Legendborn

Legendborn Plot Summary

Introduction

# Echoes of Magic: Between Worlds of Legacy and Truth The police officer's badge shimmers like mercury in the sterile hospital light, his form wavering between solid and translucent as he weaves silver threads through the air with practiced fingers. Bree Matthews watches in numb horror as her father's memories of her mother's final moments dissolve under the stranger's touch, erased as cleanly as chalk from a blackboard. The mesmer should work on her too—should steal away the impossible sight of magic bleeding into reality. Instead, it slides off her mind like water off glass, leaving her with the terrible knowledge that her mother's death was no accident. Three months later, Bree arrives at the University of North Carolina carrying grief like a stone in her chest and questions that burn hotter than tears. The Early College Program was supposed to be her escape from the suffocating weight of loss, but escape proves impossible when the very forces that killed her mother begin hunting her through the Carolina woods. What she discovers in the shadows beneath the campus will shatter everything she thought she knew about magic, legacy, and the price of truth in a world where ancient bloodlines wage war against creatures from nightmare itself.

Chapter 1: The Shattered Mirror: Loss and the First Glimpse of Magic

The hellhound materializes from shadow and flame on Bree's first night at Carolina, its red eyes fixed on her with predatory hunger. She should be dead within seconds—would be, if not for the golden-haired stranger who appears like lightning given human form. Nicholas Davis moves with deadly grace, conjuring a sword of pure blue energy that sings as it carves through the beast's neck. The demon dissolves into glittering dust, leaving only the metallic taste of magic in the air. "You can see it, can't you?" Nick's storm-blue eyes search her face as the blade flickers and vanishes. "The aether. The magic." His voice carries the weight of old secrets and older pain. Most humans would see nothing but shadows and tricks of light, their minds automatically editing out anything that challenges their understanding of reality. But Bree sees everything—the shimmer of otherworldly energy, the way Nick's form seems to blur at the edges with power barely contained. The revelation comes in fragments that reshape her understanding of the world. The Order of the Round Table isn't just legend or university folklore—it's a secret society of descendants from King Arthur's knights, sworn to protect humanity from creatures that slip through cracks between dimensions. Nick is the reluctant heir to Arthur's throne, destined to wield Excalibur when the final battle comes. And somehow, impossibly, Bree can see through their most sacred magic. When Selwyn Kane, the Order's Kingsmage, tries to erase her memories of that night, his mesmer shatters against her mind like glass against steel. The golden-eyed sorcerer staggers back, his beautiful face twisted with shock and something that might be fear. No human should be able to resist their mental commands, yet Bree stands untouched while silver smoke dissipates around her like morning mist. The failure marks her as either incredibly rare or incredibly dangerous, and in the Order's world, those two things often amount to the same deadly equation.

Chapter 2: Infiltration: Entering the Hidden World of the Legendborn

The Lodge rises from the Carolina woods like something from a fever dream—part medieval castle, part Southern mansion, all impossible. Inside, Bree finds herself surrounded by teenagers who speak casually of bloodlines and battles, their eyes holding the weight of inherited destinies. They call themselves Pages, training to become Squires to the descendants of Arthur's knights, and at their center stands Selwyn Kane like a beautiful, dangerous predator. "She doesn't belong here," Sel's voice cuts through the great hall like a blade, his amber eyes fixed on Bree with predatory intensity. "I can smell the deception on her." But Nick steps between them, his presence a shield against Sel's suspicion, and speaks with the authority of royal blood. The words carry the force of ancient command, and Bree feels something shift in the air around them—magic recognizing the hierarchy that has governed it for fifteen centuries. The Oath ceremony should bind her to their cause, should seal her loyalty with threads of silver light that wrap around the other Pages like living chains. Instead, Bree feels the magic slide off her like water, leaving her unchanged while the others glow with newfound purpose. She catches Sel's eye across the circle and sees his suspicion crystallize into certainty. He knows she resisted the binding. He knows she doesn't belong. And he knows that makes her the most dangerous person in the room. The first trial comes without warning—hellboars materializing from blue flame, their tusks gleaming as they charge across the moonlit arena. Bree's partner Sydney moves with deadly precision, but Bree can barely hold her weapon steady. When the massive construct bears down on her, desperation floods her veins and something deep inside responds. She leaps, driving her fist into the creature's chest, and watches in horror as red flames erupt from her skin, burning through flesh and bone until the demon collapses in a shower of silver dust. Across the battlefield, Sel's eyes find hers, and his smile is sharp as a knife. He's seen everything, and now he knows exactly what she is—even if she doesn't understand it herself.

