Romantasy
8 Burning Questions We Need Answered in ‘Onyx Storm’
The most anticipated romantasy book of the year is days away from release. It’s been over a year since Rebecca Yarros delivered the gut-wrenching ending of Iron Flame, which saw Xaden Riorson turn Venin so that he could save his girlfriend, Violet Sorrengail, from burning out as she attempted to save the Continent from dark magic wielders. The two overcame so much in the book to unite their home country, Navarre, with the Poromish gryphon riders so they could take on a common enemy, but now Xaden is part of the force that Violet has risked her life multiple times to eradicate.
Iron Flame also gave us more mythology behind the wards that protect Navarre, the founding of Basgiath War college, and the dragons cadets risk everything to bond with. While we learned a lot in the second book of the Empyrean series, Iron Flame also left us with many urgent questions. Here’s what we most urgently need to know from Onyx Storm, which can also be a refresher of everything that happened in Iron Flame before you dig into the next book.
1. Is Dain going to be the real enemies-to-lovers partner for Violet?
Booktok came up with this theory, and honestly? I hate them for it. Dain Aetos is Violet’s childhood best friend, and Fourth Wing revealed him to be a toxic over-protector who stole her memories and sold her out to his evil dad when he realized she was romantically linked with Xaden. Dain’s duplicity in Fourth Wing led to Liam Mairi’s death, and I hope he is haunted by the words “It has been my honor” until his dying breath. However, BookTokers understand that Violet and Xaden realizing they are true loves in the first of a five-book series doesn’t bode well for a happy ending. That’s too soon to know that someone is the one and leaves too many pages for one of them to die and the other to move on.
While Fourth Wing made Dain a villain, or at least villain adjacent, Iron Flame kicked off his redemption arc. If Xaden truly falls to Venin, then that gives Dain time to fully make up for his earlier poor judgment and win Violet’s heart in Xaden’s absence. It feels traitorous to even type that, but we need Onyx Storm to confirm whether Xaden is Violet’s true endgame or not.
2. What is Violet’s second signet?
Yarros has already confirmed that Violet has a second signet from bonding two dragons, and she’s already used it without realizing it. There are several theories about what Violet’s second signet is (I personally believe that she’s an amplifier), but it has yet to be confirmed in the text. We need to know the extent of Violet’s powers so we can start theorizing how exactly she’s going to save Xaden and defeat the rest of the Venin.
3. Who is the Venin Sage?
All Venin were once normal people who reached too far for magic beyond their abilities. The highest-ranking Venin is known as the Sage, and his human identity is still a secret. However, we know that he’s able to get into Xaden and Violet’s heads and seems to know so much about them, which makes it seem like he’s someone who readers have at least heard about in the first two books. Theories on this range from Violet’s dad, who allegedly died of a heart attack (but we’ll never believe Yarros has killed anyone when Jack Barlowe and Brennan both came back from the dead), to Naolin, who was Tairn’s rider before Violet. Naolin also allegedly died when resurrecting Brennan, but there are some major question marks about how that went down. Resurrecting someone feels like something that would take forbidden power!
4. Is there a cure for being Venin?
There damn well better be. The idea that we will have to watch Xaden slowly be turned into a power-hungry monster and that Violet will be forced to kill him to save the kingdom makes me physically sick. So far, no cure has been found, though we know riders have found a way to control the Venin. There has to be a way to return the magic to the source without killing Xaden, or else I am so sorry, Rebecca, we might have to riot on your lawn. We know that looking for a cure will be Violet’s main mission in Onyx Storm. We need to know if she’ll be successful.
5. Who was Nolon writing about to General Sorrengail at the end of Iron Flame?
The reason we know that riders have been able to control Venin in the past is because of the missive at the top of the last chapter of Iron Flame. He says that after a long period of trying, there doesn’t appear to be a cure, “only control.” The missive is labeled from Lieutenant Colonel Nolon to General Sorrengail, which means it’s a missive from at least three years ago. Nolon is a full-fledged Colonel when we meet him in Fourth Wing, so he wrote the missive when he was at his previous rank. Was he writing this during the Tyrrish Rebellion? Was he writing it after Violet’s dad’s heart attack? The timeframe in which he wrote the letter is secondary to who he was writing about. Who else were they trying to save from Xaden’s current fate, and is there anything Violet can learn from those experiments?
6. Do the marked ones have second signets?
This is actually a theory that emerged at the end of Fourth Wing. Liam throws ice during the Venin battle at Resson, even though his signet was farsight. All of the marked ones carry relics from General Melgren’s dragon as punishment for their parents joining the Tyrrish Rebellion, but did those relics also imbue them with secondary powers? Getting powers from Melgren’s dragon would also explain why he can’t see the outcome of battles that involve three marked ones together. Perhaps his dragon can’t channel Melgren’s power when it’s also channeling power to the marked ones at the same time. Also, if the marked ones have second signets, does that mean that Xaden will have three? Our shadow daddy really is the supreme of them all if so.
7. Can we trust Brennan?
Speaking of Xaden, we need to talk about his dragon Sgael for a minute. Did you remember that she doesn’t like Brennan? It’s briefly mentioned at the beginning of Iron Flame when Violet goes to visit Andarna in the valley above Aretia for the first time that Sgael has “never liked” Brennan. Why does she have such beef with a Sorrengail mender? There are so many secrets surrounding Brennan and what he’s been up to for six years while his family and most of Navarre thought he was dead. I don’t think he’s done a good enough job to make us believe there is not something nefarious going on with him. I don’t think Xaden is the only one keeping secrets from Violet, and I think that Sgael knows it.
8. Where is Xaden’s mom?
If there were ever a time for Xaden to have some parental advice, it would be in Onyx Storm. We’re told in Iron Flame that his mom couldn’t handle being married and mysteriously bailed before the Tyrrish Rebellion. She didn’t want to come back and check on her son when Aretia was burned to the ground. That sounds suspicious as hell. Where is that woman? Who is that woman, exactly? Can she help with this Venin situation? Let’s get her in the picture in case we need some blood magic to save Xaden, or perhaps she has some cool magic from The Isles that can help reverse what he’s done. She seems like a very important piece of the puzzle and is allegedly not dead. It is all hands on deck to save this man from becoming truly evil.
Since Onyx Storm is only the third book in the five-part Empyrean series, we are sure this list of questions is only going to grow once we make it through this next book. Onyx Storm will be available for readers on January 21.
What questions do you need answered in Onyx Storm? Let us know your thoughts and theories in the comments below.
