Filthy Rich Fae

“And, princess. Later tonight, when you’re in bed not thinking about me, feel free to touch that necklace while you touch yourself.”

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REVIEW

Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe

Spice Level Legend How spicy is this book?

Tropes	Trigger Warnings
Enemies to lovers, Forbidden romance, Morally grey MMC, Magic, Hidden worlds, Touch her/him and die, Witches, Werewolves, Vampires	Betrayal, Violence, Death, Abduction

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SUMMARY

This is book 1 of the Filthy Rich Fae. Book two can be found here.

TLDR: Cate is a human. Lachlan is a Fae prince of the Nether Court. Cate gets involved with the Fae by making a bargain. Lots of banter, enemies to lovers, sexual tension. At first she tries to break the bargain but then she grows to love his family (her new friends) and develop feelings for Lach. They accidentally (and unknowingly) perform an ancient custom that binds their souls together one night when they were getting it on. Lach finds out another court, Infernal Court (Prince Bain) has been messing with his street drug, Clover, and confronts them about it. They get pissed and he kicks them out of his city. Before they leave, MacAlister (Bain’s right hand man) attempts to kill Cate. Cate shoots him instead. Lach tells her that whoever kills a right hand man gets marked for death by the Wild Hunt. He takes the killing shot and sends Cate away with instructions on who to call for help. Cate makes a pit stop at her house and talks to her brother and then gets kidnapped by Oberon (Hallow Court Prince). Lach is now marked by the Wild Hunt and is on the run. Cate is being held by Oberon. But there are more secrets to uncover in book 2.

	Nether Court	Infernal Court	Astral Court	Hallow Court
Ruler	Lachlan	Bain	Aurora	Oberon
Penumbra	Roark	MacAlister	Unknown	None
Siblings	Fiona, Ciara, Shaw	None that we know of	Sirius	Twin: Titania
Location	New Orleans	London	Prague	Dublin
Magic source	Shadow court; magic from underground	Shadow court; magic from Earth's core	Light Court; magic from sky (Sun, Moon, stars)	Light Court; magic from the air

Cate is an ER nurse working a shift when two gunshot victims come in. One is DOA and the other has a non-fatal injury, and is also her foster brother, Channing. She asks him WTF and he says he got shot with friendly fire while working on paying off debts. He tells her that he got involved with the Gage family and he now owes them. 

The Gages are well known and feared in New Orleans. They are seen as like the mafia. They own everything, they run everything, and they control everything. They are also responsible for the latest drug on the streets, called Trinity, that is killing people.

So Cate already hates them for the drugs and the overdoses she sees on the daily in the ER. But now, her brother is mixed up with them too, and she is super pissed. She questions Channing about how much debt he is in, and tells him she will figure something out. He begs her not to get involved, says she doesn’t know what Gage is. 

Remember how I just said that Gages own everything? Including the hospital that Cate works at. So when shootings come in that are associated with the Gages, it just kind of all disappears. Cate doesn’t want that to happen this time. She wants to keep Channing safe and away from the Gages, so she calls the police to report the shooting and asks them to come to the hospital. She gets suspended and sent home by her boss for doing this.

But instead of going home, she heads down to the Avalon, where the Gages live. She meets a guard out front and demands to see Lachlan Gage. He tells her no but she is kind of insistent. The guard seems entertained by her so agrees to take her in. He tells her not to eat or drink ANYTHING while she is there. He takes her to an office and when he walks in, there are already guys in there. One of them is like it's about time Lach. And she realizes that the guard she met…isn’t a guard, but it's Lachlan Gage. 

The men that are in his office have another man who is whimpering and whining. Lachlan questions him and he says he’s sorry, he’ll never do it again. Lachlan is like too bad, you did what you did, and you have to pay for it. He offers the dishing out of punishment to another guy, MacAlister. MacAlister chops off one of the guy's hands. Cate is like WHAT IS HAPPENING. Everyone leaves but Cate and Lach. Cate is yelling at him for letting MacAlister cut off this dude’s hand and Lach says if you knew what that guy did, you’d want to hurt him too. 

Cate says she is there to negotiate Channing out of his debts. Lach says Channing broke the rules, he stole food, and now he must pay. He says he wants his life, not his death, he has no plans to kill Channing. Cate offers him the only thing she has that is worth any value - a ring her mother gave her before she died. Lach looks at it, has a little reaction, then tells her it's worthless. She says she would trade her life for Channing. Lach says in that case, have an apple. 

