The Dark Glamour (666 Park Avenue 2)

body for a good ten seconds that she realized that he had no idea who was hugging him. Apparently, the spell had left some things the same, though, because the tiny currents of electricity that curled under her skin whenever she was close to him were responding just as emphatically as ever. Jane pulled herself gently away.
    ‘Excuse me,’ she improvised. ‘I’m from, erm, Brazil. We hug.’ She stepped back and shot a pleading look at Dee. The fact that Harris was here at all suggested that Dee was starting to have second thoughts about concealing Jane’s whereabouts, but a new face gave them a chance to keep her secrets. ‘Please come in.’
    Dee had been gesturing frantically to Jane, but stopped as soon as Harris could see her. She opened her arms and accepted his hug while Jane chewed the inside of her cheek; theirs looked a lot more enjoyable than her one-sided gaffe had been. ‘. . . At this time of night,’ Dee was saying.
    What time?
Jane wondered. She inched to where she could see the digital clock on the oven. She assumed that it was broken when she saw 12:14, but then remembered that she was in America, where they used twelve repeating hours instead of twenty-four.
After midnight on Saturday, then . . . or actually Sunday, I guess.
She had slept through Saturday. And of course, she realized, Dee had called Harris when Jane had headed into hour twenty-four of her magical coma. She could hardly blame her friend for that. And as the son of a son of a witch himself, raised on his grandmother’s stories and lore, Harris was a pretty smart choice to call for help.
    ‘I don’t think I’ve officially met your . . . friend,’ Harris said, and Jane’s eyes snapped over to him as if they had a mind of their own. It was as though the air around him were somehow brighter than in the rest of the room.
    ‘My roommate,’ Dee corrected as Jane started forward with her right hand outstretched for a more formal greeting than her first one. ‘She . . . um . . . Ella. This is my roommate, Ella.’
    ‘I’ve heard all kinds of nice things about you,’ Jane told Harris automatically, hoping this was enough of an explanation for her greeting him by name. And body-check.
    ‘Charmed,’ Harris replied, turning her proffered hand to kiss the back, and Jane felt her unfamiliar lips curve up into an unfamiliar smile.
    She searched her empty brain for some sort of nonchalant reply, but just then Dee appeared between them with a plate of lukewarm samosas. ‘It turned out to be nothing, of course,’ she told Harris conversationally, and Jane admired her coolness. ‘Our downstairs neighbour came home drunk and tried to get in here. It woke us up, and we’d already Netflixed
Paranormal Activity
earlier, so we were a little freaked out. I decided to stay up and cook a little, and then I guess the guy came back, because there were all kinds of weird noises and scratching at the door, and it completely freaked me out.’
    To her surprise, Jane felt the skin on her arms rise in goose bumps even though Dee was making the whole thing up.
She’s really good.
‘You should have called the police,’ Harris told Dee gently, rubbing her upper arms reassuringly. Jane clapped her hands over her own upper arms. ‘But of course I’m always happy to come play hero for the two of you,’ he added, flashing his wide, easy smile that never failed to make Jane want to smile back.
    His bright green eyes met hers and narrowed curiously for a moment. Jane inhaled and looked away as casually as she could manage, feeling a familiar heat rising in her cheeks.
He’s so close,
a rebellious part of her thought, and she felt an intense longing to just tell him who she was.
    ‘We know,’ Dee assured Harris, moving the plate out to the side and leaning her body a little closer in to his. ‘Thank you so much.’
    ‘I guess, now that we’re all safe again, I’ll go back to bed,’ Jane made herself say.
Normal people have normal lives, and I want that for them. And once I fix things with Lynne, I’ll be able to have that, too. Or something more like it, anyway.
The thoughts sounded hollow, and she shrugged her shoulders irritably, feeling a dull ache in their tired muscles.
    ‘I should, too, actually,’ Dee admitted guiltily. ‘This Kate woman called earlier; she’s starting a catering company and heard I did pastry.’ She glanced back at the food-covered surfaces of the kitchen. ‘I guess we can call tonight “interview