Onyx Storm Summary - What happened in Onyx Storm? Full Recap

Read a full Onyx Storm summary, book #3 in Rebecca Yarros’s The Empyrean series. This page contains spoilers, so beware. If you are wondering what happened in Onyx Storm, then you are in the right place to read a full recap! Check out these Empyrean gifts!

Author
Rebecca Yarros

Ratings
4.6 stars on Amazon
4.21 stars on Goodreads
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The Empyrean Series:
#1 Fourth Wing Summary (recap)
#2 Iron Flame Summary (recap)
#3 Onyx Storm Summary (this page)
#3.5 Threshing Day (synopsis)

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***** Everything below is a SPOILER *****

What happened in Onyx Storm?

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Your full Onyx Storm summary:

Onyx Storm begins shortly after Iron Flame’s ending, after the battle defending Basgiath against the venin invasion. Violet’s mother has died, sacrificing her life to power the wardstone that protects Basgiath. During the battle, Xaden has channeled magic from the earth, making him a venin initiate in the process. Jack Barlowe, still a prisoner at Basgiath, reveals that there is no cure for being venin, and that venin don’t want to be cured anyway. This strains Violet and Xaden’s relationship throughout the book: Xaden is afraid of losing control and hurting her or others with his new powers, and continually withdraws from her. Only a few of his closest friends know about his condition and keep it a secret. Violet’s other friends have survived the battle, although Sawyer lost a leg and worries about his ability to ride a dragon going forward.

Early in the book, Mira finds out that the Aretian wards will hold for at most six more months. During the previous battle, Andarna helped power the wardstone at Basgiath, which means she cannot power the wardstone in Tyrrendor any more. Violet and Andarna form a plan to find Andarna’s lost dragon kind to save Aretia; they also hope that they may help cure Xaden of his venin condition.

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In the aftermath of the battle, riders are hunting down any remaining venin in Navarre, but at the same time, venin are infiltrating Basgiath and try to break out Jack. While leadership, especially Commandant Panchek, doesn’t fully appreciate this danger, the assembly of Navarrian nobles (the Senarium) sends out a search squad to find the lost dragon kind. They put Captain Grady in command of it, and Violet also gets assigned as a member. While the Senarium accepts some of Andarna’s demands, they reject her request for the wardstone to be altered to allow gryphon fliers to wield.

Navarre and Poromiel are starting peace negotiations to defeat the venin together. However, Navarrian animosity towards their old enemies nearly results in a riot. Together with the gryphon fliers’ severe disadvantage of being unable to wield within the Navarrian wards, this keeps the peace talks from progressing. Violet and her friends are able to deal with both: they can stop an angry mob of dragon riders, and later modify the wardstone to enable gryphon fliers to wield within their reach. Dain’s father, who has become the new general at Basgiath, considers this treason, but Violet and her friends can evade severe punishment since they executed the changes just before the official pardon for the deserting riders from Iron Flame took effect.

Violet and her squad get sent to fight at Samara, a border outpost, but the fighting has already ceased when they arrive. When a small village in the region is under venin attack, the official outpost soldiers cannot intervene due to understaffing, so Violet and her squad try to save the civilians on their own. Tairn and Violet arrive first and are able to kill some wyvern together with Garrick, who surprisingly arrives from Basgiath, sent by Xaden, implying that Garrick may have a second signet allowing him to travel long distances. Violet and Tairn are injured in the fighting. A silver-haired high-ranking venin called Theophanie also appears, revealing that the attack on the village was a trap for Violet. Theophanie tries to bring Violet under her control, but then disappears.

At Basgiath, they learn more about venin powers and ranks from Jack. In addition to Xaden and Violet’s existing relationship problems, Xaden has started a position as signet-fighting teacher, forcing them to pause their relationship to abide by the Code of Conduct. The appearance of Prince Halden, the King’s son and Violet’s ex-boyfriend, brings further tension between them. In the meantime, Dain manages to bypass his father’s security mechanism and recovers Violet’s father’s research. He also finds a letter addressed to Violet, instructing her to find a merchant on the isle Deverelli.

On the first mission of the quest squad, they retrieve a gem from an abandoned border village, which is the price for an audience with the Deverelli king. They have to fight wyvern, and Aura, one of the squad members, accidentally kills Grady and is then killed by a wyvern. Violet also finds a letter from Theophanie, who is trying to further influence her. After that mission, Violet is allowed to lead the squad and re-assembles it with people she trusts more. However, she also has to take Prince Halden as an official representative of Navarre. Together, they head for Deverelli.

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On Deverelli, everyone loses their ability to wield, and only Violet can still communicate with her dragons. Violet finds her father’s texts, but Prince Halden gets detained during his audience with the Deverelli King Courtlyn. Violet and Xaden try to retrieve him and have an audience with the king, together with Viscount Tecarus. They learn that Halden’s guard tried to steal from the king and was killed in the process. Halden gets angry, escalating the situation until King Courtlyn orders them all killed. In the ensuing fight, Xaden lapses back into channeling his venin powers, using a piece of alloy in Violet’s conduit; with Andarna’s help they are able to pressure Courtlyn into an agreement and, going forward, are allowed to use Deverelli as a base for their ongoing search.

Back at Basgiath, they decode Violet’s father’s research, and make further plans to not return to Basgiath after each island visit, going against direct orders. Xaden withdraws further, worried about his venin condition.

