Legendborn, by Tracy Deonn
【圓桌不朽的傳說，少女的魔法奇遇】
🏆2021年柯麗塔非裔美國作家新人獎
Winner of the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe for New Talent Author Award
在母親死於意外後，16歲的黑人女孩 Bree Matthews 只想拋開回憶以及與家庭連結的一切、離開童年的居住地，因此在北卡羅來納大學教堂山專門提供給高材生的寄宿高中，似乎是個不錯的逃離選項。然而在來到校園的第一夜，Bree 就知道她錯了。
她不只目睹了一場魔法戰鬥，還看見了以人類能量為食的飛行怪物，以及一群由所謂「傳奇」學生組成的秘密社團在追捕怪物。
雖然有一位自稱梅林的法師要將 Bree 目睹的記憶刪除，但顯然他並沒有成功－Bree 自此意外地解開了獨特的魔法天分，並恢復了對母親意外死亡當晚的記憶細節，Bree領悟到她的死亡絕非只是警方提供的報告那樣單純。即便要滲透進滿是白人同學的「傳奇」組織中，且可能捲入更多麻煩，Bree 還是想要找到真相。
但此刻，「傳奇」的其中一人卻透漏自己是亞瑟王的後裔，並預告著一場魔法戰爭的到來，Bree要為謎團付出多少代價，而她又是否該加入這一場爭鬥呢?
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 UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until 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 attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.
The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s 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 there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll 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 society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.
