Legendborn

Three months later at Eno River State Park, Bree and Alice watch students from UNC jump off a cliff into the water below. They talk about Bree’s Black hair and Alice’s Taiwanese American hair in the humidity. Alice is unhappy about breaking the rules on their first night at Early College. They were invited to the cliff-jumping party by an older friend, Charlotte, who is also from Bentonville. They talk to Charlotte’s boyfriend, Evan (who is eventually killed and replaced by a demon pretending to be a human).

Bree thinks about how people react to her mom’s death, and how her personality split into two parts: before her mom’s death (Before-Bree) and after her mom’s death (After-Bree). Bree stays behind when Alice goes off with Charlotte and Evan. She contemplates cliff jumping, but a guy named Selwyn Kane (Sel) appears and warns her not to jump. Bree feels electricity—and some attraction—when Sel looks at her. He grabs her wrist, asking if she feels something; Bree lies and says no.

Shouts from the party cause Sel to run off. Bree follows, looking for her friends. She finds a fight between four football players and sees something shimmering above the combatants. No one else—except Sel—sees what Bree sees (what turns out to be incorporeal demons called isels). Bree remembers moments of being haunted by her mom. Sel makes eye contact and telepathically commands Bree to leave.

Sel magically commands other students to leave the party as well and while walking with them through the woods, Bree trips. The pain in her palm cuts through Sel’s telepathic command (mesmer); she remembers the flying demon and sees Sel’s constructed false memory. Turning around to the scene of the fight, Bree hears a student named Tor talking with Sel.

They hunt: Sel uses silver smoke while looking magical, then Tor draws and strings a bow, at which point the football players scatter. Tor’s arrow pierces the shimmering flying creature, and the creature calls Sel a Merlin. Sel uses five points of light from his fingers and pins the creature, calling it an isel (a kind of demon). It calls him a Legendborn, and they talk about a Gate on campus. Sel eventually kills the isel with his magic. He continues hunting for other isels with Tor, walking away from Bree. When Bree is certain Sel and Tor are gone, she runs out of the forest.

In the parking lot at the edge of the woods, there is a cop car and Bree’s friends talk to a deputy. White students are allowed to go home, while Bree and Alice are put in the back of the cop car. At 16 years old, Bree has never been in a cop car before and is scared. Alice gives her the silent treatment. The cop asks how they got into Early College, and they tell him they got scholarships. He alludes to affirmative action, not intelligence, as the factor in their acceptance.

Eventually, he stops the car near two people on foot: Sel and Tor. The cop defers to them, which makes Bree think the cop knows about magic. The reader later learns that the Order to which Sel and Tor belong controls the police and other institutions. Sel orders the cop to take the girls back to campus; the cop salutes and obeys.

Back at the dorm, Alice goes to bed. Bree examines her feelings about magic, which were heavily influenced by modern pop culture (e.g. Charmed and Percy Jackson), but now have changed due to witnessing the isel feed. She wonders if Legendborn are in the right for killing demons.

The next morning, Alice wakes Bree, informing her that they have to see the Dean of Students. While running across campus, Bree debates confiding in Alice about magic. In the Dean’s office. Bree tries to absolve Alice, but the Dean blames both of them. He says the sheriff’s office is only issuing a warning, and they have to report to peer mentors.

When Alice leaves, the Dean asks Bree to stay behind. He then says the cop mentioned Bree was disrespectful: He knew of her mom and is disappointed in Bree as a legacy student. Once dismissed, Bree finds Alice crying in the hall. Alice calls Bree a slacker and suggests Bree go back to their hometown, which causes Bree to build an emotional wall between herself and her best friend.

After ignoring a text from her peer mentor, Bree’s dad calls. They talk, and she omits information about getting into trouble. He asks if she’s found any Black students yet; she hasn’t. His concern breaks down her emotional wall, and memories of the accident come through. After being mesmered by Sel, she realizes the cop who talked to her after her mom’s accident used a similar kind of magic and altered her memories. During Bree’s English class, her dad texts about the Dean calling him, and she texts back promising a call later.

At dinner, Bree texts Charlotte. They chat about the party, and Bree casually asks about Tor: Her full name is Victoria Morgan, she is 18, an Early College junior, old money, and part of the “good ol boys” (480). Charlotte says that Sel is hot and not friends with Tor.

