread, but something more than that. Kellen hadn’t told anyone about this feeling yet, mainly because he was concerned that it was just him overreacting. With everything going on the front lines right now, it would make perfect sense for Kellen to be worried about his younger sister going to the front lines. No matter how competent she was, she was still a baby in Kellen’s eyes.