Oathbound

Oathbound is a 2025 novel by the best-selling novelist Tracy Deonn and the third story in The Legendborn Cycle. A contemporary young adult fantasy about power, history, and loyalty, Oathbound centers on Bree Matthews as she continues to navigate her role as a member of the Order of the Round Table and a practitioner of Rootcraft. Through magic, mythology, and history, Deonn explores The Need to Interrogate Systems of Power, The Importance of Selflessness in Leadership, and Resistance Through Community-Building.

This study guide refers to the 2025 Simon & Schuster e-book edition of the text.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of bullying, racism, gender discrimination, antigay bias, sexual violence, sexual harassment, rape, mental illness, child abuse, suicidal ideation, graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, illness, death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Plot Summary

Over the past year, Bree Matthews lost her mother, started college early, and discovered that there is a magical world she never knew about, of which she might be the most powerful member. Bree is Legendborn, meaning that she descends from the Knights of the Round Table and has inherited the magical powers of these legendary knights. Bree recently discovered that she is descended from King Arthur and is the rightful leader of the Order of the Round Table—a racist and misogynist organization that disdains her as a Black woman. Bree also belongs to a different magical community: the Rootcrafters, a matrilineal Black spiritual tradition, from which Bree inherits the ability to contact her ancestors. Though the Rootcrafters have hidden themselves from the Order, Bree’s ability to wield two kinds of magic, root and aether, makes her valuable to those who wish to exploit her powers.

At the end of the previous novel in the series, Bloodmarked, Bree faced off against the leaders of the Order, who had imprisoned her and wanted to use her for her powers while denying her right to possess them as a Black woman. During this battle, King Arthur magically possessed Bree, nearly killing her and leaving her feeling more helpless than ever. Not wanting to be controlled by anyone else again, Bree burned her connection to her ancestors on both the Legendborn and Rootcrafter sides. Oathbound picks up where Bloodmarked left off: Bree calls out to the Shadow King, Arthur’s mortal enemy, who has been posing as a high-ranking member of the Order named Erebus. Bree asks Erebus to train her to use her powers, though she knows he only wants her to become powerful so he can eventually kill her and take back his own power over the demon realm.

Bree leaves her friends and family behind to go with Erebus. When Bree says she wants to become unstoppable, impervious, and ruthless, Erebus erases her memories of all the people she left behind. Bree meets two of Erebus’s half-demon wards—Zoe and Elijah—whom he is also training and uses to hunt lesser demons. As Bree trains with Erebus and goes hunting with Zoe and Elijah, she begins to learn about the demon underworld and the Shadow King’s missing crown, which he needs to regain power and return to his realm. Bree also discovers that someone is kidnapping Rootcrafter girls to steal their power, and she fears it is Erebus, who can consume root to make him stronger.

Meanwhile, several of Bree’s friends are looking for her. Her boyfriend, Nicholas “Nick” Davis, goes on a quest to find her that involves allying himself with the Morgaines, the Order’s enemies. Her friend Mariah also searches for Bree with other Rootcrafters, hoping that they can save her from “the Hunter,” another of Erebus’s aliases who has been known to hunt Rootcrafters. As Legendborn and Rootcrafters try to find Bree, and Bree tries to find the king’s crown to stop him from consuming Rootcrafter girls, they all end up at a secret auction gala thrown by Mikael, a dangerous demon.

When Bree, Zoe, Nick, and Mariah all meet at Penumbra, Mikael’s estate, they must grapple with the animosity between demons, Legendborn, and Rootcrafters. Bree has forgotten who Nick and Mariah are, though she remembers her feelings about them. They evade Mikael’s interrogations and hide their secret plan to steal the crown, which they rightfully believe is being auctioned at the gala. Nick and Bree rekindle their relationship, but they also fear what has happened to their good friend Selwyn “Sel” Kane, who went missing at the same time as Bree. Sel, a part-demon called a Merlin, recently became a full demon after consuming Bree’s power. Though Bree and Nick believe he can regain his humanity with the help of his mother, Natasia, they also fear what he can do as a demon who may be hunting them.

Bree, Nick, Zoe, and Mariah learn that another “item” being auctioned is the missing Rootcrafter girls, for whom they have been searching. Forgetting the crown, they go after the girls. They are thwarted by Erebus, who has secretly been at Penumbra this whole time. Bree calls on her Legendborn friends to free the girls from the Order, and they all escape Penumbra with the crown. Bree learns that Erebus took a part of her soul in taking the memories of her friends.

Bree makes another bargain with Erebus to exchange the crown for the missing fragment of her soul, but on the way to meet with Erebus, she runs into Selwyn. As a demon, Selwyn is driven to consume Bree’s power. Yet his hatred for Erebus also drives him to kill, and he gives Erebus the option to die or to leave without his crown after giving Bree back the fragment of her soul. Erebus leaves but reminds Bree he still has power over her because of a bloodmark he put on her family centuries ago. Selwyn is drawn to the crown, even though Bree and Nick try to explain to him that touching it could kill anyone who isn’t its rightful heir. When Selwyn puts on the crown, he becomes more powerful than ever, and they realize that he is somehow the son of the Shadow King. The novel ends on a cliffhanger, with Bree, Nick, and Selwyn wondering about Selwyn’s newfound role as the prince of demons.