Bree Matthews

Biography
Bree Matthews is currently a student in the UNC Chapel Hill's Early Program with her best friend Alice. Bree's application to the program was a source of contention within her family and, after a fight about the issue, her mother dies in a car crash. At the hospital, Bree sees what she later learns to be a Merlin, whom she recalls to be "shimmering and shining. The air around him looks alive. Like he is drenched in magic."

Bree then goes to a party near a Quarry with her best friend Alice. It is there where she sees Selwyn and Tor fight off semi-corporeal demons. After, Selwyn attempts to mesmer her to forget the events that night, Bree discovers that she is resistant to mesmers after she remembers the whole night. Things start to escalate when she sees a demon on campus and becomes injured by it, causing her to be taken into the order’s stronghold.

Alice:
Alice is Bree's best friend-- Alice used have crush on Bree. Although their relationship is a bit rocky throughout Legendborn. Alice is alarmed at Bree's increasingly self-sabotaging behaviour such as her desire to go cliff jumping (which was both banned and got them a ride in the back of a police cruiser), and her increasing secrecy as she is enveloped in the Legendborn world of magic.

Nick Davis:
Bree is first introduced to Nick through his role as (what she terms) her "babysitter" assigned to her by the dean after the cliff-jumping incident. They develop a growing friendship as she find her place in the world of Legendborn. Towards the end of Chapter 24, they share a long, passionate kiss, but are interupted by Evan and Russ. They begin to date during the trials and he chooses her to be his squire.

Selwyn Kane:
A Kingsmage and one of the first people from the Legendborn world that Bree encounters. Sel is present at the cliffs and cautions her as "It looked like you were about to jump off a cliff. Alone. In the Dark". Bree can feel Sel's eyes, like sparks on her skin whenever he looks at her and this makes Sel very suspicious of who she is.

Sel is very hostile towards Bree in the beginning of the book, believing she is a shadowborn, here to incite chaos. He threatens her on several occasions. Later he comes to the conclusion that he was foolish to believe she was a demon.

They start to develop complicated feelings towards each other while Bree is dating Nick. In preparation for the final challenge in the tournament, Sel aids Bree so she can use her advantages better, resulting in her passing the final obstacle. While Sel is aether-drunk, he confesses that Lord Davis threatened to remove the oath from Sel and strip him of his titles, torture essentially. Bree feels guilty that it was his meddling in her life that caused this and offers to help him but he quickly refuses by saying he still has dignity.

After having a revelation about Kingsmages being stripped from their title, she runs to Sel's room. He opens the door half naked and Bree can't help but look at the tattoos covering his entire body. She asks him to put on a shirt, and when he turns around to grab one, she goes immediately back to staring at him. She also thinks that clothes are good on anyone, especially Sel. She thinks that when he slips on his black t-shirt, it doesn't help much because It acts like a second skin, barely hiding his muscles.

While snooping through Lord Davis's room, Sel confesses that at a young age he used to have a crush on Nick, but is glad to have moved on to more mature people. Bree immediately asks, "Like Tor?", she feels an odd sense of jealousy, curiosity, and wanting. Later on in the book they reveal shocking truths about both their mothers and Bree begs Sel to erase her memories, when he refuses she flees the house and swears to never join the Order.

She attends the Order ball and dances with Sel, and they have some intimate moments before being interrupted by Lord Davis's announcements. When Bree is requested to be Nick's squire and accepts, the crowd erupts and starts throwing barbs and insults at her. While they are trying to reach Bree, Sel promptly throws her over his shoulder and safely deposits her out of harm's way.

All hell breaks loose when Lord Davis's real plan comes to light and the situation of the demons become more dire than before. Bree is then briefly controlled by King Arthur and during the battle, she and Sel work together to defeat the demons.

Nick is then kidnapped and Sel and Bree have to manage the order while trying to find Nick and figuring out how to control Bree's powers. Bree and Sel have a heart to heart about what she saw in her visions before Arthur took over, and Bree claims that Sel's mother could be alive and that Merlins might not be battling between good and bad blood.

Sel then looks at her intimately and says, "You are my king now, cariad." Bree doesn't ask what 'cariad' means because she is afraid of what it might imply ("cariad" means "love" in Welsh). At the end of the book, they both go walking into the forest until Sel stops and Bree rushes further into the forest using her new found powers from Arthur to push her off the earth.

Dr. Patricia Hartwood:
Bree and Patricia became friends after Bree's dad, being worried about her mental state, persuades her to attend therapy which she accepted upon finding out that her therapist might have known her mother. When they first meet, she jumps at the chance to dig deeper into her mother's time at UNC and discovers that both women practice rootcraft. Patricia, feeling a little motherly towards her, helps her discover as much she can about herself and her powers. Dr. Patricia knows more about Bree and her mother, Faye, than she is telling Bree.

Arthur's legacy
Bree is King Arthur's descendant and Scion. 8 generations ago, in the 1800s, Mr. Davis (who was Arthur's descendant and Scion) was a slave owner. Mr. Davis and his wife argued a lot because they didn't have any children. One day, Mr. Davis forced himself on Bree's ancestor Vera and she fell pregnant. When Vera started to show, Mr. Davis knew that it was his child and that the child would be Arthur's Scion. He intended to get rid of Vera and her unborn child but Vera escaped by binding herself and all her female descendants to the bloodcraft "curse", which means the craft can only live in one daughter at a time (hence the mother dies relatively early if the daughter has the craft and when the mother dies, the craft is passed to the daughter).

Mr. Davis didn't tell anyone about Vera's escape and when his wife bore a child, he pretended it was his. In fact, that child was a product of his wife's affair with the knight Lancelot's descendant and Scion. The child was only a Davis in name, so Nick couldn't lift Arthur's sword Excalibur. From a bloodline perspective, Nick and his father are Lancelot's descendants and presumably that's why Nick and Bree share a deep connection (Lancelot and Arthur were great friends).

Abilities

 * Generating her own aether (due to her Bloodcraft)
 * Aether affinity
 * The Sight (can see aether)
 * Can see demons without taking the Oath of Fealty
 * Can break through mesmer (with the aid of strong emotions and physical pain)
 * Able to be possessed by her ancestors (due to being a medium)
 * Able to smell someone's magic when they cast spells
 * Able to feel a Merlin's gaze on her (Sel's gaze feels like sparks

Trivia

 * Etymology: The name Brianna means 'noble' in Irish. Her middle name Irene comes from the Greek word Eirene, which means 'peace'. Her last name, Matthews, means 'gift from god'.