Onyx Storm ending explained: What happened to Xaden and Violet?

She was born with a condition that makes her physically weaker than most, and prone to broken bones, but has trained and managed to bond two dragons, Tairn and Andarna.

She’s a student at Basgiath War College, but war is looming as evil venin seek to take over everything Violet holds precious, including the sexy enemy-turned-lover Xaden Riorson.

Onyx Storm further explores the world, including the mysterious islands the group must visit to find Andarna’s kind, who may be the answer to the powerful venin.

But in typical third-instalment style, Onyx Storm focused heavily on expanding the setting, and posing more questions than answers, so let’s dig into exactly what happened in this novel of over 500 pages.

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Onyx Storm ending explained

Violet and her pals have found themselves in an intense and devastating battle to save Draithus and its inhabitants. Violet has gone to save her older sister, Mira, from the clutches of evil venin Theophanie, who is using her to lure Violet over to the dark side.

During the battle of Draithus, Theophanie is revealed to be a storm wielder like Violet’s deceased mother, General Lilith Sorrengail. Previously, she had been believed to be a lightning wielder like Violet. Theophanie promises Violet that she can be with Xaden if she just channels from the earth.

Theophanie has Tairn pinned under a net, and hope appears to be lost. But a massive shadow surge by Xaden (more on that to come...) knocks Theophanie to the ground, which gives Violet a chance to stab her with a marble dagger.

She had received this dagger from Aaric, whose signet of precognition caused him to go get it from a priestess of Dunne. With it came a note warning that only someone touched by the gods could wield it, so Violet’s ability to use it confirms she has definitely been in touch with the gods.

The book ends with Violet awakening in the courtyard of Riorson House, with a wedding ring featuring a Riorson family heirloom on her finger, and no memories of how she got there. She finds a legal marriage document in her pocket, and on the back, a note from Xaden simply saying, “Don’t look for me. It’s yours now.”

Violet turns to look at Imogen beside her, who has the ability to erase short-term memories and asks: “What did you do?” Imogen simply responds: “What you asked me to.”

Basically, Violet apparently asked Imogen to erase the last 12 hours of memories, although we’re not sure why or what was erased. Her wedding to Xaden? His whereabouts now? Other secrets that could put her loved ones at risk?

It seems like the yet-to-be-named sequel will focus on Violet regaining these memories. We can’t help but wonder if Dain, whose signet is to see recent memories, might be able to help. But knowing Rebecca Yarros, that would be too easy a fix for the issue.

What happened to Xaden, and who is his new “brother”?

Last we saw Xaden, he was battling the venin during the battle of Draithus. Xaden’s venin sage, Berwyn, summons him to a canyon outside the city, where Sgaeyl is wounded and trapped under a net.

In order to protect her and everyone he loves, Xaden channels power from the earth. This is just like the end of Iron Flame, only now it is the final step, and he has fully embraced the venin transformation.

In a final act of resistance, Xaden uses this power to unleash a massive shadow surge that annihilates wyvern, kills several venin, and incapacitates Berwyn and his venin “brother.” Xaden then leaves with a freed Sgaeyl, convincing her to help him enact an unknown plan, which turns out to be the marriage.

Let’s talk about this venin “brother”. Keep in mind, that the term “brother” was previously applied to Jack Barlowe, suggesting it relates to having the same venin sage/maker. The identity of the brother is not yet known but theories are running rampant.

One primary clue is that Xaden mentions this person knew about Xaden’s struggles with not turning full venin over the last five months. “How could he do this? Choose this after watching me stumble and fall over the last five months,” Xaden thinks.

The term “brother” makes readers immediately think of Bodhi or Garrick, who are both like brothers to Xaden. Bodhi was last seen with Xaden, knew about his venin issue, and was reluctant to ever replace him as the Duke of Tyrrendor.

But “Berwyn now has another sibling he can use against me”. What if the first sibling was Violet who has been used against him, so the other sibling is Brennan? Also, Brennan has been helping Xaden with his issue and trying to heal him, although he is present at Aretia at the end.

The last clue is that in Imogen’s point of view, she notices “what’s likely a fatal wound on a severed tail on a large brown”. Keep in mind that if a dragon dies, a rider quickly follows. We know that Garrick has a brown dragon, but he rescues Imogen using his signet, so it’s unlikely to be him.

Ridoc also has a brown dragon, so perhaps he turned venin before it succumbed to this fatal wound. We later see him freeze an entire wyvern, which could suggest he is extremely powerful, as expressed earlier in the novel, or that he found an extra source of power. Ridoc only learned of Xaden’s venin issues recently, which discounts him.

Who is still missing at the end of Onyx Storm?

Once Violet is found in the courtyard, Brennan reveals that four riders and their dragons have been killed, as well as three elders. They were all murdered in the valley, and five riders are still missing — now four with the mysterious return of Violet.

Xaden is likely one of these riders, and it’s unclear if people know he has turned fully over to the dark side, although Brennan knew about his recent struggle.

Weilsen says, “I bet the other three are already dead.” Is this the other riders, except for Xaden? Is this the three elders? We also know from Imogen asking that Garrick is still missing.

There are also six missing dragon eggs. Where have the dragon eggs gone? One possibility is that the eggs were taken to Umbriel, as their queen claimed she wanted dragon eggs (two of each breed) in exchange for her army.

The second option is that some or all of these eggs belong to Sgaeyl and Tairn, and were thus “saved” from the valley before the mess unfolded.

Violet checks in with Tairn and finds the bond present but foggy as he is currently sleeping. Andarna (yep, she’s back!) explains that the big black dragon needed rest to recover. To recover from what? As we’ve seen him experience far worse.

A theory posed by one intuitive reader is that Tairn had to sever his bond with his mate, Sgaeyl, so that Violet would no longer be connected to Xaden. Given the strength of mating bonds and dragon bonds, this would definitely require some rest.

Who died in Onyx Storm?

Each novel in the series includes at least one painful death, and Onyx Storm is no different. Several minor characters died, including Trager, who was a flyer and Cat’s new love interest. In Imogen’s POV, we discovered that Quinn was killed, and had a heart-wrenching flashback to when they first met. Theophanie was thankfully killed by Violet, and Mira narrowly avoided death thanks to Brennan’s healing.

Who was the traitor?

Throughout Onyx Storm, there were veiled references to a spy who had been feeding the other side information. In Xaden’s final chapter, this is revealed to be Panchek, who has been giving the venin information about Jack and the war plans in exchange for power. Given Panchek’s high rank, this is bad news for the good guys and causes us to wonder who else might have turned.

What is Violet’s second signet?

At the end of Iron Flame, we discovered that Xaden had a second signet. We believed this was due to the fact that Sgaeyl was previously bonded to a close relation of Xaden, his grandfather. In Onyx Storm, we discover that almost all the marked riders have a second signet, so it’s more likely this is the cause. We also learn that Violet will have a second signet, and the author let slip that it was already there in the books.

Theories ran absolutely wild, and in the end, Violet’s second signet turned out to be… dream walking. A signet is related to a rider and their needs, and Violet really needed to know what was going on with Andarna when she was sleeping for so long.

We discover this as Violet realises her recurring dream about the sage isn’t really hers, it is Xaden’s. Xaden is very impressed with her new signet and suggests with practice she could choose to enter specific dreams and manipulate them. Violet’s power was not lost when her bond with Andarna was severed.

As for all our unanswered questions, we’ll have to wait for the fourth book in The Empyrean series. No title or release date has been confirmed, but all signs point to 2027.

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