Bloodmarked

Bloodmarked is a 2022 young adult contemporary fantasy novel by Tracy Deonn. It is the second installment in The Legendborn Cycle, which began in 2020. Deonn, who attended the University of North Carolina, where the fictional Order’s Southern Chapter is headquartered, calls herself a “second-generation fangirl.” The trilogy was inspired by Deonn’s personal navigation of belonging to a line of Black women who lost their mothers too young.

Bloodmarked follows Bree, a Black teen girl who inherits the power of King Arthur. Under the threat of the legendary, apocalyptic battle called Camlann, teenage descendants of the original 13 knights of the Round Table are “Called” to inherit their knight’s power and fight Shadowborn demons to save humanity. The world Bree finds herself in after being Called by Arthur is shaped by legacies of enslavement, white supremacy, patriarchy, and anti-Black racism. Bree must fight against both the individual and systemic forces that want to violently eject her, and those like her, from the world. In doing so, Bree honors her ancestors and the Black community. The novel deals with issues like honoring one’s ancestors while staying true to oneself, the making of monsters, and the intergenerational effects of systemic legacies of racial and sexual abuse.

Bloodmarked was a New York Times #1 bestseller and a finalist for the 2023 Ignyte Awards.

This guide refers to the 2022 Simon & Schuster hardback edition.

Content Warning: The source material depicts anti-Black racism, violence, rape, enslavement, and nonconsensual medical experimentation.

Plot Summary

After Awakening to the power of her ancestor, King Arthur, Bree has trouble controlling the magical substance, aether, that allows her to form Arthur’s armor and weapons. Nick, the Scion of Lancelot, has been kidnapped by his father, Lord Davis. The Legendborn’s Southern Chapter, to which Bree belongs, has waited a month for the Order of the Round Table’s Regents plan to save Nick.

The Regents arrive at the Southern Chapter to have a memorial for recently fallen Legendborn and to administer the Rite of Kings Oath to Bree to secure Arthur’s power. During the memorial, the Regents accuse Selwyn “Sel” Kane of recently opening “Gates” to let in Shadowborn demons. The false accusation is meant to cover up for the real perpetrator, Lord Davis. Sel is expendable because he’s a “Merlin,” a part demon or “cambion” Oathed in service to the Order. He must fulfill these Oaths to prevent succumbing to his demon blood.

The Rite of Kings is a setup. Bree accidentally “bloodwalks” in Arthur’s memories, releasing his power. The Regents capture her and “mesmer” her—or alter and erase her memories—to uncover how she became involved in the Order. Bree is a Scion of Arthur “by rape,” as a Scion of Arthur named Samuel Davis raped an enslaved woman named Vera, violently passing Arthur’s lineage to Bree’s ancestor. Vera used Black “Rootcrafting” magic to create “Bloodcraft” that would help her descendants escape the Order. Bree has inherited both Vera and Arthur’s power. The Regents want their Mage Seneschal, Erebus, to experiment on Bree to learn more about her power.

While Bree is imprisoned, she finds an earpiece planted in her food by a group that helps her escape. The group is led by Samira and Gillian, two Lieges, or retired Legendborn, as well as Alice, Bree’s “Onceborn,” or regular human, best friend, and William, the Scion of Gawain. Lark, a Merlin acting as a double agent, frees Sel and helps him escape with Bree and her friends. The Regents send an elite squad of Merlins called Mageguard after the group.

They take shelter in a safehouse with a Liege named Jonas, who turns out to be working with a goruchel demon named Kizia to kill Bree. Jonas is disillusioned with the Order and knows that the cycle will end if a Shadowborn demon kills an Awakened Scion of Arthur.

After escaping, Bree and her friends follow a tip from Samira to the Crossroads Lounge, seeking someone who can teach Bree to control her power. They meet Valec, a half-demon “cambion” who is over 200 years old and was born into enslavement. He reveals that Sel has been mesmering Bree so she thinks he isn’t succumbing to his blood; she is hurt by the betrayal.

Valec, along with his family members Lucille and Mariah (who is a Rootcrafting Medium Bree knows from university), take Bree to “Volition,” previously Guthrie Plantation. Rootcrafters took over the site, and the spirits of the formerly enslaved protect their descendants there. Lucille and her partner, Miss Hazel, help Bree speak to her ancestors. None of them want to help Bree use her power because every time they used root in their life, they were followed by “the Hunter.”

Bree continues to take bloodwalks in Arthur’s memories, where she learns how to contact Nick. She and Sel try to find him in real life. They see Erebus kill Lord Davis and Nick runs from them. He wants to find a way to end the Legendborn Cycle without killing Bree.

The Mageguard eventually find Volition. They threaten Bree into speaking with them by kidnapping her therapist and fellow Rootcrafter, Patricia. When Bree first Awakened to Arthur’s power, he possessed her using her abilities as a Medium. Since then, she’s resisted possession. Since she can’t control her power without Arthur, she agrees to let him possess her temporarily to save Patricia. Patricia is saved, but Arthur exploits Bree, making her lose control. She destroys the Mageguard and accidentally near-fatally wounds Alice. Arthur takes full control; Erebus takes Bree (in Arthur’s body) with him and the Regents.

Bree herself is in Arthur’s dream realm, where he’s imprisoned between Awakenings. In the real world, the Regents take Bree’s body to the Legendborn’s Northern Chapter, where Scions and Squires have gathered to vote about whether to oust the Regents after hearing of Bree’s kidnapping. The Legendborn attack the Regents, forcing them to flee. They are assisted by the Morgaines, a line of Merlins who defected from the Order.

The Morgaines want to kill Arthur in Bree’s body to stop the cycle. Nick and Sel convince them to let them try to save Bree from Arthur’s dream realm. They rescue Bree and oust Arthur from her body, though Sel sacrifices the last of his humanity to do so and succumbs to his demonia. When Bree wakes up, she visits Alice. William put her in a magical coma to save her, though he isn’t sure it will work. Bree bloodwalks to the ancestral plane she uses to contact her ancestors and burns the pathways. She no longer wants to act as other people expect; she wants to find and fulfill her own destiny.

She calls for the person her ancestors called “the Hunter.” She now knows he is also Arthur’s mortal enemy, the “Shadow King.” Valec and the Rootcrafters call him the “Great Devourer.” To Bree, he appeared as Erebus. Erebus “bloodmarked” and protected Vera’s line so that one day, an Awakened Scion, who was also a Bloodcrafted Rootcrafter, would die, thus providing the power needed to regain his crown. Bree realizes Erebus is the only one who can teach her strength and control. She promises to go with him in exchange for him taking Sel to his mother, Natasia, who is the only person capable of saving him.