Lachlan walks Cate to her private bedroom in the Nether Court, and she intends to kill him under the pretense of seducing him. However, just before she can invite him inside her room, Lachlan asks about her reaction to discovering that Martin was a rapist. He guesses that she was raped in her past and asks for the name of her rapist, looking angry. Cate says it happened a long time ago, but Lachlan says she can tell him the name whenever she is ready. In the face of his concern, Cate loses her resolve to kill him.

Still, she invites him in and flirts with him, and she manages to seize his gun. However, when she pulls the trigger, she discovers the safety is engaged, and her assassination attempt fails. Lachlan easily disarms her, revealing that her murderous intent was not a surprise; he orchestrated the entire situation as a test of her resolve.

Instead of punishing her, Lachlan offers Cate a new bargain. He challenges her to discover what he truly wants from their arrangement. If she can identify his desire and prove that he cannot have it within one month and a day, he will release her from their bond and promise to leave her brother, Channing, alone. Cate accepts the cryptic new terms. Before he departs, Lachlan shows her his ammunition—bullets made of iron, a substance lethal to fae, which are coated in gold so that he can safely handle them.

At sunrise, the magical necklace transports Cate back to her home, just as Lachlan promised it would. She feels a surprising sense of relief that she failed to kill Lachlan. As she gets ready to go to the hospital, a memory surfaces of her promising Gran that she would always protect Channing. She tries to call him, but his phone goes straight to voicemail. At the hospital, Haley informs her that Channing is now in police custody, and Garcia has been busy dealing with the police.

Cate visits Channing in his hospital room, finding him handcuffed and furious with her for reporting the shooting. He feels betrayed and refuses to listen to her explanations. During their heated argument, Channing grows suspicious when Cate mentions his boss, Lachlan, by his first name. He demands to know where Cate was, but she lies and says she was home ever since she was suspended from her job.

After the difficult visit, Cate’s old car refuses to start in the hospital parking lot, and she sees smoke billowing out from under the hood. The car, which is in dire need of repairs that she has been putting off for some time, is on fire. The necklace Lachlan gave her swings in front of her as she bends down, and as she knocks it out of the way, she prays for help.

As Cate stares in shock at her burning car, Lachlan magically appears beside her in the hospital parking lot, using a glamour to look like an ordinary human. He says she summoned him by touching the necklace while wishing for help. He lets the car burn and watches Cate’s failing attempts to put out the fire, and finally, he extinguishes the flames with a gesture. When she asks him why he didn’t do this earlier, he says she didn’t ask him to. Enraged, Cate throws the magical necklace at him and declares their bargain void. Lachlan warns her that she cannot do this, and his tattoos begin to swirl. Despite her anger, Cate feels powerfully attracted to him, and Lachlan seems to sense this. He reacts by kissing her forcefully. She accuses him of using magic to influence her feelings, and he denies this. When Cate also claims that he is responsible for the spate of trinity-related deaths in New Orleans, Lachlan says she doesn’t really know him. Cate, too, begins to question her accusation as Lachlan doesn’t seem evil to her, despite his arrogance.

Lachlan wants to understand why Cate is so upset, and she explains that the hospital was already short-staffed before her suspension, and now the other nurses have to cover for her. Taking complete control of the situation, Lachlan calls Garcia and informs him that Cate is now his private nurse. He also orders Garcia to hire more staff to cover her absence. He then vanishes, taking the broken necklace with him.

That night, Cate is transported back to the Nether Court, and she discovers that Lachlan has access to her sealed juvenile record. Cate got into trouble with the law several times until she was 15 for misdemeanors like shoplifting and possession of clover, but there is nothing after. Lachlan wants to know why, and though the question brings up painful memories, Cate stays silent.

Lachlan then explains the political landscape of the fae, revealing the existence of four courts—the Nether, Infernal, Hallow, and Astral—and the tensions between them. He tells her the dangerous street drug trinity is a corrupted form of clover magic, and to secure a new, safe supply, he must forge an alliance with the Infernal Court. The deal between the two shadow courts will be witnessed by representatives from all the other courts, per fae tradition. Also, this alliance is to be sealed by the betrothal of his sister, Ciara, with Bain. Cate realizes that this political marriage is a type of fae bargain as Ciara has no choice in the matter.

Lachlan asks Cate to befriend Ciara and provide emotional support through the difficult arrangement. He also asks her to stay with the Gages for the next month. Cate agrees, but only after negotiating new terms for herself: She will live at the Avalon Hotel instead of the Nether Court. Lachlan admits that he, Ciara, and Roark also stay at the Avalon, and he says that he only sent Cate to the Otherworld on the first few days to prevent her from calling the police on him. Cate then discovers that her necklace has returned to its place around her neck—Lachlan has repaired it. He corners her against a wall, flirting intensely about their mutual attraction.

Later that night, Cate wanders the corridors of the Nether Court, seeking a book because she can’t sleep. She encounters a guard who introduces himself as Shaw, Lachlan’s younger brother. Shaw leads her to a library, confiding that Lachlan must desperately want something from her to have made such a complex bargain. He also explains that while bargains can be broken by mutual consent, doing so can warp the magic involved in unpredictable ways.

Their conversation is cut short when Lachlan appears, revealing that the library is actually in his private bedroom. He angrily confronts them, displaying extreme jealousy at Shaw’s easy rapport with Cate. He warns Shaw never to touch his possessions, which is a clear reference to Cate. As he escorts Cate back to her room, Shaw explains that the eerie wailing sounds in the court come from wraiths—the souls of non-fae who died in the Otherworld and are now bound to serve the ruling family by guarding the court. Cate enjoys Shaw’s company and, seeing him as a potential ally, she decides to befriend him.

Cate wakes in the Nether Court and experiences fae luxury, including a magical bath that fills with scented water on its own. Lachlan’s penumbra, Roark, then nips her to the Avalon Hotel. He also arranges for a car and driver to take Cate back to her apartment so she can collect anything she might need for her month-long stay at the Avalon. Cate makes a stop at the hospital, where she learns from Haley that Channing has been moved to jail.

Haley questions Cate about her new, lavish lifestyle and her close relationship with Lachlan Gage. She suggests that Cate could use her influence to convince Lachlan to do something about the trinity drug crisis afflicting New Orleans. Haley’s practical advice makes Cate grapple with her own complicated feelings for Lachlan.

Arriving at the Avalon Hotel, Cate finds Lachlan and Ciara in a heated argument. Shaw explains the situation: Ciara is furious because Lachlan failed to mention that her betrothal ceremony requires a lengthy, traditional celebration, including a bacchanalia. During their talk, the group notes that the other Gage sister, Fiona, is conspicuously absent and does not attend the court functions.

Despite her anger with her brother, Ciara is warm and friendly toward Cate, inviting her on spa days and shopping trips to solidify their new friendship. As they prepare to leave together to get drinks, Lachlan shares a moment of intense flirtation with Cate, and she wonders if she will be able to resist him for much longer. As she walks away with Ciara, Cate resolves to genuinely befriend both her and Shaw, cementing a new alliance for herself within the volatile world of the fae.