For their next venture, the quest squad adds more gryphon fliers and replaces Prince Halden with the first-year rider Aaric, who is secretly the king’s other son. They travel to Unnbriel, the isle of the goddess Dunne. Xaden, Dain, and Violet have to fight Unnbriel’s best fighters to gain an audience with the queen. They learn that there have been no dragons in Unnbriel for hundreds of years, and that Unnbriel will only ally itself with Navarre against the venin if it receives dragon eggs, a demand that Violet refuses.

From Unnbriel, the squad sets out for Hedotis, where they seek an audience with the triumvirate leadership. To their surprise they meet Xaden’s mother Talia, who left his family when he was a child. Talia now lives on Hedotis, married to a member of the triumvirate, and has two younger sons, making Xaden feel abandoned. During dinner, Talia’s husband tries to poison them, but only Garrick eats the poisoned food. They find an antidote to save Garrick and manage to leave Hedotis safely.

The squad continues their journey to the next island, Zehyllna, whose inhabitants worship the god of luck, Zihnal. Before they are allowed an audience with the queen, they have to play a game of cards, during which each of them receives a gift. Most of the gifts are harmless or cryptic, but Trager, one of the gryphon fliers on the team, is killed after drawing an arrow card. Although the squad is devastated by the loss, the following audience with the Zehyllnan queen is a success, and Zehyllna agrees to send a large army to Navarre.

After burning Trager’s body and exploring the nearby smaller isles, Violet and Ridoc encounter the lost dragon kind, the irids. They learn that the irids are peaceful, but judgemental of humanity. They left Andarna’s egg in Navarre as a test for humanity, to see if they can change their ways, but consider it a failure, since Andarna has become a warrior. They don’t offer help powering the wardstones against the venin, and claim that there is no cure for venin. Violet later tells Ridoc about Xaden turning venin, and, back at Basgiath, also tells her other close friends.

In Basgiath, Violet learns that the venin have made progress in the war and stolen the powerful alloy-hilted daggers. They have also killed the Poromish queen, making Viscount Tecarus the new king. Surprisingly, a new shadow wielder has manifested among the first-year riders, which appears to indicate Xaden’s continuing transition to becoming the venin counterpart to the non-venin shadow wielder of their generation.

Violet’s squad visits Aretia for a rune intensive. Violet and Xaden’s relationship regains some intimacy and he is able to control himself better than before. At night, Violet’s nightmares intensify, and she and Xaden find out that Violet’s second signet from Andarna is dream-walking. She can visit others’ dreams, and her nightmares were Xaden’s dreams, manipulated by his venin Sage. The same night, Aretia faces a new venin attack. Aaric warns Violet to defend the temple of Dunne, later revealing that he is a precog, able to see the future. At the temple of Dunne, a priestess of Dunne confronts the venin Theophanie. Violet learns that before turning venin, Theophanie used to be a priestess herself. Aretia is only saved by the arrival of Leothan, one of the irids from the isles. Leothan helps power up Aretia’s wardstone; after the battle, he convinces Andarna to break her bond with Violet to come with him and learn about the irids’ way of life.

In the aftermath, Violet is depressed due to her broken bond with Andarna. From her siblings, she learns that their parents tried to dedicate her to Dunne, but Mira believes that the priestess rejected her because of her uncertain future. At the same time, the relationship between Tyrrendor and the rest of Navarre deteriorates after Xaden allows refugees from Poromiel into Tyrrendor. Soon after, the venin use Xaden’s dreams and Garrick as a messenger to inform them that Mira is being held hostage at Draithus.

How did Onyx Storm end? Onyx Storm summary spoiler ending:

With only a small force, they try to rescue Mira by exchanging her for Jack Barlowe, but Theophanie slits Mira’s throat. Brennan can only save her with Sloane and Dain’s help. Tairn brings Mira’s dragon to safety while Violet and Theophanie fight. Violet manages to kill Theophanie with a dagger from Dunne’s temple that Aaric had sent her earlier. During the same battle, Quinn is killed by a venin while trying to save civilians.

While Violet is fighting Theophanie, Xaden is confronted by Berwyn, a high-ranking venin leader, whom he thought had died during the battle at the end of Iron Flame. Commandant Panchek is revealed as a traitor, and his dragon dies at Berwyn’s hands, showing that the alloy-hilted daggers can also kill dragons. Berwyn also reveals a new venin initiate very close to Xaden, but the name stays secret. Since Berwyn is Xaden’s Sage, Xaden cannot kill him, but he is able to knock him unconscious and send shadows over the battlefield to protect Violet. However, this breaks him and he crosses from venin initiate to full venin. He is only able to preserve his love for Violet.

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The book ends with Violet awakening in Riorson House, having lost twelve hours of memory, wiped by Imogen at Violet’s own request. Tairn is recovering from the battle and Andarna is back, but Violet’s bond to Xaden has fully vanished. At the same time, all evidence points to Xaden having murdered multiple riders and dragons, and having stolen six dragon eggs from the hatching grounds. However, Violet finds a ring and documents proving that she and Xaden are now married. Check out these Fourth Wing gifts before you go!

Jump to a Threshing Day synopsis

There you go! That’s what happened in Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. We hope you enjoyed this Onyx Storm summary with spoilers.

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