Once she takes a bite of the apple, she feels a weird sensation on the back of her neck. She gets freaked out and says she is leaving and Lach is like nope, we haven’t discussed our agreement, you just made a bargain. He snaps his fingers and “nips” (winnows, apprates, teleports) somewhere that he calls “his world”. 

Cate finds out that Lachlan is not human, but Fae. Our world is connected to the Otherworld by portals (or magic or something…). Cate is currently in the Nether Court, to which Lach is the prince (there is no king, so Lach is the ruler). Also, there are vampires and witches and anything else magical you can think of living in plain sight. 

Lachlan tells Cate she has to stay the night in the Nether Court. Tonight is the equinox, which is why he had so many guests like MacAlister, and he has to return to Avalon. She’s like okay, well let me go home. He said no, you gotta stay here until I get back and we can talk about our arrangement, and then he nips back.

The next morning, Lach shows up and takes Cate to the dining room for breakfast where she meets Roark. Roark is Lach’s penumbra and shows Cate his signet ring that matches a ring that Roark wears. Cate’s like oh is that your friendship bracelets? He says a penumbra means shadow. When an heir to the throne is born, a child born on the same day is chosen as a companion. He has lived with Lach his entire life. But he’s more than that, he is Lach’s right hand man. The signet rings allow them to communicate telepathically. Lach then gives Cate a necklace. He says the necklace connects her to Lach. If she needs him, she just touches it and he can hear her. It also allows him to be able to nip to wherever she is. He says she can go back to her world, as long as she comes back to Lach every night. All she has to do is touch the stone when she is ready to return. That’s his bargain. Every night of her life spent in her own beautiful, spacious room in the Nether Court, where she will never want for anything (except the internet - cell phones don’t work there). He also tells her that he has his reasons for the bargain, death is the only way out (if either of them die, the bargain is broken), and that he could always “gift” her to another court but that’s unlikely to happen.

He tells her he wants her to attend a party with him at midnight. She says nope, you said I have to be HERE every night, not spending it with you. Cate decides if death is the only one to break the bargain, then she knows what she has to do - kill Lachlan.Later, he sends Fiona to help her get ready. Cate doesn’t know it at first but Fiona is Lach’s sister. Fiona is not pleasant to Cate. Doesn’t seem to like her and doesn’t make her feel comfortable about the bargain. Before they leave, another girl shows up, Ciara. Ciara is Lach’s other sister. But the nice one. She escorts Cate to the ballroom and Cate really likes her. Which makes her feel bad knowing that she is planning on killing Lach. 

At the ball, Lach flirts with her, compliments her, taunts her, and the banter between the two is fantastic. They dance for a bit and then he asks her if she wants to get out of here and takes her back to her room. She invites him in and he’s like what are you playing at? He had already told her sex was not part of their arrangement. He comes in and she tries seducing him just to steal his gun. Which she does and points it at him. He is impressed but tells her he doesn’t think she can do it. She does pull the trigger and Lach moves incredibly fast and takes the gun from her. He is still very impressed…and a little turned on. He tells her he will teach her how to defend herself…and how to take the safety off. He tells her that bargains are based on desire. She has something he desires. If she can figure out what it is, and prove to him that she’ll never give it to him, he will break their bargain. She has a month and a day to figure it out or the bargain stays in place until one of them dies. 

Cate wakes up in her own apartment (and now with working AC since she had made a passing comment to Lach about it not working). She goes to the hospital to visit Channing who is pissed off that he is now being arrested. Cate doesn’t tell him about her deal with Lachlan but tells Channing that if he won’t stay away from the Gages, she will keep him from the Gages by having him arrested. When she leaves, her car won’t start and then it catches on fire. She moves her necklace and just happens to be praying to a god for help. Then Lach shows up. He says “You rang.” At first, he doesn’t help her put the car out. She gets really upset because even though her car is a POS, it's hers. She saved for years to buy a car and after being a child in foster homes and never having something of her own, she is proud of it. Once she starts crying, Lach puts the fire out for her. They banter, it's glorious, and just as she is thinking that Lach may be an asshole, but he's hot, and she just wants to forget this shitty day, he kisses her. 

She enjoyed it but tells him not to do it again. He wants to know what’s really wrong with her. She admits that she feels bad because the hospital is so short staffed and now she got suspended and she can’t help. Lach calls Garcia (who runs the hospital) and tells him Cate no longer works for the hospital, but for Lach himself, and why didn’t Garcia tell him about the staffing issue? He tells Garcia to double the salary of the current staff and then offer that wage for starters (I only mention this because as a nurse myself, this would be a freaking dream come true). 

