Fourth Wing is the first book in The Empyrean Series by author Rebecca Yarros.
Synopsis[]
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros.
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
Summary[]
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail is ready for Conscription Day, but she hears her sister, Mira Sorrengail, arguing with their mother saying that Violet will not survive in the Riders Quadrant. Their mother, General Lilith Sorrengail, says that Violet will do fine in the Riders Quadrant. After leaving their mother’s office, Mira repacks Violet’s rucksack and gifts her with a dragon-scale corset as impenetrable armour along with multiple sheaths for her daggers and boots with good grip. Mira braids her hair in a crown around her head so that it can't be grabbed easily while in combat. When they walk to Basgiath War College, Mira tells Violet to find Dain Aetos, Violet’s childhood friend who is a second-year cadet, and that she needs to avoid Xaden Riorson because he will kill her. Xaden is a third-year rider and the son of Fen Riorson, the man who started the rebellion and who was executed by their mother.
While climbing the stairs to the parapet Violet meets Rhiannon Matthias, and offers to switch left boots so they’d both have at least one boot with good grip. At the top of the turret, she meets Xaden Riorson, but he doesn’t try to kill her. While crossing, a boy behind her, Jack Barlowe, chases her to try to push her off. She finishes crossing before he can get to her, but Jack still wants to kill her. Before Jack can step off the Parapet but when she is on the ground, she holds a knife to his groin but does not cut him.
Once she’s on campus, she finds Dain, who tries to convince her to switch into the Scribe Quadrant, but she refuses, so instead, he puts her into his squad so he can protect her, but his squad ends up being under Xaden’s Wing. This means that Xaden would have direct access to her, and could punish her for any minor rule infraction however he saw fit.
Before her first class, Dain tells Violet that his signet is the ability to read people’s recent memories. During her first class, she stands out because she asks the correct strategic questions that no one else in her year thought of, or even considered. During the gym assessment, Violet spars with Imogen, a second year rider, who tries to kill her, but is unsuccessful because of Violet’s dragon scale corset. That night, she agrees to help Rhiannon study history and in return Rhiannon will help her train.
While sneaking out after curfew to collect poisonous berries, Violet hears Xaden and all the first year marked kids gathering. To hide, she climbs up a nearby tree and listens. It is illegal for more than 3 marked kids to gather, and doing so is a punishable offense. Xaden catches her after the others leave, and Violet decides not to report them, because Xaden was just helping them get tutoring in areas that they were struggling in.
Violet wins a string of challenge matches by poisoning her opponents, but on her fifth challenge, her opponent gets sick too early, and she has to spar with Xaden instead. Xaden removes her daggers while sparring just to show that he can, and he teaches her to fight according to her body type. He teaches her to aim for what would be her opponent’s weak points. Xaden also reveals that he knows that she’s been poisoning her opponents before challenge matches. Fortunately, he says that he will keep her secret.
Violet and her squad get their first practice session attempting to complete the Gauntlet, which is a vertical obstacle course that cadets must complete before Threshing, but each session Violet struggles, and fails to complete the second-to-last obstacle. Dain uses this as proof that she should switch to the Scribe Quadrant while she still can, but Violet continually shuts the idea down. This is when Dain's and Violet's relationship begins to fray, because Dain continually doubts her abilities.
Before the official Gauntlet run, Xaden tells her that the right way isn’t the only way. So, during her official run, Violet takes advantage of the exact wording of the rules to complete the Gauntlet in a way that wasn’t intended. And while it was legal, Amber Mavis, another wingleader, was upset that she was able to bend the rules and not be punished for it.
During Threshing, Violet overhears three of her squadmates, Jack, Oren, and Tynan, talking about killing the smaller dragon that they saw during Presentation a few days earlier. Violet beats them to the dragon and fights them off to protect the golden dragon. She sustains many injuries, but Xaden and his dragon, Sgaeyl, saw the fight, and his dragon’s mate, Tairneanach, shows up and kills Tynan. Violet bonds with Tairneanach and the golden dragon, Andarnaurram. She is the first rider ever to bond with two dragons.
Since there are many cadets that did not bond with a dragon, several of them band together, and with the help of Amber Mavis, who unlocks Violet’s door, they try to kill her in her sleep. Violet wakes up before they can, and stops time for a few seconds, thanks to Andarna’s gift, which gives Xaden enough time to get to her room to save her. Xaden kills all the cadets that tried to kill Violet, and the next day Amber is executed for assisting with the assassination attempt. Before Amber’s execution, though, Dain gets on Violet’s nerves (again) as he tries to read her memories, as he does not believe her story. Dain apparently used to date Mavis, and they both valued rules over friendship and trust.
Xaden assigns Liam, another first year, to always stay with Violet to protect her, because since she bonded to Tairneanach, her death could also kill him because they are both bonded to dragons that are mated. Later, Sgaeyl and Tairneanach have dragon sex, and Violet is influenced by the emotions and kisses Xaden. He reciprocates until he sends her to her room because she can’t consent while being influenced by Tairneanach’s emotions.
Violet’s squad wins a series of challenges, and for their reward, they all go to visit an outpost for a week. Xaden joins them after three days, because their dragons cannot be apart for any longer than that. There, Violet sees her sister, but she is forced to leave early with her squad when gryphons attack the outpost. Mira stays behind to fight. Fortunately, Mira lives.
Violet asks Xaden to tell her what he was doing one time when she saw him outside after curfew. He tells her that he was in Athebyne.
During a practice battle, Violet receives her signet, which is a special power that a rider gains from their dragon. Her signet is lightning wielding, and she uses the lightning to strike a turret, killing Jack, who got buried under the rubble because he tried to kill Liam.
Ten days before graduation, the riders are sent on their final war games. Violet goes with Xaden and other marked ones to an outpost outside of the protection of the nation's wards. It’s revealed that Dain read her memories of Xaden mentioning Athebyne when he was cradling her face. Then, he went and told his father, so they were sent there to be killed by venin and wyverns, creatures that they were taught only existed in fables.
It’s revealed that Xaden and the marked ones are helping the enemy fight against the creatures, but also that Navarre leadership were lying about venin and wyverns not being real. The group has to fight those creatures to protect the civilians at the Athebyne outpost. During the battle, Liam dies, and Violet is knocked unconscious at the end from a poisoned blade.
When she wakes up, she learns that her brother, Brennan, who she thought was killed over five years ago by Xaden’s father, is actually alive and is part of the revolution. This meant that he was able to save her life.
Timeline[]
See canonical timeline of the events in Fourth Wing here.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
Other Characters[]
Special Editions[]
- Fourth Wing (Special Edition) was published November 7, 2023
- See more about the bonus content here.
Foreign Publishers & Titles[]
- Germany: dtv (June 15, 2023 ) - German title: Fourth Wing (Flammengeküsst, #1)
- Hungary: Rainy days (November 27, 2023) - Hungarian title: Fourth Wing - Negyedik szárny
- Spain: Alas de sangre (November 15, 2023) - Spanish title: Alas de Sangre (Empíreo 1)
Gallery[]
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