The Paladin Prophecy is a Young Adult novel by Mark Frost, published in 2012, the first book in a trilogy. Frost uses comic book and superhero tropes to tell a coming-of-age story that combines realistic touches with fantastic action and setting. The book opens with a brief description of a dream about a boy fleeing strange shadows on a mountain trail. When Will West wakes up, he is greeted by the first of his father’s â€›rules to live by’: The Importance of an Orderly Mind. He reviews his daily schedule and finds it to be completely normal and expected, and yet he is anxious and stressed. Will is an exceptional young man, capable of running at incredibly high speeds, and also an accomplished student and a well-behaved son. Walking to school, Will finds himself being followed by a mysterious black car. He flees, outrunning the speeding car, and arrives at school. There, he is informed that he did very well on the strange test he recently took, and has been accepted to the prestigious Center for Integrated Learning, located in rural Wisconsin. This adds to Will’s sense of stress, because his parents have always encouraged him to hide his exceptional abilities from the world, and this threatens that anonymity. But when his mother arrives at the school, she is unusually excited about his academic achievements. Will observes his mother and is alarmed by several things: She is blank and somehow absent in her demeanor, and she has a large wound on the side of her neck which appears to be moving. He also observes her speaking to men in the black car that chased him. Will then receives a text with a video showing his father being attacked in a hotel room. Will feels trapped, and decides he has to get out of the area immediately, and so decides to accept the strange scholarship to CIL. Will flags down a cab and meets the driver, Nando, and asks him to drive to the airport. Nando informs Will that he had a vision that instructed him to help a stranger who would turn out to be the most important person in history, and so he agrees and takes Will to the airport. Will manages to get on a plane to Wisconsin. The man sitting next to Will on the plane is named Dave Gunner and is from Australia. Dave gives Will a pair of sunglasses. When Will puts the sunglasses on, he is suddenly able to perceive horrifying demonic creatures, including several riding on the wings of the plane. Suddenly Dave disappears and appears on the wing, and fights the demons off. Arriving in Wisconsin, Will meets Dan McBride and Eloni, who drive him to CLI. There he meets the headmaster, Rourke, and then loses consciousness. When he wakes up, he meets a girl named Brook Springer. Brooke gives him a tour of the CLI campus and introduces him to Lyle Ogilvy, the Provost Marshall. Lyle enforces the campus rules using psychic abilities, and confiscates all of Will’s electronic devices. Will manages to hide his cell phone with Brooke’s assistance. Will is able to contact Nando, who begins doing odd chores for Will back home. Will then goes to his pod and meets his roommates, Ajay, Nick, and Elise. Ajay is very skilled with electronics, Nick is a gymnast, and Elise can read minds and doesn’t seem very friendly. Will begins attending classes. He soon learns that there is a secret society on campus called the Knights of Charlemagne. The Knights are trying to bring the demons from a place called the Never-Was into the world. He discovers the Knights’ secret meeting place under the gymnasium, and discovers that Lyle is part of the group. Dave suddenly appears in Will’s room and informs him that he is an â€›initiate’ and a member of the â€›hierarchy.’ He tells Will that he is there to protect and guide him, and that he can save Will’s life up to nine times. Will discovers that the student who lived in his room before him, Ronnie Murso, is missing. Will finds a USBN stick left behind by Ronnie, and with Ajay’s help hacks into it. The data tells Will about the Paladin Prophecy. Brooke is kidnapped by Lyle, and Will, Ajay, and Elise go to rescue her. Nick battles some of Lyle’s henchmen, but a large statue called The Paladin, the school mascot, comes to life and begins to attack Nick. The school’s track coach, Jericho, transforms into a large bear and fights the statue off, saving Nick. Will and Elise locate Brooke. Elise discovers that when she screams at a certain pitch, she can paralyze everyone in range. Will blocks his ears and Elise paralyzes all of Lyle’s henchmen. They free Brooke but Lyle escapes. Will chases after Lyle, who leads him into a nearby cave and brings a creature called a Wendigo from the Never-Was. The Wendigo, however, attacks and kills Lyle, eating his soul. Dave appears to help, but is sucked into the Never-Was. Will realizes that Dave has only saved his life four times, and thus believes he must be alive to be able to save it the next five times. Will returns to school and has a dream that leads him to realize that he and his fellow students are the result of genetic engineering to create superpowered people. Nando finds a medical bag in Will’s house that indicates that his father isn’t who he says he is. Will realizes that his father is actually Hugh Greenwood, the founder of CLI, and that the men in the black cars actually work for CLI as well. He also realizes that his father is still alive.

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