Chapter 3: Bloodlines and Barriers: Discovering Powers Within and Without

Dr. Patricia Hartwood waits beneath the memorial to Carolina's forgotten founders, her burgundy shawl bright against the gray stone. Golden light flickers around the bronze figures buried in the earth—the enslaved people who built this university with their blood and bones, their raised hands channeling energy that the Order calls aether but Patricia knows by an older name. Her dark eyes hold secrets that predate Arthur's knights, wisdom rooted in traditions the Round Table has spent centuries trying to erase. "Your mother was a Wildcrafter," Patricia says, her voice gentle but firm. "She could manipulate the energy that flows through living things—plants, trees, the very roots of the earth. We call it root, not aether. And we borrow it from our ancestors, rather than stealing it for ourselves." The words hit Bree like a physical blow. Her mother had been magical, had hidden this fundamental part of herself for her daughter's entire life, had died without ever sharing the truth of what they were. Patricia guides her into a memory walk, pulling her consciousness back through time to witness the origins of their craft. In a slave cabin, Mary's hands glow with golden light as she kneels over Abby's torn back, the whip marks deep and cruel. But Mary's power flows like honey, knitting flesh back together, borrowing strength from the ancestors to heal what violence had broken. This is root magic—power given freely, used to protect and heal rather than dominate and destroy. "Bloodcraft is different," Patricia explains as they return to the present. "The Order binds power to their bloodlines, stealing it from the dead and holding it captive in living bodies. It creates a debt that must be paid in suffering and death. That's why their Scions die young—the magic burns through them like acid through cloth." Bree thinks of Nick, of the weight in his eyes when he speaks of Arthur's Call, of Felicity suddenly aged beyond her years by power flowing through her veins. But the red flames that had erupted from her own skin defy both traditions, coming from somewhere darker and more dangerous than either Patricia or the Order can explain.

Chapter 4: The Heir and the Outsider: Unlikely Alliances in Ancient War

The uchel emerges from the forest during their sacred ceremony, shattering the illusion of safety with its rotting intelligence. This isn't a mindless demon feeding on human emotion—it speaks with purpose, demands the Pendragon by name, coordinates its hellhound pack like a general commanding troops. When it seizes Bree as leverage against Nick and his father, she watches in horror as Lord Davis's spine snaps against an oak tree, as Nick's skull cracks against stone in his desperate attempt to save her. The battle that follows is brutal and efficient. These teenagers fight with weapons of living light, their bodies encased in armor made of solidified aether, moving with inhuman speed and strength that speaks of power stolen from the dead. When Selwyn arrives, he doesn't just kill the uchel—he dismembers it with obvious pleasure, his golden eyes bright with something that looks disturbingly like joy. The violence is surgical, personal, and terrifying in its casual brutality. In the aftermath, as William the healer works to save the wounded, Bree realizes the true cost of her infiltration. She brought Nick back to a world he'd tried to escape, forced him to reclaim a title that marks him for death. The guilt sits heavy in her chest, but so does determination. Her mother's secrets run deeper than she imagined, and the only path to truth leads through this war-torn magical world where teenagers die young and power comes with a price measured in years stolen from the end of life. When Nick begs her to forfeit, to walk away before the tournament binds her to a Scion forever, she refuses. Some truths are worth dying for, and she won't let her last words to her mother remain spoken in anger. The red flames beneath her skin pulse with each heartbeat, a countdown to revelation that will either save them all or destroy everything they've built. Either way, there's no turning back now.

