Legendborn (1) (The Legendborn Cycle)

An Instant New York Times Bestseller! Winner of the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe for New Talent Author Award Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonns YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic. After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNCChapel Hill seems like the perfect escapeuntil Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus. A flying demon feeding on human energies. A secret society of so called Legendborn students that hunt the creatures down. And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a Merlin and who attemptsand failsto wipe Brees memory of everything she saw. The mages failure unlocks Brees own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows theres more to her mothers death than whats on the police report, shell do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates. She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the societys secretsand closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthurs knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far shell go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society downor join the fight.