That night, Gage nips her back to the Nether Court, where he sits and reads from her police records, while she gets dress fitted. He tells her she needs all these dresses for court dealings that she will be required to attend. Thanks to Cate, he has realized how bad Trinity has been affecting his city. Trinity is a mutation of another drug, Clover, that the Fae produce. Clover gives the user temporary euphoria, but something is wrong with the magic and now it’s killing people. He has invited the other courts so the Nether Court can work out a deal with the Infernal Court, one being for a different type of drug until they can fix Clover. 

The other reason all the courts have gathered: Lachlan is arranging a marriage between his sister, Ciara, and the prince of the Infernal Court, Bain. Cate asks how come Ciara has to be married off and Lachlan says that princes must marry a princess to ensure an alliance, and there are only 4 princesses left - two are his sisters. Heirs are not allowed to marry other heirs. It happened once, it ended badly, and now it’s strongly discouraged. Lach wants Cate to spend time with Ciara until this whole marriage business is done. He says Ciara likes Cate and, other than Roark, Ciara knows Lach best. Maybe she can help Cate figure out the bargain. He tells Cate he needs her to stay in the Infernal Court for a month (this is important for Book 2). When she pushes back, because internet, he says she can move into the Avalon and stay there with them. They don’t live in the Otherworld either but they visit frequently. Avalon resides half in and half out of the Otherworld.

In the middle of the night, Cate can’t sleep, so she gets up to wander around, maybe try to find a book to read. There is someone outside of her bedroom, guarding it. His name is Shaw, and he’s Lach’s younger brother. Cate tells him she just wants a book so he takes her to the library. Shaw tells her a little bit about bargains - Lach doesn’t make them often so she must have something he really wants. Bargains can warp their magic. As they are talking, Lach shows up. He tells Cate she can borrow one of the books, but don’t write in it, they are his, and she realizes they are in his bedroom. Lach belittles Shaw - because that’s what he does. Shaw walks Cate back to her room. Cate tells him she thinks the place is haunted because she has heard ghost-like noises. He tells her those are just the wraiths. When a creature, other than Fae, dies in the Otherworld, they are caught in between worlds. They become light and shadow and serve the fae royals. 

The next day,  Lach made sure there was a car waiting out front so Cate could go anywhere she wanted as well as going to her apartment and getting what she would need/want for the next month. When she gets back to the Avalon, Ciara is yelling at Lach. She knew about the arranged marriage, but the Infernal Court wants to do things the old way with balls and rituals. She just wants to get it over with. She invites Cate to go to a spa and go shopping the next day. Again - so much banter and sexual tension that really makes this book chefs kiss.

The Midnight Feast is that night. Drinking and fucking is basically all they do there. Orgies…everywhere. The Fae are not shy people. Tomorrow they will do the ritual of the banns. They will announce the wedding of Ciara and Bain and then they have 3 weeks to hope that someone calls it off. At the feast, Cate drinks too much Ambrosia. Lach flirts with her a lot and confuses her as well. He says she isn’t his type, that he doesn’t want to have sex, but then kisses her neck, holds her hand, and is very possessive around the other courts. Bain wants to talk to Lach in private, so Lach leaves Shaw with Cate. Cate encourages him to leave her and go have fun. She can see him staring longingly at Titania. She finds a corner to hide in and wait for Lach to come back. Oberon finds her. Tells her these things aren’t really his type of event. He is interested in her though. He seems super nice and he asks her to just take a walk with him. She tells him that she made a bargain with Lach but she isn’t sure what he wants other than her to spend every night in the Nether Court and probably to torment her. Oberon is like I don’t think tormenting is why he made the bargain. Then Lach shows up. SUPER pissed. Cate wants to dance with him, which he entertains for a hot minute, then takes her up to their wing by throwing her over his shoulder. Cate is super drunk. She definitely wants to hook up with Lach but he tells her to go to bed. 

Ciara wakes her up the next morning to go shopping. She also brings her a hangover cure that the Astral court makes. She also discovers one in the bathroom from Lach. They shop for a few hours and then Lach shows up to rescue Cate from shopping. Cate is acting a little weird, which Lach notices, because she is internally acknowledging that she might have some feelings for Lach. 