Chapter 5: Roots and Revelations: Uncovering a Mother's Secret Legacy

The archives beneath the Order's lodge hold secrets that predate America itself, but none more explosive than what Bree and Sel discover in Lord Davis's private study. The yellowed documents tell a story of coordinated demon attacks twenty-five years ago—attacks that claimed fourteen lives and left one witness whose memories proved impossible to erase completely. The photograph shows Bree's mother as she'd never seen her—young, defiant, her eyes blazing with the kind of courage that refuses to be cowed by monsters or men. "They never stopped watching her," Sel says, his voice tight with understanding as he reads through years of surveillance reports. "Even after she graduated, even after she married your father. They had someone checking on her every month for decades." His golden eyes meet Bree's in the lamplight, and she sees her own rage reflected there. "The question is why they finally decided she was a threat." The answer lies in the final entry, dated just days after Faye's death. The monitoring Merlin had confirmed her demise and closed the file with clinical detachment. But Bree can read between the lines—her mother's abilities had been growing stronger, her resistance to their control more complete. The Order had faced a choice between risk and elimination, and they'd chosen murder disguised as accident. That night, alone in her dorm shower, Bree's power erupts without warning. Crimson flames pour from her skin like burning blood, wrapping around her arms with terrifying intensity. It's not the silver-blue aether of the Legendborn or the golden root energy Patricia had shown her—it's something else entirely, something that looks disturbingly like the power she's seen demons wield. As she struggles to contain the flames behind mental walls, one truth becomes crystal clear: if anyone discovers what she can do, they'll assume she's exactly what Selwyn already suspects—a monster wearing human skin.

Chapter 6: Trials of Fire: Standing Against Prejudice and Ancient Power

Vaughn Schaefer's attack comes with surgical precision during dinner at the Lodge, his words chosen like weapons designed to wound. He questions her right to be there, suggests she's using her body to buy Nick's favor, throws phrases like "affirmative action bullshit" with the casual cruelty of someone who's never faced real consequences for his hatred. The other Pages watch with varying degrees of sympathy and agreement, waiting to see if she'll crumble under the pressure or fight back with equal venom. Bree's response is calculated devastation. She dissects his insecurities with clinical precision, questions his loyalty to the future king, and turns his own words into evidence of weakness rather than strength. When he lunges across the table, she's ready—she's made him look like exactly what he is, a bully whose fear makes him dangerous. The exchange establishes battle lines that will define her time among the Order: there are those who will never accept her presence, and those who recognize that change is coming whether they like it or not. The announcement that follows changes everything. Lord Davis reveals that Camlann approaches faster than anyone anticipated—the tournaments will be accelerated, the Selection moved up, and all Squires bonded to their Scions within six weeks. Three Pages forfeit immediately, understanding that this year's competition isn't about honor or tradition but about preparing for a war that could destroy everything they've known. The first trial begins in darkness, with Selwyn's mesmer stealing their sight as he guides them through the forest. But when he corners Bree away from the others, his threats are specific and personal, designed to break her resolve and send her running. Instead, she finds herself fighting back with words as sharp as any blade, comparing him to a useless guard dog whose constant barking makes him worthless when real danger arrives. The confrontation reveals the depth of his conflict—bound by magic to protect Nick, he watches helplessly as his king chooses to trust someone who could destroy them all.

Chapter 7: Camlann Rising: The Approach of Legendary Battle

The combat trial should have been Bree's end. Vaughn's practice sword cracks against her collarbone with the sound of breaking bone, his face twisted with rage and something darker than mere competition. He'd meant to hurt her, meant to prove that she didn't belong among Arthur's chosen. But as Bree falls, as darkness closes around her vision, she sees Nick's expression transform from concern to something terrible and royal. "You're out," Nick's voice carries the weight of absolute authority, the kind of command that has toppled kingdoms and raised others from ashes. "There's no place for vengeance at the Round Table." Vaughn's elimination sends shockwaves through the chapter, the other Pages whispering among themselves with new wariness. Bree had survived not through skill but through Nick's protection, and everyone knows it. In the infirmary, William's healing magic knits her bones back together while silver light dances around his fingers like living mercury. "You did better than anyone expected," he says quietly, his gray eyes kind despite the exhaustion that marks all their healers. "Losing well is its own victory." But Bree barely hears him, her mind fixed on the conversation she'd overheard between Nick and his father—urgent whispers about Gates opening across the country, about Shadowborn attacks growing bolder and more coordinated. That night, she finds Selwyn on the ridge above the trial grounds, tearing ancient trees from their roots and hurling them into the valley below with inhuman strength. His amber eyes blaze with more than anger—they hold the desperate fear of a creature losing its humanity one piece at a time. "Lord Davis wants to strip me of my title," he confesses, his voice raw with pain. "Cast me out of the Order and leave me to succumb to my blood. All because I dared to suspect you." The irony is bitter as poison—his instincts had been right, but his methods had damned him in Nick's eyes.

