Warning: contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Onyx Storm and the Fourth Wing series
Onyx Storm, the third installment of author Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series — a fantasy romance saga set at a military college for dragon riders — is already breaking records. The book hit shelves on Jan 21 and sold 2.7 million copies in its first week, making it the fastest selling adult-fiction title of the past 20 years according to the New York Times. (Translation: It’s time to get on the romantasy train, folks!) And with good reason—it’s incredibly fun.
The addictive story contains multitudes, from swoon-worthy romance and spicy sex scenes to political intrigue, magic, and betrayal. And that’s before you get to all the dragons. Like its predecessors, Onyx Storm is full of twists and surprises, perhaps none more so than its action-packed ending, which concludes on the sort of cliffhanger that will easily power BookTok videos and online discussion forums for months to come. The cryptic ending isn’t particularly surprising—three books into the series we already know that Yarros loves to leave her audience wanting more in the worst way possible. But that hasn’t stopped us all from speculating with abandon about what Onyx Storm’s many twists and narrative surprises all mean.
What Happened at the End of Onyx Storm?
The chaotic ending of Onyx Storm is epic in scope, both in terms of action and what its events mean for the future of the series going forward. The book ends with a huge battle, as Xaden, Violet and the other riders face off against the venin dark wielders to defend the city of Draithus and rescue Violet’s sister, Mira. Violet manages to defeat the silver-haired venin Theophanie thanks to a last-second assist from Aaric, whose (surprise!) precognitive abilities provided her with the weapon with which to do so. Xaden, unfortunately, is not so lucky and channels from the ground again in order to save his dragon, Sgaeyl from the venin sage Berwyn and help Violet in the larger battle. His effort essentially turns the tide of the fight though he is turned further venin in the process. In the book’s closing chapter, Violet awakens at Riorson House after being missing for over 12 hours, to find herself married to a now-missing Xaden and unable to remember what happened. In short: there’s a lot to unpack.
Who Is Xaden’s New “Brother”?
The ending of Onyx Storm also confirmed that Xaden isn’t the only familiar face who’s turned venin and it’s someone we clearly know. Yarros doesn’t reveal this person’s identity, but Xaden’s reaction is a horrified one. He refers to the unnamed venin as his “new brother” and can’t believe that this new initiate could have ever chosen to turn after having witnessed everything he himself has gone through over the past months. But who could it be?
The most obvious choices are Bodhi and Garrick, Xaden’s cousin and best friend, respectively. They’re his closest confidantes and the people, even more so than Violet, who have spent the most time with him over the course of this series. They’ve both witnessed every step of Xaden’s struggle to stop his own transformation and, conveniently, both are unaccounted for at the end of Onyx Storm. Garrick is missing, and while we catch a glimpse of a retching Bodhi during Imogen’s POV chapter, his absence when Violet awakens indicates he’s not exactly around to rule Tyrrendor at the moment.
Of the two, Bodhi is perhaps the more likely choice, given that his close physical resemblance to Xaden (as if they could be….brothers, perhaps?) has been mentioned repeatedly throughout the series. But what if Yarros is going for an even bigger twist? The use of male pronouns narrows down our choices, of course, but there are several intriguing options that fit the rest of our known criteria. Aaric has been revealed to be a precog, and we all love fantasy stories where someone with the power to see the future realizes they must somehow sacrifice themselves for the greater good. But perhaps the most interesting option of all is Brennan. Violet’s brother has already essentially cheated death once, revived by Tairn’s previous rider Naolin, a siphon like Sloane, who used his power to save Brennan and gave him a scar in the process that’s been mentioned multiple times over the course of the books. But when Sloane siphons power into Brennan to help save a dying Mira, there’s no scar left behind this time. Violet specifically mentioned how weird this is, which feels like a big red flag that something is off about Brennan.
Who Is the Venin Sage Berwyn?
Of course, there’s also the question of Xaden’s mysterious mentor. We’ve been speculating about the identity of the venin Sage since Violet first faced off with him at Resson in Fourth Wing and don’t seem any closer to the answer about who he is or what he wants two full books later. There’s probably a reason for that.
We know he turned Xaden, that he’s a rival of Theophanie’s, and…that’s kind of it. But a secret that’s worth keeping for three books is probably a big deal, right? Onyx Storm certainly never made it feel as though Theophanie was anyone we knew—or particularly needed to know—in this way. But the same cannot be said for Berwyn, who seems to represent something bigger than a simple venin doppelganger. His interest in Xaden feels personal, as does his hatred for dragonkind. All of this is pointing toward the idea that one of the wildest Onyx Storm theories floating around the fandom may actually be true: Berwyn is Naolin.