Lach takes her out into the country…sorry this is Louisiana…the bayou. On the way there he tells her he got Channing out of jail, charges dropped, and got him a job bussing tables at a restaurant. This new discovery isn’t helping the feelings that Cate is developing.

Out in the bayou, they meet another fae, Goemon. He guards the bayou and belongs to no court. He is part of the Wild Hunt. Lachlan describes them as, “Mercenaries who live outside the courts. They uphold our most ancient laws, hunting down those marked for breaking them.” 

He tells her that no one escapes the Hunt once they have been marked by magic.

Why are they in the bayou? Lach wants to teach Cate how to use a gun in case he isn’t around to protect her. She fires the gun a few times, then thinks she has the bargain figured out and guesses wildly, which just pisses Lach off. He tells her she doesn’t want to break the bargain anymore than he does because it's been weeks and that’s her best guess.

They ride back to New Orleans in silence, both pissed off at each other. When they get back, Lach asks her if she is going out with Ciara tonight to please take a gun since he can’t be there to protect her. She refuses. He gets annoyed, she accuses him of being jealous because he saw her talking to Oberon, and when he says he’s not, she’s like oh yeah because I’m not your type. This goes back and forth for a bit until he has her basically pinned up against the car, her hand on his abdomen, he takes her hand and guides it lower, and says “Does that feel like you’re not my type?” Just when Cate is like fuck it, lets do this, Roark comes outside and interrupts them - on purpose and way too happy about it. 

Cate goes out with Shaw, Ciara, Titania, and Sirius. They are dancing at a club and go up to a VIP room when all the music shuts off and they hear police sirens. Cate, being an ER nurse, rushes downstairs. There is a guy overdosing on Trinity. She asks someone to look for narcan behind the bar, hoping they have some. Lach shows up, she tells him to do CPR, while she gets the narcan. She administers it in time. The EMTs arrive, she tells them what little she knows and before the police walk away she looks at Lach and says see, that's what your freaking drugs do. The police officer is like ….what now? She gets Lach to leave and distracts the cops long enough for Lach to get out of there. Everyone left her there and she decides to walk back to the Avalon because it’s not far. 

She wasn’t watching where she was going and ended up down a dead end road. Then the street lights went out. Some other creatures decided they wanted to play with her. She fights back but it’s a hot minute before she remembers the necklace and is able to touch it. Lach shows up - pissed would be an understatement. The two creatures - they are fae called Redcaps, not allowed in his territory - beg for forgiveness but Lach has none to give. He has Roark take Cate back to his quarters while he deals with them. Cate waits up for Lach and when he does return, covered in blood, she doesn’t feel frightened of him, or appalled about what he just did. She feels … avenged…pleased. It makes her want to give in to her feelings. He tells her that he killed them, that he’s the bad guy, and she’s like nah I don’t think so. They start hooking up only for Roark to interrupt…again. He says there’s an emergency and he needs Lach. Lach leaves but not before telling her that she just got saved from making the biggest mistake of her life.

But Cate doesn’t want to be saved. When it’s been hours and he hasn’t come back yet, she touches the necklace while she touches herself. He shows up in about 5 seconds. He’s like well don’t stop on my account. He then thanks her for the show and goes to leave, saying he has to get back to the meeting that he left abruptly when she called. 

The next morning, Ciara tells her what the emergency meeting was about. After witnessing the overdose, Lach ordered all of the Clover in NOLA destroyed. Including their own personal stash and what they had given the other courts in their welcome basket. Bain threw a fit, called a meeting, wanted to call off the wedding, said that Lach was trying to kill them all by pointing tainted drugs in their baskets. The fact that they got it back didn’t seem to matter to Bain. He sowed doubt about the Nether Courts intentions with the other courts so an alliance with them is more important than ever. Bain has decided he doesn’t want to do the banns but wants a handfasting instead. No, it's not something kinky like my brain thinks it is. It skips the banns and is an old custom. Back in the day, if two Fae thought they were mates, they would perform the handfast which binds your soul permanently to another. But it doesn’t happen right away, they have one year and one day for the magic to bind them. When, and if, the magic thought they were true mates with selfless love then the bond would seal and their souls would be linked.  

Lach tells Cate that Bain will be trying to negotiate the best deal now that he has the upper hand and Lach needs to give his full attention to these meetings so he asks for the necklace back. He said he is good at ignoring his need for Cate, he just has to do it a bit longer. 