Chapter 8: The Weight of Legends and the Price of Truth

The final revelation comes wrapped in agony, delivered through a memory that had been locked away since childhood. Bree's mother's charm bracelet pulses with stored magic, opening doorways in her mind that reveal the careful architecture of deception. She's seven again, sitting on a fairground bench while her mother practices words meant for a future where she wouldn't be there to speak them. "We descend from a line of Rootcrafters," her mother had said, knowing that someday Bree would need to hear those words again. "But we're more than that. We carry abilities that others would fear." The memory had been sealed by mesmer, designed to surface only when Bree's own abilities manifested. But the woman who'd helped perform that delicate magic hadn't been some anonymous Order functionary—she'd been Natasia Kane, Sel's mother, the former Kingsmage whose supposed madness and imprisonment had shaped her son's entire life. "She wasn't insane," Bree tells Sel as the implications crash over them both. "She was protecting us. Your mother and mine were allies, working together to keep me hidden until I was strong enough to face what's coming." In the ancient cave beneath the campus, where Excalibur waits in its stone, the final battle begins. Lord Davis has been orchestrating demon attacks across the region, using his position to open gates between worlds and force his son toward the throne he'd always coveted for himself. But when Nick finally grasps the legendary sword and pulls with all his strength, it remains fixed in stone—an impossibility that shakes the foundations of everything the Order believes. Bree feels her ancestor Vera rise within her consciousness, not the gentle guidance of Rootcraft but the full possession of a spirit who'd bound power to bloodline through sacrifice and suffering. When she grasps Excalibur, the sword sings, Arthur's armor flowing over her like liquid light. She is his true heir—not through bloodline but through the deeper bonds of sacrifice and purpose that have always defined true royalty. The crown that settles on her brow carries the weight of every ancestor who died to make this moment possible, and the terrible knowledge that some destinies can only be claimed at the cost of everything you thought you wanted.

Summary

The girl who entered the Order seeking answers about her mother's death is gone, replaced by something harder and more dangerous. Bree Matthews has become Arthur Pendragon, and the weight of that transformation will reshape not just her own destiny but the fate of everyone she's sworn to protect. The throne she inherited comes with no palace or ceremony, only the crushing responsibility of a war that has already begun and the terrible knowledge that power is just another word for the ability to lose everything that matters. In the end, perhaps that's what it means to be legendary—not the glory of victory but the willingness to bear whatever burden the world demands, no matter how heavy it becomes. The red flames that once threatened to consume her have been forged into something greater, a weapon against the darkness that would devour everything she holds dear. The war is coming, and Bree Matthews—Arthur reborn—will be ready for it, carrying the hopes of the living and the dreams of the dead into whatever battles lie ahead.

About Author

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Tracy Deonn

Deonn reframes contemporary fantasy by intertwining African-American folk magic with Arthurian legend, crafting stories rich in cultural depth and personal introspection. Her novels delve into themes of identity, grief, and legacy, centering on young Black protagonists who navigate complex systems of power and history. This approach allows readers to explore the impact of institutional legacies and personal memories, a perspective shaped by Deonn's own experiences and family background. Through her nuanced storytelling, she offers a platform for diverse representation in the young adult fantasy genre.\n\nCentral to Deonn's work is her commitment to emotional resonance and rich worldbuilding, as seen in her debut novel, "Legendborn", which became a "New York Times" #1 bestseller. The author extends her narrative exploration in its sequel, "Bloodmarked", continuing the journey of Bree Wilson. Beyond these works, Deonn's contribution to anthologies like "Cool. Awkward. Black." reflects her dedication to diverse storytelling. Her bio reveals an academic background with two degrees from UNC, informing her storytelling techniques, while her career in theater and video games has enhanced her understanding of narrative structure and character development.\n\nReaders and critics alike recognize the originality of Deonn's books, celebrating their capacity to engage with universal themes through a unique cultural lens. Her recognition with awards like the Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe Award for New Talent highlights her impact in the literary world. For those seeking stories that combine fantasy with profound explorations of personal and cultural identity, Deonn's work offers a compelling blend of magic, history, and emotional depth.

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