The Dark Glamour (666 Park Avenue 2)

grand entrance. Obviously.
Thousands of candles were suspended from the ceiling, and Lynne had filled the open space with twisting vines and delicately branched trees full of tiny lights. The entire place looked like the enchanted wood from some fairy tale . . . after the fairies had already gone to work, of course. And with a stellar-slash-sickening view of the city, Jane remembered belatedly when she stepped around a stand of birch trees and found herself directly in front of the wraparound floor-to-ceiling windows. She gulped down the lump in her throat and grabbed a glass of champagne off the tray of a passing waiter before making her way back to the safer centre of the massive room.
    A pair of dancing green eyes caught hers from across the room, and she nearly choked on her drink.
Harris. Everyone in New York really
is
here,
Jane thought, her body pulling towards Harris like a strong magnet. She felt a moment of giddy happiness at the sight of his coppery hair and wide, easy smile, and it only deepened when she realized that he was alone. Then the happiness turned to guilt as she realized why Dee hadn’t come: although this was certainly a plus-one type of occasion, Dee would never have taken the risk of putting herself in a room full of mind-readers. She insisted that her mental defences had come a long way in the last couple of months, but considering all that she knew, and considering how powerful Lynne and the twins were, coming to the party would have been suicide.
And got me killed, too, so thanks for sitting this one out.
Jane, fully abashed, tried to project the thought downtown, towards their apartment, even though she knew Dee wouldn’t be able to read it.
    Jane started towards Harris eagerly, but bumped almost immediately into something tall, dark, and extremely well built. ‘How lovely to see you again, dear Ella,’ André smiled coldly, taking her arm in what was definitely not a casual manner. His black eyes burned into hers, and she could tell he was absolutely furious.
    ‘How was France?’ she asked as brightly as she could, shaking her arm violently out of his grip.
    ‘You did this,’ he hissed, leaning in so that no one else could overhear them.
    ‘Can you believe it?’ she asked, keeping a desperate smile on her face and stepping back. ‘I just ran into her and recognized her. I’m surprised to see you here, though,’ she added pointedly. She bared her teeth in an approximation of a smile.
Tell me how the hell you could risk coming here now,
she thought violently at him. He couldn’t read her mind, but she felt sure he would be able to read her face. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Katrin, half hidden behind one of the little trees, glaring in her direction. One of the twins was with her, and she didn’t look much happier. From the other side of the room, Harris was watching the two witches, even moving a bit closer to them. Jane wished fervently that he would look her way again; she could use an ally.
    ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ André’s Romanian accent snarled at her. ‘I’m here to support my dear Anne at this momentous occasion. She has always been like a sister to me, you know,’ he finished urbanely, and Jane began to understand that she was about to get the same story he had fed to Lynne. She knew better – and she was willing to bet that Lynne did, too – but apparently it suited both of them to pretend that André hadn’t been actively hiding Anne from anyone.
    ‘She did mention that she had some friends from the orphanage,’ Jane offered tentatively, and André smiled like a predator hypnotizing its prey.
    ‘My family has always been involved in charity projects, volunteerism, and so on,’ he confirmed. ‘Katrin, there’ – he waved to his sister, who practically snarled at Jane in response -‘was working at the orphanage when Anne came in. If we had had any idea who she was then, of course, we could have ended this story happily decades ago.’
    ‘Amazing that you never heard about Annette,’ Jane murmured, and André’s eyes blazed again.
    ‘Once we did, of course, we came here to investigate her birth family. We disguised it as merger talks so as not to arouse suspicion, but we couldn’t in good conscience let our dear little sister go back to just any kind of people. We felt quite protective. I’m sure you can imagine.’
    Jane glanced around for Harris again, but his attention was still riveted on Katrin.
Over here, damn