Legendborn

Legendborn is a young adult urban fantasy novel by Tracy Deonn. It was published by Margaret K. McElderry books in September 2020 and is the first book in a trilogy of the same name that also includes Bloodmarked (2022) and Oathbound (2025). The book is set in North Carolina, mainly on the UNC Chapel Hill campus, and draws from the history of enslavement and the Confederacy in that area, as well as from Black spiritual traditions and Arthurian legend. Legendborn is a New York Times Bestseller, won the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe for New Talent Author Award, and was a finalist for a number of other awards. The novel is also popular on BookTok, a TikTok community made up of readers and book content creators.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of rape and racism. In particular, this guide discusses enslavement.

Plot Summary

A police officer tells a 16-year-old girl named Bree that her mom died in a car crash. She senses magic around the officer. Three months later, Bree is at UNC Chapel Hill’s Early College program with her best friend, Alice Chen. Their friend Charlotte invites them to a cliff-diving party, where they meet Charlotte's boyfriend, Evan. They go to the party, but Bree is afraid to jump off the cliff into the quarry waters below.

At the party, Bree meets a student named Sel. When they touch, Bree feels something different, but when Sel asks her if she felt anything, she denies it. Sel is called over to a group of friends to break up a fight, and when Bree goes over there, she sees a huge monster hovering over the others. As far as she can tell, Sel is the only other person that sees it. He looks over at Bree and indicates that she should leave, but Bree stays. Sel mesmers (magically hypnotizes) everyone at the party, but he realizes that Bree is the only person that is immune. He and a girl named Tor fight the creature and destroy it. The police arrive and take Alice and Bree back to their dorm at Sel’s command.

After this event, the Dean of Students assigns peer mentors to Bree and Alice. Bree is reluctant but eventuall meets her mentor, Nick. As they are walking through campus together, another magical creature appears. Nick tells her to run, but they fight and destroy it together. Bree is injured during the attack and passes out; when she wakes up, she and Nick are with Sel and another boy, William, who heals her injuries. Sel mesmers her, erasing her memory again.

The next morning, Bree wakes up in her dorm room, but signs of her injuries breaks Sel’s mesmer and she remembers what happened the night before. She tries to ask Nick about the magic, but he brushes her questions off. She decides to investigate and discovers the existence of the Lodge of the Order of the Round Table. Bree goes to the Lodge and demands Nick help her unravel the mystery surrounding her mom’s death by sponsoring her to join the Order. Nick reluctantly accepts.

Bree joins a tournament to become a Squire and meets other candidates: Some are kind to her and others make racist comments—everyone else in the Order is white. The candidates take magical Oaths in the woods. Bree meets Nick’s father, Davis, and learns that Nick is the heir of the legendary Arthur. Sel, meanwhile is Nick’s Kingsmage: a Merlin who possesses the power of mesmer.

At the end of the ceremony, an Order member is Awakened (possessed) by a Knight, and a hellhound attacks. Bree and Sel kill the hellhound, and William heals their injuries. Later, William shows Bree the Wall of Ages, which shows the bloodlines of the knights, and explains the history and powers of the Order. He tells her that each generation, one knight from each bloodline becomes its Scion.

At the dorm, Bree argues with Alice; the next day, Bree’s dad calls. He says she has to go to therapy—Alice called him to update him on what is happening wit Bree. Bree meets a therapist named Patricia, who tells Bree her mom was a practitioner of Rootcraft—a matrilineal Black spiritual tradition.

Bree returns to the Lodge, where some of the members are rude and racist to her. Sel thinks Bree is a demon in disguise. After dinner, the leader of the Order announces that “the trials” will begin soon—the process by which Squires are selected for the Scions. 

When the trials begin, Bree and her partner pass the first round. A demon attacks Nick, but Sel kills it. Bree visits Nick after William heals him and stays in Nick’s room; they kiss the next morning when he drops her off at her dorm.

Patricia meets Bree in the cemetery, and they go on a Rootcraft memory walk where Bree sees Patricia’s ancestor helping a woman who was whipped by an enslaver, the birth of a crossroads child (part-demon), and a Gate—a portal for demons—being opened on campus. Bree runs to the Lodge to tell Nick about the Gate but can’t find him; she talks with William and learns that Merlins are part-demon. Sel comes to the infirmary and argues with them.

For the next trial, Sel and Bree are paired for a riddle-scavenger hunt. Hellfoxes attack them, eating Sel’s magic. They escape through a system of tunnels, but the hellfoxes are waiting outside. Bree and Sel kill them with magic. Bree and Sel then meet with the Order and learn that Tor has Awakened, a process by which a Scion is made. 

Patricia and Bree meet Mariah, a UNC student and Rootcraft Medium. Mariah tries but fails to help Bree contact her ancestors. Back at the Lodge, Bree begins combat training. Patricia comes by Bree’s dorm and says she is ending their therapy sessions.

Bree finishes a week of combat training with Sel. She makes it through the next trial, a combat trial, with a couple of wins in matches with practice weapons. She is knocked out by another competitor, and William heals her again.

Sel takes Bree to his and Nick’s childhood home, where they find a file about the Gate being opened. It contradicts what Sel was told about his mom and shows that Bree’s mom was killed in a car crash while being monitored by the Order. Bree begins to avoid the Order members—including Nick.

During a visit, Bree’s dad gives Bree her mom’s bracelet, which contains a memory about the powers of her maternal line: both Bloodcraft and Rootcraft. Bree attempts to contact her ancestors again. She becomes possessed by her grandmother, revealing that Bree is a Medium. Her grandmother says she’ll contact another ancestor who knows about Bloodcraft.

Bree goes to the Order’s Selection Gala. She dances with Sel, and Nick asks her to be his Squire. She accepts, enraging the Order. Bree sneaks a kiss with Nick before she is kidnapped by Davis’s Kingsmage, Isaac.

Davis makes racist and sexist comments, and Isaac threatens Alice, so Bree leaves the Order. She reveals everything to Alice, and they agree to fight the Order together. They learn that demons are gathering in the center of campus, where Excalibur (Arthur’s legendary sword) is held.

Bree learns that the Order has underground tunnels throughout campus and goes through them with two other members of the Order, Fitz and Evan. Fitz is killed, and Evan is revealed to be a demon in disguise; Bree knocks him into a ravine.

Bree’s ancestor Vera co-possesses her body and takes Bree on a memory walk. Bree learns one of the heirs of Arthur impregnated Vera while she was enslaved, making Arthur Bree’s ancestor. Arthur wakes in Bree, Rhaz (Evan's true name) reappears with more demons, and Bree/Arthur takes Excalibur out of the stone.

Many Order members die in the fight. Arthur forces the remaining Order members to kneel before him and then allows Bree to regain control of her body. When she returns to herself, she has everyone rise and puts the sword back in the stone.

After Bree is healed, she and Sel go off into the woods together, returning to the site of that first party she attended. This time, Bree is unafraid of jumping into the lake. She jumps off the cliff.