For those that don’t remember (or don’t have a detailed spreadsheet that tracks all this info), Naolin is Tairn’s previous rider, and the idea is that in order to essentially bring Brennan back from the dead during the Tyrrish Rebellion, he must have siphoned power from himself, his dragon, and even the ground in order to do so. We know almost nothing about what happened to Naolin after he saved Brennan—Violet’s brother won’t talk about it, and Tairn is a brick wall on the subject. Did he turn, enough for Tairn to break their bond? (It would explain why Naolin’s “death” almost killed Tairn and why he won’t talk about what happened to his former rider—or even confirm that he died!) Plus, there’s a certain symmetry to it, given Xaden’s own close relationship with Brennan’s sister.
What Is Xaden’s Plan and Why Did He Need to Marry Violet?
When Xaden channels power from the earth to save Sgaeyl—who has been injured and trapped under a net by Berwyn—he creates such an enormous (onyx!) storm of shadow that he kills all the wyvern and some random venin while knocking out Berwyn and his new, unnamed “brother”. This act, has of course, turned Xaden himself more fully venin, but not enough to prevent him from flying off with his dragon after agreeing to put some vague plan into motion. What’s Xaden doing here? Well, that’s probably the big mystery that will be answered in Book Four.
Part of it, at least, appears to have involved marrying Violet. She wakes up at Riorson House after killing Theophanie, sporting a ginormous wedding ring and carrying a document from the head priestess of Dunne’s temple verifying the legality of her union with Xaden (and Violet’s new status as Duchess of Tyrrendor). Xaden is missing, along with four other riders and six dragon eggs. And Violet has no memory of any of it (more on that in a second.) What’s Xaden’s end game here? Well, Onyx Storm is purposefully unclear on this point. Whatever it is, Sgaeyl didn’t appear to like it, though she clearly goes along with her rider, however reluctantly.
Is it simply about saving Tyrrendor? (And, if so, did Xaden somehow know Bodhi wouldn’t be around to rule in his stead?) Is Xaden concocting a plan to bring down the venin from within? We don’t know, and there aren’t a ton of clues beyond a cryptic message scrawled on the back of their unorthodox marriage license—”Don’t look for me. It’s yours now. He’s gone.” Is the “it” Tyrrendor since they’re married now? And who is the “he”? Is it Xaden? (If so, why would he refer to himself in the first and third person?) Is it Bodhi? Someone else completely random?
What Happened to Violet’s Memories?
Part of the reason the ending of this book is so chaotic is that we completely abandon Violet’s point of view for multiple chapters. Instead, we get chapters from Xaden, Rhiannon, and Imogen, and when we’re finally returned to Violet’s POV everything has changed, in ways not even our heroine fully understands. Apparently 12 hours have passed since she passed out after killing Theophanie, and a lot has happened in that interim. The problem is, Violet doesn’t have any memory of those events, because Imogen used her signet to erase them. And finding out what happened during that stretch of time—and what those events mean comes next—will undoubtedly be a big part of the plot of the next book.
Why would Violet tell Imogen to erase her memories? There could be many reasons. But she clearly married Xaden, so at some point Violet agreed to whatever Xaden’s unknown plan is. It seems safe to assume that erasing her memories is so she doesn’t unwittingly reveal that plan to anyone else, be it venin, memory-readers like Dain or any other as-yet-unidentified inntinnsics who might be able to unknowingly glean the truth from her mind.
The Missing Riders and Dragon Eggs
In Onyx’s Storm’s final chapter, we also learn that several dragons and riders were killed during the 12 hours that Violet can’t remember. There are also four missing riders and, most troublingly, at least six missing dragon eggs. Imogen confirms that Garrick is one of the missing riders but the the other three remain unidentified. Did they disappear with Xaden? Were they turned as well? Or have they headed off on some secret secondary mission that Violet simply can’t remember?
As for the dragon eggs, it’s certainly possible that venin could have stolen or destroyed them during the fighting. But it seems important to remember that during Violet and Quest Squad’s travels earlier in the book, we learned that the Isle Kingdoms are obsessed with dragons, and want some of their own. Trading in dragons is forbidden, but Umbriel offered Violet a military alliance in exchange for 12 dragon eggs. Quest Squad immediately shot that deal down, but it seems very possible that someone may be striking some sort of similar bargain using the missing eggs. Twelve hours certainly doesn’t seem like a ton of time for major geopolitical deal-making, but stranger things have happened in this series and with so many dead dragons and riders maybe Navarre can’t afford to be as picky about such things as they have in the past. Key question: Did the dragons approve this mission, if it did indeed happen? And, if so, why only six eggs? Was that all that was available in the hatching ground? Or is this some kind of compromise?