Cate has an idea about the Clover. Lach had said that something was wrong with the magic and if Bain was going to be an asshole and try to keep other drugs away from NOLA, they needed to fix the Clover. She goes to Ciara and Sirius (who previously told her that he studies alchemy) for help. For the next week, Sirius studied multiple samples of Clover, trying to find what went wrong and how to fix it, but was struggling.

Channing shows up at the Avalon, threatening the first fae he sees, which happens to be Bain, if he doesn’t get to see Cate. Lach steps in and takes Channing to his office until Cate shows up. Channing is upset that Cate made a bargain - offers himself again. Lach declines. Cate and Channing argue. Then Cate and Lach argue with Lach implies there’s something going on between them. She does what she does best and lashes out with her words. They make the impact she wanted…and immediately regrets it. Lach nips away.

What is wrong with Cate? That’s a great question because stop being mean to Lach! But it’s because she grew up in foster care, shipped from house to house, until she landed with her permanent home with a lady she called Gran. It took her awhile to trust that Gran wasn’t going to dump her and move on. Now, she would rather keep people away, than get attached and get hurt. Lach knows this - he’s called her out on her shit before. But she’s also scared. She has stopped trying to break the bargain, she’s stopped thinking about it. She is afraid to admit that she loves being there - with Lach, Ciara, Roark, Shaw. They have become her family and Avalon has become her home and that scares the shit out of her. So she lashes out at Lach.

That night is the handfasting ceremony. Cate gets ready alone but her escort to the ceremony isn’t Lach. It’s Roark. Roark and Cate talk. She’s worried Lach hates her, Roark says he doesn’t think he’s capable of that. Roark tells her that it’s a lot to balance ruling a court, part of Roark’s responsibility is to help Lach with choices. He says “if we’re very lucky, we will find someone who helps us choose the right path and loves us when we don’t.” Cate doesn’t think she is enough and Roark says Lach thinks you are. He also tells her that it’s his job to look out for Lach, and now for both of them. He admits he was interrupting them on purpose but stopped when he saw how they look at each other.

Cate asks Roark more questions about the handfasting. He tells her he has never seen a handfasting actually result in a mating bond. He tells her that in modern times, handfasting is like a trial marriage. If either party finds an “irreconcilable reason” to cut ties, then it's over. It's better than the banns, the banns would mean no way out. 

After the ceremony, Cate goes to find Lach. They are being all awkward around each other, but she pulls him out of the room, to go somewhere to talk. During their conversation, Lach tells her that his parents told him to never handfast without meaning it. He thinks they were mated. His father was the heir of the Nether Court and his mother heir to the Terra Court. Terra Court fell in World War 2 (when his parents died). Terra Court was an earth court and it was right in the middle of the action. Lach was recovering from getting shot when he found out that Terra had fallen, along with every member of their bloodline, and his father. He was sent home to take the throne. He was forced to decide if he wanted to rule Nether or Terra. Since Terra had fallen, he took the Nether Court throne. He tells Cate that after all this time people still think he will try to take the Terra throne and try to rule as High King. And that because of that, they shouldn’t be a thing. She’s like let me take care of myself and fuck me damnit. 

Lach nips them back to the Avalon and they christened the rug in front of the fireplace. He carries her to bed and puts a robe on her because she's freezing. They talk - she tells him about her ring, her Gran, how she was sexually assaulted by a foster dad. He tells her how she intrigues him and why he agreed to listen to her that first night. He says the bargain needs to be broken so that she knows that what is going on between them is real. All she had wanted was the bargain to be broken and now she’s like no no don’t do that. She takes her robe off and he takes the sash from her robe and wraps it around her wrists and then one of his. He says he is never letting her go. But once they are finished, he unties them and she’s like I thought you weren’t letting me go and then she tells him “I’m yours.”

The next morning, doing another rendezvous, Cate finds a gun under Lach’s pillow. He says he always has a gun under his pillow…as if that’s perfectly normal. 

Ciara starts banging on the door. Cate throws a silk robe at Lach to put on, it doesn’t even reach his knees, and tells him to nip to his room. He doesn’t see what the big deal is but Cate doesn’t want to deal with Ciara’s smugness and questions. Cate finally gets the door open and Ciara is like who were you talking to, what were you doing, where is Lach? They go out into the living room where Roark, Shaw, and Sirius are. 

Roark has been trying to use his signet ring to get in touch with Lach all morning but Lach has been silent. Roark makes a point to tell Cate that he’s been silent all night. Ciara asks him to call Lach again and then Lach walks in the room…still wearing Cate’s robe. He’s like there's no point in hiding, they can just smell me on you. Ciara is super smug about it and Shaw makes a comment about how he knew they’d bang before Samhain. 