When she leaves the dining hall, her peer mentor—Nick Davis—calls her name. Nick looks like a white, blonde gymnast. They joke about him creepily tracking her down with help from the Dean. Nick admits he jumped off the cliff in his first term, and he asks if Bree has thought about joining a student group. Nick joined cricket club to annoy his dad (who turns out to be the head of the magic Order that controls the cops and other important people). Bree says he should connect with his dad.

As they walk, Bree sees a magic light and runs toward it. She finds a creature (which turns out to be a partially corporeal demon) that looks like a wolf crawling between buildings. Nick tells her to run and pulls out a blade hidden in a baton. He uses the sword to fight the creature, Bree distracts the creature, and Nick hits it. When he cuts into its head, Bree is hit with its gore. She passes out.

When Bree wakes, she hears voices say she has hellhound saliva on her and they wonder who she is. She passes out again, and wakes up the second time to find Nick beside her. Her arms are bandaged and immobile, so Nick gives her water with a straw. She realizes she’s in an old house close enough to campus to hear the bell tower.

Nick admits to being Legendborn and asks if Bree’s a new Page because she’s speaking within the Code; he guesses she’s there to test him and his chapter. She bluffs, trying to get more information. Nick confirms he’s not a Merlin, and talks about the creature: a ci uffern (hellhound) demon, but eventually calls her bluff. Bree admits she didn’t know the creatures were demons, and remembers going to church with her mom.

Nick explains that demons are Shadowborn come to earth through Gates, and they become corporeal after feeding on negative emotions. Bree’s arms have acid burns from the saliva, and were healed by a guy named William. The light she saw was mage flame: a byproduct of aether, which is used for weapons and healing.

Bree admits to seeing Sel and Tor fight the isel and admits Sel’s mesmer didn’t work on her. Sel bursts into the room yelling. Nick forces him out, and warns Bree to keep the failed mesmer secret. Nick and Sel argue in the hall, and William joins them. After calling Bree Onceborn and Unanedig, Sel comes back in the room with her. Nick tries to intervene, but Sel uses his palm on Bree’s forehead to erase her memory again.

Bree wakes up the next morning in her dorm room with eye pain. Alice tells her to get up and go to class. Last night, Nick carried Bree into the dorm, telling Alice that Bree was blackout drunk. The friends argue, and Alice leaves. While brushing her teeth, Bree sees that her lip is cut and the pain of it causes her to again break Sel’s mesmer and remember what happened.

Bree sneaks into a genetics class to find Nick, who smiles at her. They joke about how, to find this class, she stalked him like he stalked her. Bree tries to talk to him about what happened the previous night, but the prof interrupts by assigning a pretest. They partner up and Bree is so good at the test that they finish early. She passes Nick a note listing the new words surrounding magic, and he tries to get her to stop asking questions. She refuses to stop looking for the truth.

After class ends, she researches the historic homes near campus and finds one in the woods: the Lodge of the Order of the Round Table, a secret society. Between classes, she talks to her dad on the phone, omitting most of what has happened. She continues to research the Order during her statistics class and marvels at people who don’t know about the magic world.

Once statistics ends, she heads to the Lodge, which is an antebellum building like her dorm but as large as a castle. It is covered in silver aether, and Bree can smell enchantments on it. She knocks and tells the young woman who answers that she is looking for Nick.

The young woman at the door is named Sarah (Sar), and she says she needs to contact Bree’s sponsor. While Sar goes off to call Nick, Bree looks at portraits in the foyer, including one of Nick’s dad. Sar returns and says Nick is on his way.

When Nick arrives, he argues with Bree, saying they need to leave before Sel and others arrive. Bree tells Nick her mom died and there was magic involved with the cops after her accident. She asks for his help finding out what was mesmered away by the cop-Merlin.

Nick explains Merlins are supposed to prevent Onceborn deaths and protect the Code. He speculates the Code was threatened around her mom, and Bree asks if Merlins would kill a person. Merlins are controlled by Regents from the High Council, and Nick can’t determine the Regents’ motivations because he renounced his Legendborn title. Only people with a title can make a demand.

Bree asks to be sponsored by Nick to join the Order and gain a title. He says her abilities—seeing aether and resisting mesmer—will make her a threat; Bree is not dissuaded. Nick briefly explains there is a tournament to move from Page to Legendborn, which favors legacy kids. Bree mentions her mom again and Nick agrees to reclaim his title and claim her as his Page.