Adarna and the Irids
Much of Onyx Storm is concerned with the search for the mysterious seventh dragon breed and finding answers about Adarna’s heritage. To be honest, Quest Squad doesn’t do a super great job of tracking them down and probably never would have found them if a pack of irids (the name for Adarna’s species) hadn’t literally walked right up to Violet and said hello. Unfortunately for Adarna’s hopes, her dragon family are kind of jerks. Dedicated pacifists, they refuse to involve themselves in human affairs and basically left Adarna—who they refer to as “the criterion”—behind in the hatching ground as a test to see if mankind had evolved enough to stop using dragons as weapons of war. (Spoiler alert: Humanity fails.)
We all have a lot of questions about irids and their powers, and though Adarna disappears to go learn from her people for a bit before returning to Violet’s side during the battle, we still don’t know much about them as a breed by the end of Onyx Storm. What we do know is that they are incredibly magical, enough to manipulate the bonds between dragons and riders and potentially (probably?) even between dragons themselves. Adarna breaks her bond with Violet (or at least suppresses it enough that the connection is negligible) and odds are decent that she’s somehow manipulated or broken the mating bond between Tairn and Sgaeyl as well. When Violet awakes at Riorson House, she can’t communicate with Tairn and their connection feels foggy, as though he’s in some sort of deep sleep. Which, let’s be real, sounds an awful lot like Violet’s reaction after her bond with Adarna was broken.
Who Are the Six Most Powerful Riders?
It’s been mentioned several times now in this series that this is the first time both a lightning wielder and a shadow wielder have been alive at the same time since the First Six riders walked the earth. The implication here is that the signets of the six original riders are somehow being replicated (reincarnated?) at this precise moment, most likely to give The Continent a fighting chance to defeat the venin. But who would our Fourth Wing Six be?
Obviously Violet is one of them, with her powerful lightning ability. Lynx manifesting shadow powers feels super important in the wake of Xaden turning venin. (Magic craves balance after all.) Garrick can basically teleport. (Though it’s also possible he’s venin now as well, but for the sake of argument let’s assume he isn’t.) Mira’s unique ability to manipulate wards seems as though it will be necessary in the future, particularly since she really, really should have died in Onyx Storm. Other likely options for the final two slots: Ridoc (with his newfound skill at freezing the water in the bodies of living beings), Sloane (could her siphoning ability drain venin power back into the earth?), Aaric (a pre-cog!), or even Brennan (he certainly seems to be the most powerful mender in generations).
What’s Bodhi’s Second Signet?
The question of Bodhi’s second signet may be more important than ever given that there’s at least even odds that Bodhi’s a venin at this point. But while Onyx Storm sort of backhand confirms that he has one; he tells Violet “I don’t have a second signet just like Xaden doesn’t”. After all, we know Xaden does have one, meaning that Bodhi’s second ability is probably also an inntinnsic power, which could get him killed if it was discovered.
What Does This All Mean For Book 4?
This all leaves a ton of questions for the next book in the Fourth Wing saga to answer. But what’s most interesting about the series’ third installment is that Onyx Storm’s ending most likely means that Yarros will have to switch to a more consistent multiple-POV format in terms of telling its story. There are too many things that happened that Violet, as our primary narrator, likely wasn’t present for—or simply doesn’t know. (And is unlikely to remember, given the nature of Imogen’s gift.) Xaden, Sgaeyl, Imogen, and likely several others (Adarna?) were clearly involved in whatever events took place during the 12 hours missing from Violet’s memories, and we’ll need someone to recount those events to us. (Dragon egg heist? Dragon bond severing? Wedding ceremony?). The shifting POV chapters at the end of Onyx Storm almost certainly herald a similar format for its sequel in some way.
But whatever happens in Book 4, we’ll probably be waiting a while to find out. Yarros, who has a chronic illness, wrote the first three books in her Empyrean series in just 20 months. She’s said the pace was hard on her health, so the author is planning on taking a break before writing the next installment. During a recent Good Morning America interview, Yarros did say that the final two books in the series have already been plotted out, however. So fingers crossed the wait passes swiftly!
Onyx Storm is out now, published by Red Tower Books, an imprint of Entangled Publishing.
The post Onyx Storm’s Cryptic Ending, Spoilers, Theories, & What Next for Book Four? appeared first on Den of Geek.
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