Lach finally notices that Sirius is there. He does not seem happy with Cate and Sirius' little side project but Sirius tells him he found Shadow Court magic in the contaminated samples of Clover. Not Nether Court magic…but Infernal Court magic. With this evidence of Infernal Court messing with the Clover, Ciara can break her handfasting.

During a meeting with all the court heads, when everyone is sitting, Lach has Roark move one seat down and offers the seat next to him to Cate. Roark tells her he is making a statement to the other courts. Bain gets real offended that they are accusing him of trying to hurt the Nether Court. Ciara said let's ask the magic, if you weren’t trying to hurt my court, then the handfasting remains….but it doesn’t. The tattoo fades away. Bain is like way to go, you’ve made an enemy.  

Lach tells him he has until night fall to get the fuck out of NOLA. Lach and Cate nip back to the Otherworld. He wants Cate to stay there until Bain leaves, just so he knows she’s safe. A few hours later, she is looking for a book when she hears someone behind her, thinking it’s Lach she turns around, but it’s not. It’s MacAlister. 

He tells her he has his own bargain to fulfill, to bring down Lach, to prove that he “could be his penumbra.” She tries to get away from him but he’s blocking the only exit. She reaches for her necklace but Lach hasn’t given it back yet. MacAlister comments about the redcaps, implying they were sent by the same person that sent MacAlister. MacAlister says he can’t decide if he wants to torture her or just be quick and shoot her in the head. She gets away from him, dives onto the bed, and reaches under Lach’s pillow. Where he always keeps a gun. She shoots him three times. As he falls, she kicks his gun away, and tries to hold pressure to one of the wounds. She knows if he dies, she will be marked for the Wild Hunt. There is no way to get ahold of Lach but the wraiths help her and Lach appears. 

He says when MacAlister dies, the killer will be marked. Bain will realize MacAlister is dead and come after Cate. She needs to get out of NOLA. He gives her a key fob, tells her there is money and a phone in the glove box. Ditch her phone, call the only number in the new phone, they will tell her what to do and then ditch that phone. Do not come back into Fae territory and do NOT take off her mother’s ring. This confuses her. Lach says “It’s what I wanted. Swear that you will never take it off and that you will never give it to me.” He makes her swear it and when she does she feels the bargain being broken. He tells her to go now and then he takes the killing shot. 

Does Cate listen? No, of course not. 

She gets in the car, but she makes a phone call and a pit stop. She calls Channing and tells him to meet her at her house. She starts getting stuff to leave and tells Channing to get into the car and she’ll explain on the road. He says he got them into this mess he’ll get them out and then someone chloroforms her. 

Lach takes MacAlister’s body and dumps it into the bayou. Goeman meets him there and is like uh usually people run from us not to us? Goeman says he’s always liked Lach so he’ll give him a head start. Lach nips to Fiona’s place in NYC. Fiona says nobody is there and nobody has called. Roark shows up. Lach mentions he blocked Roark when he “felt Cate’s panic bleating in my own chest” (so I guess it wasn’t the wraiths who notified Lach). Roark tries to calm Lach down, telling him to give Cate some more time. Lach wants to nip back to NOLA but Roark tells him no. Then the phone rings. It’s Channing. He said he made a bargain. Channing says he swore he would take her away but he shot Channing before he left. Lach assumes its Bain. Fiona looks at Lach’s left hand and her eyes go wide, he shoves his hand in his pocket and gives Roark orders - get an ambulance to Channing, have Shaw come to NYC, and Roark needs to stay with Ciara - she has to run the court now. He takes off his signet ring and hands it to Roark but Roark isn’t looking at that - he’s looking at Lachs hand. Roark says if Bain finds out that they are (he never says) … he’ll send the Wild Hunt after Cate too. Lach says “Then let’s hope she keeps that esmeraude on her finger.” 

What’s an esmeraude? Well… it’s her mother’s ring. The whole reason Lach made the bargain.

Epilogue: Cate wakes up and is slightly confused about where she is. When she leaves the room she was placed in, she finds her way to a dining room. Where Oberon is at. Cate asks what does Oberon want? And he says what every King wants - a war. He wants Lach to pick a fight with the Infernal Court, then the Wild Hunt to take Lach out. Cate looks towards her ring like she always does for comfort, and for a split second thinks she sees something on her hand, but then it’s gone.