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The dichotomy is not lost on me. They rejoin us, and I grab a stool from beside the bar before giving Hadrion an arch look.
“What?” He frowns. I gesture to the bar shelves, filled with all sorts of expensive, beautiful bottles of booze.
“We are not continuing this conversation without a little liquid courage,” I say. “So pour us all a damn drink.”
Cyrus nearly chokes on a buried laugh, hiding it behind a hand across his mouth, and Shay smirks. Hadrion purses his lips for a moment and then rolls his eyes, muttering to himself as he goes behind the bar. Shay pats me on the shoulder, squeezing it briefly before she also sits.
Falcon leans on the bar, gesturing for Cyrus to belly up to the bar. He just shakes his head though, hanging back, looking around the great club. He’s been here once that I know of. Were there other times? He looks curious, but almost... bitter?
I wonder what it’s been like for him, out on the outskirts, protecting his master from afar. I wonder what he’s been doing this the whole time? Has he been walking the world in human-form for a decade, just like Hadrion?
“Alright,” Hadrion growls, pulling down the good whiskey, as Falcon cracks into a grin. Glasses clink onto the bar-top, and Hadrion pours us each a shot. Shay lets out a pleased noise, and even Cyrus seems to perk up. “Now, you have your alcohol, perhaps it will bring forth some brilliance from one of you--“
He’s setting the bottle back on the shelf when it happens.
Sound warps out of the room. Silence envelopes everything. Cyrus stiffens. Shay’s glass is half-way to her lips. Falcon is reaching for his whiskey.
And Hadrion turns his head slowly, to look at me.
The shelves behind him burst, the glass of them shattering, bottles instantly turning into glittering crystal.
And still, the silence.
I can’t move. The wall behind Hadrion disappearing, melting into some great mawing cavernous hole. It’s flat, purple, and black, stretching wide and tall, like a portal to another realm.
The scent of... some strange flower fills me, fills my lungs as Hadrion’s eyes widen, and from the portal behind him, two arms emerge.
They wrap around his waist, and I can’t move fast enough. Beside me, Cyrus reaches out, grabbing the bar in something that feels like honey-slowness. He’s up on top of the bar, faster than all of us—
But Hadrion’s mouth opens, and it’s too late. He’s pulled into the portal, disappearing into it, the arms dragging him away, and just like that—
The portal shrinks to nothing and winks out of existence.
Sound rushes back in, Shay’s throaty scream piercing the air, Cyrus’s roar of fury, and the ruined remains of the shelves collapse down, shattering all over the floor. The scent of alcohol burns right to the back of my nose and I gasp, grabbing the edge of the bar to keep upright.
Cyrus lands on the other side of the bar and slams his fists into the wall, at the ragged plaster and broken metal shelf supports. Falcon curses, turning to Shay, eyes so wide the whites are glistening.
I can’t hear what he says, though.
Hadrion’s gone.
Hadrion’s... just gone.
