The Dark Glamour (666 Park Avenue 2)

had Dee already made something up?
This is why you don’t bring plus-ones,
she decided. First André and now Dee had demonstrated vividly why it was a bad idea.
    But Jane had been taking plenty of risks of her own, and her relief at being among her real friends again was so soothing that she had a hard time being too upset about Harris’s presence. She didn’t even really mind when Dee began rhapsodizing about the perfection that was Kate’s consommés.
Ella’s life may be fabulous, but Jane’s doesn’t suck, either,
she reminded herself wistfully. She felt an overwhelming longing to be herself again, but thought instead of the invitation on her rolltop hotel desk and the spell in her purse. It wouldn’t be long now.
    ‘Dee said your sister was in some kind of accident last month,’ Jane blurted out, ignoring Dee’s wide-eyed glare of protest. ‘I hope she’s feeling better now.’
    Harris’s face warmed perceptibly. ‘That’s very thoughtful,’ he told her, and Jane felt her body lean a few millimetres closer to his. ‘The physical therapist just signed off on less frequent sessions, which she’s thrilled about. But our parents are still freaked about the whole thing, so she’s been staying with Grandma and Aunt Charlotte upstate, and they’re driving her crazy. She can’t wait to get back to city life again.’
    He smiled, and Jane smiled back. Belatedly, Harris turned to include Dee in the moment, and Jane looked quickly down at her drink. After a pause, Dee began chatting rapidly about vol-au-vents, and Jane risked looking back over to see if Harris was following along. He had been looking at her as well, and their eyes locked for a strange, happy moment before Jane looked quickly away again. ‘So, Ella,’ Dee asked levelly, ‘how are things going with that handsome Romanian of yours?’
    Jane blushed, but knew that between her walnut skin and the dim lighting, no one would be able to tell. She focused on keeping her voice level. ‘I wouldn’t exactly call him “mine”,’ she demurred. But there was no point in denying what she had already manipulated the gossip columns into writing about. Harris’s family occasionally featured in the same ones.
He might well have heard about ‘us’, and if not, then at least he can help spread the rumour,
she argued to herself, but there was something about this particular lie that made her even more reluctant to tell it.
I don’t like using Harris,
she told herself, but that wasn’t quite it, or at least not quite all of it. ‘Things with André are going great,’ she said firmly, watching her knuckles go white around the stem of her glass. She might not like it, but she had only one chance to get it right. ‘I’ve never met his sister, though, and apparently the Dalcaşcus are pretty close, so that might be a problem.’
    She flicked her eyes nervously at Harris, and was surprised to see him rigid on his stool, his face even paler than usual under its light dusting of freckles.
He can’t be jealous,
Jane chided herself.
Can he?
‘Dee didn’t tell me you were seeing
that
André,’ he said finally, his voice quiet and strained.
    ‘You know him?’ Jane asked, nonplussed. He might, she guessed: all the surviving magical families seemed to at least know
of
one another. And he had certainly known (and disliked) Malcolm well before Jane had ever come into the picture. It seemed a bit too coincidental that he would have an ugly history with both of the two men that Jane had shown an interest in since they had met, but Jane reminded herself that she quite obviously had questionable taste in men.
    ‘Only by reputation,’ Harris answered, clipping off each word with a tensed jaw that Jane could see even in the low light. ‘It’s none of my business, but if you don’t mind some unsolicited advice . . .’
    ‘Not at all,’ Jane encouraged him. ‘I’d like for the relationship to go well,’ she added, hating that keeping up her cover made Harris’s mouth set into such a cold, tight line.
    He hesitated, and Dee looked around as if she were trying to find a way out of the conversation that she had started, but finally Harris found his voice again. ‘His family comes first,’ he told Jane with conviction, ‘especially that sister, Katrin. She practically raised him, and according to my aunt, they almost seem to share a brain. He won’t ever, ever go against her wishes, so if she doesn’t approve of you – and she doesn’t like most